Monday, March 31, 2014

Reusable Snack Bag Tutorial

Today I am sharing an easy tutorial for making your own reusable sandwich/snack bag.  I started making these when I had leftover PUL from making diapers because I hate throwing away and wasting plastic sandwich baggies.  Unfortunately for my, my dog Molly loved the reusable bags as much as I did and kept tearing them apart to get to the snacks.  I finally made a few more for us to use in our lunches and also took the necessary pictures so that I can share here how to make them.  They are really easy and maybe took me 15 minutes each. 
 
 
 
 
The most recent bags I have been making are a cotton print outer and white PUL for the inner (top picture, center and right bag), and the first few ones I made were just just PUL (top picture, left bag). I am going to be covering the lined version but to make the PUL only version just skip down to where you sew on the hook and loop and cut it slightly smaller than the lined version.
 
Start by cutting out your material pieces, one piece of PUL and your selected cotton piece.  For a sandwich bag cut both pieces 16x8 inches, for a snack size bag cut your pieces 12x8 inches. Put right sides together and pin in place (I only pin PUL inside where I will be stitching so that there are not any extra holes in the PUL.   
 

 
Next starting in the middle of one side, and back stitching, sewing almost all the way around the rectangle leaving a few inches open.
 
 
Clip the corners (as per the picture below) so that you can make the corners sharper and putting your fingers through the opening, turn your fabric right side out.
 
 
Once you  have it turned right side out and the corners pushed out, top stitch all the way around the outside, making sure to close up the opening as you stitch (I like to start just before the opening and close that up first, holing it closed with my fingers while I sew).
 
 
Next you will want to attach the hook and loop.  I cut my hook and loop about an inch to an inch and a half shorter than the width of my finished rectangle.  I attach the loop (softer of the two sides) on the cotton side about 2 inches from the edge (with the top part of the loop being 2 inches from the edge).  I then attach the hook (rougher side) about a quarter inch from the opposite end on the PUL/inside.
 
Once you have the hook and loop attached, fold the edge with the loop up to about 3 inches from the edge with the hook.  Check that the placement is correct by folding over the flap with the hook to make sure that it closes nicely.  Once you have the placement right, sew from the bottom fold all the way to where the top meets the bottom.  I like to sew a few stitches over the edge of the cotton and onto the PUL and then back stitch a bit so that it is securely attached.
 
 
Attach the hook and loop and wash/dry on hot to seal the sewing holes.  You an use your snack bag for anything that isn't really wet (e.g. I wouldn't put peaches or anything with too much juice).  After using, wash on warm and line dry or tumble dry low.  Enjoy!
 
 
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2 comments:

  1. That looks ALOT more complicated than 15mins! But appealing-- when I have time to take my sewing machine out of the box I will let you know how it goes!!

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  2. Just made my first snack bag with fabric scraps. So easy! Thanks for the tutorial and photos. :)

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