Fancy Feet Take Me To The Beach!

I have to say that March has just whizzed by and even if we still have way too much snow on the ground, spring is in the air. I start dreaming of gardening and flowers blooming and the summer ahead. So for Rikka's Fancy Feet Challenge I decided to make myself a beach bag. I had this lovely vinyl, kinda oilcloth fabric and decided to use my Teflon foot. I had bought the foot a while back but had never really tried it.
A Teflon foot is the same as a regular sewing machine foot but it has a Teflon backing so that vinyl-like fabric don't stick to the metal as you are sewing. I have to say it works great! I had tried to sew vinyl with a regular foot and it was a nightmare. It would stick and the fabric would bunch up. Yuck! With this Teflon foot, it was a breeze!
So the pattern is mine. I designed the bag thinking of what I'd like in a bag once the hot weather rolled around. I wanted room for towels, books and snacks. I wanted compartments for phones and wallets. I hate rooting for those things in over sized bags. I wanted a strap long enough to drape over my shoulder. Oh! And an outside pockets for car keys and water bottle. So I made my sketches and then decided what had to be done first, wrote it all down.
It worked! (I am always a little surprised I can pull this off! lol) I love my bag and the fabric has such cool colors for the summer.

 

I even sewn the sides with the WS together so as to have the edges sticking out and the insides all neat. I added binding to the sides finishing them quite neatly. This idea was inspired by this blogger who did a whole series on making bags. Great stuff. http://www.ikatbag.com/p/tutorials.html The bottom photo shows the inside pocket that runs the length of the bag. I'm proud of this creation. It'll be useful and pretty. I learned something about binding along the way. The wider the binding the easier it is to sew on the edge. I can't wait to try it at the beach!