DIY Wet Bag

When I was back at school....again....I took the opportunity to surf before heading to class like many of my classmates. I also surfed up until the moment I had to be on the road so I wouldn't be late for class. I'd do one of those quick changes in the parking lot, stuff my wet gear into a humble plastic grocery bag where it usually wouldn't be remembered until the smell would alert me to the errant bag in the corner of the trunk. Of course, at that point, the plastic grocery bag had to go. There goes my contribution to the environment.
I figured it would be nice to have something that could hold my wet stuff, be a little more permanent, stand out and be seen, and be worth keeping. So I made my own simple post surf wet clothes bag.
I started off using an old clear shower liner I had, but never used. You can use one that's been used, just give it a good washing prior to doing this project to remove any soap residue.

Save those magnets!!!!

I started off with a good sized rectangular piece (13" by 21") that I cut with my rotary cutter and a straight edge:

This bag is going to be like a simple envelope- I'm going to fold up the bottom, and fold over a small section to make a flap to close with Velcro.
I wanted to make this kind of girly, so I picked up some Duct Tape that had girly colors- for the guys, they have plenty of manly prints too, plus boring silver, of course. I used this as stabilizer to go under the Velcro strips I'm going to put on the flap for the opening. I found pink Velcro which was AWESOME:

First, I took a strip of the duct tape and ran it along each edge, front and back. I trimmed off the sides of the duct tape to neaten it up.
Along one edge, I chose this as the bottom Velcro strip- this is important- I put the hooked side on the bottom. This keeps the hooks from snagging on my gear as I'm sliding it into the bag. I used a 70 weight Microtex (sharp) needle on this material and a 3.0 straight stitch. I lined it up around a quarter inch down from the top edge and ran the line of stitching down the edge of the Velcro:

I stitched lines down both edges and repeated this on the other edge on the top:

Next, I used a duct tape sheet (they sell these in big box stores and craft stores) to cut a 2.5" wide strip to make a wrap to join the sides together:

I peeled back the adhesive backing and lined the sides up to make the pocket:

You can leave it at that, but I reinforced it with a line of stitching.

I didn't want the top flap corners to stick out and be pointy, so I trimmed off the corners:

I wanted to hide my stitching line, so I cut a narrow strip from another sheet of colored duct tape to put over the line:

Finished!

Finished with bikini, rashguard, and boardshorts inside!

It really holds a lot! I also throw in a couple of desiccants from shoes or pill bottles to help cut down on some of the moisture in the bag.
Now I can try to keep the "stank" to my surfing.