September 22, 2011

DOUBLE-HEADER FRIDAY: Snack bags!

Posted by Ethne~

Friends, part of my motivation for this project was the desire, plain and simple, to do a project.  With that fire a-burnin’, I scoured around my various fave places and saw some inspiration here and combined it with my own skills from here: a re-usable snack bag for KD and Easy Mac.

Gotta fill these sweet little mouths on outings

A lot of the snack bags I’ve seen have used oilcloth or other such fabrics.  I’ve never worked with oilcloth before, and therefore did not have any in my stash.  So, I improvised.  Ziploc bags anyone? 

For the outer cloth, I found some red and pink floral canvas in the remnants bin at JoAnn’s for a few clams.  I didn’t have a use for it just then, and on principle I don’t buy things if I don’t have a use for them – not that I don’t want to, it’s just a good policy to avoid impulse spending.  I’ve learned.  Anyway, when I saw this, the colors were perfect and I seemed to have some sort of little buzz floating around in my brain that I did have a use for it if only I could remember what it was.

I had to have that remnant red and pink canvas!

Well, this was a stretch around my rule, but not even a week after this purchase, I decided on this project and knew it was PERFECT.  The canvas will give it a little extra strength and the colors are just right for KD and Easy Mac.

The pattern I modeled after (which I can't find the link for now) gave measurements for the bag of 8” x 8” squares of fabric and liner, so that’s what I cut out:

Two 8” squares of the canvas outer fabric
Two 8” squares of the Ziploc bag plastic for lining
Thread
Ribbon
Scrap fabric and Pellon Wonder Under for the letters ‘k’ and ‘e’
Regular scissors and pinking shears

Note: check out Lori’s appliqué tutorial using Wonder Under here.

First, I used cut-out letters from a fabric-letter-kit I had purchased at JoAnn’s before for a few bucks.  Easy enough – you can pretty much free-hand letters or shapes, I just happened to have these letters.

I thought the green looked fun with the bright canvas;
I have kinda been on a strawberry kick

Lay the cutouts BACKWARDS onto the bad side of the scrap fabric so that when they are cut out, Wonder Undered and ironed onto the main fabric, the letters face the right direction. 

Trace around the backwards letter and cut out the shape from the scrap fabric.  Iron the letter GOOD SIDE UP on the Wonder Under per the Wonder Under directions.  Peel off the paper and iron the letter onto your 8” piece of main fabric – again, follow the Wonder Under directions.  The letter piece will now be the front of the bag.

I sewed around the letters as close to the edge as I could get

Next, pin the 8” fabric pieces to their matching 8” plastic pieces.  Sew a straight line across the top of the fabric-plastic squares to secure them together – ¼” seam.  Leave pins in the main body of the squares still because the plastic is shifty.  Take out your pinking shears and cut a ‘pinked’ line across the top, but don’t cut through your stitching.

Pin these two pieces together

Now fold over the top ends on each piece another 1/3” or so and sew across the fold with about a ¼” seam.  This will make a nice clean opening to the bag and the pinking will prevent the fabric from fraying.

To cover up the stitching, I sewed a piece of ribbon directly over the stitching, leaving the ends loose on either side because I will be pinking all the outer edges when it’s all sewn together.

The tops are pinned together - I folded the two flaps out here
so you could see they are both right sides facing out and
pinned at the top

Next, RIGHT SIDES FACING OUT, I matched up the front and back squares to each other, lining up the tops as best I could.  Pin together.

Sew a ½” seam around the three sides of the bag, leaving the ribboned tops open.

Pinned and prepped.  The extra plastic hanging out at
the bottom won't matter once it's trimmed up.
1/2" seam around KD's bag

With your pinking shears, trim the three sewn sides of each bag about ¼” in from the edges.  Now you’ll have a funky, non-fraying edge. :)  PERFECT!  I liked the pinking shears, funky edge route because aside from being cute, I didn’t have to mess around with sewing right sides together and turning.  It’s all plastic on the inside, so it makes the perfect snack bag.

Of course my pinking shears have a pink handle!
Isn't that a nice edge?

These are a great size to put snacks in and for the girls to hold.  Now that they’ve been using them, I see the appeal in potentially putting a handle of some sort on the bag.  I fully do intend to put a piece or two of stick-on Velcro on the inner tops of the bag.  I haven’t done it yet because I can’t find the Velcro in my stash and I am not about to go buy some more.

Filled with snacks!

Happy kid-snacking friends!  And don’t forget my rule about not buying stuff if you don’t have a purpose for it.  You’ll save so much money this way.  It’s as THRIFTY as couponing.  ps, Special Guest Steph inspired me to make my potstickers again for dinner tonite and doggonit they are good!!!

2 comments:

Katie said...

I'm "that" mom that pays someone to make these things. I'm jealous but still don't think I could do it. So adorable!

WOM-MOMS said...

Katie, that's why it's a tutorial! If you have a sewing machine, you can totally do this. :)