DIY Beach Towel and Swim Bag

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I’m not sure about you, but I am READY for summer. And that means I am ready for the pool and splash pad! Jude was just getting into liking the pool last summer so I’m hoping this summer he is even more excited to splash around! And since I like to prepare ahead of time, I went ahead and grabbed some Huggies® Little Swimmers® swim diapers last time I was at Sam’s Club, which is practically every week since I always forget something! I found them in the baby aisle and how fun are the new Finding Dory prints on them?!? Huggies® Little Swimmers® are my favorite swim diapers because of how QUICK they are to get on and off with the easy open sides while we are swimming, because nobody wants to stop for diaper changes when we’re having fun!

Since it’s still a little too cold to actually swim (booo) I decided I needed to do a craft to get me in the pool mood! I decided to make a DIY beach towel and swim bag to use this summer.

Here’s what you need to do this project
-Swim towel – I used a Turkish towel
–Canvas bag
–Iron-On material
–Cricut Explore (or scissors)
-Iron

I designed a seashell and anchor and saved them as SVGs to upload into the Cricut software. You can download them as a PDF here, or you can email me and I’ll send you the SVGs to import into the cutting software.

Take those SVGs and upload them into the cutting software and then size them to whatever size you need for your towel and bag. Make sure to “attach” the shell image (shown in photo below) so that all of the individual pieces stay together when sending to the cutting mat. Another important note for when you are cutting iron-on, if you are designing text make sure to click the “mirror image” box before cutting!

Once you have everything designed to the sizes you need, it’s time to cut! Take your iron-on and trim to the size you need and stick it on your cutting mat. Make sure to put the shiny side (the liner side) down on the mat. Load the mat into your machine, turn the dial to the iron-on and press the C button to cut!

Once everything is cut take the iron-on off your mat and it’s time to weed the extra material. I use the hook tool to help me. Peel all the excess away and cut out around the individual shells.

Now it’s time to iron! I laid out the individual shells and measured them evenly across my towel. It helps to use an ironing board or towel underneath whatever item you are applying the iron-on to. Set your iron to the cotton or linen setting and make sure the steam is off. The MOST important part is to make sure you use a press cloth (I used a clean burp cloth) when applying the hot iron to the iron-on material and liner. After applying heat you can peel the liner and see if the iron-on is sticking, if not keep ironing, otherwise peel the liner off completely and then I usually put the press cloth back on and apply a bit more heat.

Now that we have a towel, swim bag, and Huggies® Little Swimmers® swim diapers we are ready to hit the waves! Or the kiddie pool… :)

Okay! Now who’s ready for summer??