Waterproof Beach Bag

A regular beach bag will work to carry your clothes, shoes, money and drink, but it’s going to end up getting ruined. After you’ve set it down on wet sand a few times the bottom will be disgusting, and even if you wash it, it will eventually be stained and unusable. Instead of buying a new beach bag every year – or more often – and watching them get ruined time after time, make a waterproof bag. It’s cheap and easy.

Use a 13 gallon, white trash bag to make the new beach bag. Lay it on a table and cut one side and the bottom seam so that you have one large piece of fabric. It’s helpful to smooth the bag out then place heavy objects along the edges to keep out wrinkles and bunching. Use colored chalk or a marker to draw a 16″ by 30″ rectangle on the bag. Draw the same rectangle, in the same location, on the backside of the bag.

Use wide duct tape to reinforce the plastic trash bag. Home improvement stores carry duct tape – and other types of tape – in a large assortment of colors. The tape not only makes the bag stronger but also creates the pattern on the finished bag.

Cut strips of the duct tape to be 32″ long. Place the first strip along one of the long sides of the rectangle drawing. Align the tape to go right along the edge, from one end to the other. Position it so that the excess is divided on each end. When you lay the next piece of tape, place it beside the first one, but slightly overlap them. Continue adding tape strips until the whole rectangle is covered and each tape strip overlaps the next. (See diagram)

Flip the bag over so that the tape is facing the table. Use the drawing to guide you as you cut out the rectangle. Turn the bag so that one short side is facing you. Cut two pieces of white cotton cord to be two feet long each. Lay two of them, side-by-side, across the short end facing you, about an inch away from the edge. Fold the bag over the cord, about an inch, and tape it. Do the same to the opposite side.

Fold the bag in half so that the two short ends align and then tape down the side seam. To reinforce, do the same to the inside. Now, tape the inside and outside of the opposite side seam.

On the side, take one cord from one side of the bag and pair it up with a cord opposite it. Tie them together at the ends then do the same thing to the opposite side of the bag.

The waterproof beach bag is a handy bag to have because it’s cheap, really easy to make, and actually very durable. You can simply wash it off anytime you need to and put it away for the next beach trip.