Project: Reusable Lunch Bags

Call it being obsessive, call it saving money, call it "going green," or just call it plain fun. Yesterday I spent my afternoon making a few of these little packets. School is starting in a few weeks, which for me means making two lunches every morning before I send my girls on the bus. To answer the question: Do I make their lunches everyday? Yes, usually. I think in the past two years Una decided she wanted hot lunch maybe four or five times a month. I just have a hard time buying hot lunches and then hearing that she ate the chicken nuggets, tater-tots, and a piece of bread!

Okay, okay, maybe it is a little obsessive ... but, I want to know that I'm giving her the food that she needs ... and only that food. Plus, I portion it just right so when she is still hungry after eating all the "fun" foods, she has to eat the "good-for-you" foods to fill up her stomach.

But, I'm not that much of a stick in the mud! Seriously! I always try to match her cold lunch to what they are having for hot lunch. For example: if they are having soft tacos for hot lunch, I'll wrap up a couple of smaller soft tacos in foil and stick them in her Thermos food jar. Or, if they are having wrap sandwiches, that's what she gets; or mac & cheese, or even waffles.

However, my point in making these reusable lunch bags is that in the past Una would forget to throw out the baggies I put her food in. So, she was bringing them home anyway. I thought, "Why not make her lunch even more fun by giving her cute bags and napkins?" So, I started my research.

First, I saw these reusable snack bags at Happy-sacks. Then, I did a search through google for ready-to-use snack bags, and saw these sandwich wraps at Wrap-n-mat. I looked at both of them and thought, "I can make these with my extra fabric, and I won't have to spend $6-10 plus shipping." Sure, I can't just wipe mine off, but I can still send them through the washer with the kitchen towels ... and when they get worn out, I always have extra fabric lying around I can use to make more. So, I kept looking and found this tutorial for making the sandwich wrap at The Small Object. Anyway, as I was cutting out my fabric (out of fat quarters I hadn't used for a different project), I realized that all you need are two fat quarters to make the four items that I made.

First cut a 12x12-inch square for the wrap/mat, then cut out an 8.5x8.5-inch square for the napkin (I did find someone suggesting an 11-inch square napkin, but 8.5-inches seemed just fine to me), then, cut out one 11x5-inch rectangle, and one 7x9-inch rectangle for the two different sized snack bags. Leave the wrap and snack bags as they are, or cut off the corners like I did. You could even round off the ends if you wanted to make it look more like the happy-sacks.

I just serged mine around the edges, but you can certainly sew them RST with a 1/4-inch seam allowance, then turn them right side out, finishing it all off with a 1/4-inch topstitch to close the hole you pulled it through to turn it out. Then, sew on the velcro tabs and velcro. Make sure to sew the velcro on the bags before folding them up and sewing the edges.

Anyway, I encourage everyone to try these ... they are super cute, and didn't take long to make at all! Plus, you can fold them all together in the wrap for storage!