Beaches and Burlap Beach Bags

Over this past weekend, I took a break from the cold and headed south to Florida to visit a friend from college and spend some time relaxing at the beach.  In the pan-handle area where I was, the weather was mid-70's all weekend which was fantastic! I also tried out my first Pure Barre class, but more on that another time.

The warmer temps got me thinking about beaches and more specifically, beach bags.  If you saw my Facebook post last week, you know that my wheels are turning on a brand new coffee sack from Indonesia, purchased in Plymouth, that has a beautiful, original design in red and blue.  I'm nearly certain that this new sack will be cut and sewn into a beautiful new beach bag.

In the spirit of the warming temps and my recent trip to the Florida coast, I thought I'd share a recap of the various beach bags I've sewn in the past. All are now sold with the exception of the La Florida bag, which is still available in the Lina and Vi Etsy shop here.

In the very early stages of Lina and Vi, I created this colorful beach bag using a burlap sack from El Salvador. I paired it with a soft, bright red interior lining fabric. It was also my first go at using grommets, which was much easier to do than I had originally expected. This is the only photo I have of the bag as it sold to my husband's work colleague quickly. You can see my photography is slowly getting better! Progress.

Shortly after, I purchased another colorful sack, this time from Costa Rica. Again, I went the route of rope handles and grommets. I balanced the exterior colors with a simple beige linen lining fabric.

I sewed the Allegro bag in a very similar shape and design. This burlap coffee sack had a variety of different designs, including what looked like was a hand-drawn red flower. The color scheme was much simpler with this bag, but simple is good when there are a lot of different graphics combined together.

Most recently, I designed the La Florida bag which is slightly different in design. Rather than exposed rope handles, I created my first fabric covered handle in a dark brown cotton fabric. The bottom of the exterior is sewn from a soft but durable light brown suede-like fabric. But, the real focal point of this bag is the original print on the coffee sack showcasing how coffee creates community. The back of the bag features the Peruvian flag.  As I mentioned earlier, the La Florida bag is still available for purchase here and is a perfect addition if you're looking for a large summer bag for an upcoming vacation or daily trip to the pool.

So do you have any big plans for this summer? I'm still working through my to-do list after returning from vacation, but I'm looking forward to getting a few weekend trips in place, in and out of Michigan, this summer.

Erica