Straw Beach Bag For An 18" Doll

One of my girlfriends had been given boxes and boxes of fabulous craft supplies given to her by the son of a women who recently passed away. My friend was super generous and let me come over to help myself to the massive amounts of crafting loot. I came home with boxes and boxes! One of the many things I came home with was some small straw hats.
I've have had some of these before and I never really found a use for them-- but that didn't stop me from hauling these ones home. *wink* I plunked one of the straw hats on the head of an 18" doll.... Way. To. Small....

What to do with them, what to do with them... My first thought was to pull them apart and then glue them back together making the straw hats bigger so that they would fit the head of an 18 inch doll or a Disney Animator doll. I snipped a piece of the thread holding the long woven strips together then gave the strip a pull and up popped the threads. I thought I could do this all around the hat... I pulled again, the woven straw strip broke off the hat. Nuts. I began to fold the hat in half to stuff it in my little trash can when I had an "a-ha moment" That is when I realized it looked like a little straw beach bag! Duh. I filled up a plastic shoe box with some hot water and submerged all of the straw hats in the water for about fifteen minutes. I gently stretched and pulled each hat to create what hopefully looks like a straw beach bag. I then laid the newly created straw beach bags in the hot sun and they dried thoroughly in about 30 minutes.
I pulled some random colors of fabric to line each bag and got to work. For the straps I cut two long strips that measured 2" x 9" I simply folded the strip in half and then folded the edges into the center to create each strap, then it was just a matter of stitching up both sides of each strap to finish them off. Next, I made a paper pattern for the fabric liner of the straw bags. I stitched up around the bottom seam leaving the top open for the opening of the straw bag.
I used hot glue to attach the straps to the inside of each the straw bag... easy peasy.

 I ran a small amount of glue along the bottom of the straw bag to help hold the bags liner in place while I fiddled with the next step of attaching the fabric around the top curve. I cut little snips into the fabric to help ease it around the curved shape of the top of the straw bag.

To help hold the liner against the bag I load the bag with a heavy sack of pirate treasure.... then I just folded and tucked the cut pieces trying my best to line up the fabric along the edge.
I used clothespins to help hold it in place until I was ready to hot glue it permanently in place.
Once the straps and the liners were attached to the straw bags, I embellished each one with a ribbon flower.

I am pretty happy with how they turned out...

My favorite one was made using darker fabric, I'm going to keep this one for my grandaughter's Disney Animator doll.

Here you can see my 18" pattern doll modeling one of the straw purses.

 Here is Anna with a straw bag too. She likes little stuffed animals, so this bag will be perfect for her to carry around her toys. 

Big thanks to my pal Diannia for the craft loot. Your so very generous :-)
big hugs,
Cheryl