Try This: Turn a Simple Straw Clutch into the Perfect Vacation Bag!

Whether you are in college and getting ready for your spring break trip or well past the dorm life but feel Arnold’s sentiments from Terminator 2 (“I need a vacation”…), chances are you’ll be gearing up to go somewhere warm this spring or summer to get a piece of that beach life. Since picking out outfits for vacation is almost as much fun as the trip itself (at least for me), I thought it would be fun to dress up a simple straw clutch and turn it into the ultimate vacation purse. And what’s a fun bag without a cheeky phrase to accompany it, am I right?

Suplies:
–plain straw clutch
–white pom-pom trim
–daisy trim
–embroidered iron-on letters
–hot glue gun
–fabric scissors

First, you’ll want to flip up the flap of your straw bag and use your glue gun to attach a line of your pom-pom trim just inside the lip of the bag (you don’t want to see the white connecting trim from the other side, just the poms). Cut any excess trim.

Next, close the flap and glue a line of your daisy trim just above the edge of the flap all the way across. I was mostly gluing the middles of the daisies down since it’s a more delicate trim, the “arms” of the flowers aren’t glued, but if the centers are secure, they should stay in place.

Next I used my embroidered letters to make my phrase and centered them on the flap of the bag. Since taking a hot iron to a straw bag isn’t a great idea, you can just glue your letters on instead! Once they were in position, I only touched one letter at a time and just put a drop of glue at the top of each letter to keep them in place while I lightly tacked down the rest of the letters. Once they were all semi attached and still in the right spots, I went back through, lifted each letter up, and put more glue on the back to fully secure.

That’s it! Your bag is now ready for the beach! (BTW how pretty is that pink sheepskin!?)

Of course you can do a different color straw bag, trim, or phrase to match whatever vacation outfits or destinations you have in store for yourself. It would also be really pretty to skip the words if you aren’t a “let’s put phrases on things” kind of girl and just do several rows of the daisy trim instead (paired with these sunnies would be so cute). Wherever you are headed this spring or summer, hope this DIY is just the thing to get your vacation started off right! xo. Laura

Credits // Author and Photography: Laura Gummerman. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions.