Elle Belle Creative: Beach Towel Backpack

Yea for another tutorial! I’m going to show you the other piece to that Summer time birthday gift I made, the Beach Towel Backpack:

Check out the tutorial for the shirred terry cover up here.

I love this bag because not only is it great for carrying sunscreen & other essentials in, the entire towel folds up into the bag. You can pack the bag up and your little one can carry it out to the beach themselves. When it’s time to go, just fold it all up again and most of the sandy mess is contained in the bag. Okay, let’s get started.

You’ll need:
A beach Towel
14”x17” piece of terrycloth
Two 66” lengths of cording, rope, or a skein of fluffy yarn cut in 66” lengths
Coordinating thread
Wide grosgrain ribbon

1. Finish all four edges of the terrycloth. If you have a serger, lucky you, if not, use a zig zag or overcast stitch. If you have an embroidery machine or want to do an appliqué, now is the time for that too.

2. Make a casing in the terrycloth for the back pack straps: Fold down 1 ½” of one short side of the terry cloth and sew it in place.

3. Lay the towel down facing up and place the terrycloth face down on top of the towel centered a few inches above the bottom of the towel, with the casing in the terrycloth towards the top of the towel.

4. Make a casing on the towel for the backpack straps: Fold back the casing part of the terrycloth and pin a length of grosgrain ribbon (turn the short ends under) to the towel the same width as the terrycloth. Stitch the ribbon to the towel stitching close to the long edges of the ribbon and leaving the short ends open.

5. Pin the terrycloth to the towel, right sides together, lining it up so that the casing in the terrycloth rests on top of the ribbon casing sewn to the towel.

6. Make the ribbon loops to loop the backpack straps through: Cut two 3” lengths of grosgrain ribbon, fold each in half and tuck them between the terrycloth and towel with the raw edges aligned with the raw edges of the terrycloth. Pin one on each long side of the terrycloth, 1” from the bottom of the terrycloth.

7. Starting just under one end of the casing, sew with a ½” seem allowance around three sides of the terrycloth, stopping just under the other end of the casing. Fold the towel up & flip the bag right sides out, tucking the towel into the bag.

8. Make the backpack straps: I couldn’t find cording I liked that was thick enough, so I made my straps from lengths of yarn that I braided together.

9. Insert the backpack straps: Using a large safety pin or a bobkin (LOVE those things!) thread one 66” length of your strap through the casing in the terrycloth and back through the casing in the towel so that the ends of the strap are together on one side of the bag (like the purple mark on the picture below). Loop one end through the ribbon loop and tie it to the other end. Repeat the threading the same way from the other side of the bag (like the pink mark on the picture below). Pull the drawstrings to close the bag.