How to make Reusable Sandwich Bags and Snack Bags
When my daughter entered kindergarten last year, it was the first time I packed school lunches. At first, I was excited about her lunch planning, but quickly became concerned when I realized how much waste we all are contributing from our bags of snacks, milk and milk. Sour and junk food is large in size.
I decided not to buy anything pre-packaged, but instead, invest in reusable containers and take the time to prepare lunch boxes each evening.
This year, I decided make my own Reusable sandwich bags and snack bags that we can use for a simpler lunch on days when mom is too tired to compile creative lunches.
These reusable sandwich and snack bags are made from cotton fabric from A Beautiful Mess Cho Hoa fabric line. I added a vinyl coating to them to make them durable and easy to clean.
Check out how simple they are to make below!
Munition:
–cotton washed, ironed and cut into pieces (two 5″ x 12″ pieces for snack bags, two 7″ x 16.5″ pieces for sandwich bags)
–iron interface on vinyl
–hook and loop strip
–straight pins
-Iron
–sharp scissors or rotary cutter
-theme cutter and dispatcher
Step one: Cut pieces of vinyl look that are 1/4″ smaller than your cotton fabric pieces.
Step two: Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for combining vinyl with your fabric. Make sure your fabric has been washed and ironed before cutting into the pieces you need, as described in this post’s supplies list.
To stick the vinyl to the fabric, I peeled off the backing, placed the vinyl on the right side of the fabric, replaced the backing with paper, and pressed with a hot iron (no steam) for eight seconds.
Then I turned the fabric upside down and pressed again for eight seconds.
Be sure to keep one of your larger paper backings away from vinyl adhesion. You will use it in step six and possibly later in the storage of your reusable sandwich bags!
Third step: After each of your cotton pads has been coated with vinyl, you’ll want to create rounded corners on one side of each strip of fabric. I used round objects from my house as a template for this.
Step four: Line up your pieces of fabric exactly right on both sides and pin them tightly to the edges. You’ll be stitching 1/4″ around the hem, so make sure the pin holes are hidden to the extent that the seam allows.
You don’t want to poke holes in visible vinyl.
Step five: Sew along the hem of the pinned fabric pieces, unpinning as you’re done. Unfortunately on short flat edge.
Vertical sewing thread two long edge and a round face. Leave the non-circular side exposed to turn the fabric right side out.
Step 6: Clip the corners of your rounded edge as shown above, then flip the fabric right side out.
When you turn your vinyl coated fabric right side out, you will wrinkle a lot of vinyl in the process. Don’t panic! Simply use a dedicated piece of vinyl backing paper you used in step two and iron the vinyl (with a backing) to remove wrinkles.
Just make sure not to iron for more than a few seconds, or the vinyl will start to degrade and flake off on the backing. Sure Do not use hot irons directly on vinyl!
Step 7: Use a simple straight stitch to close the flat edge of the fabric. Then add the crochet pieces and loop strips as shown above. I use two straight pins near the edge of each hook and loop band to hold them in place as I sew them.
Step 8: Now, fold the fabric in half as shown above and sew close to the edge of the fabric to close the edge of the bag. You’ll start by going up to the left side, around the top flap, and then back down to the right side of the bag.
School hasn’t started for us yet, but my kids were excited to see these new reusable bread and snack bags in their favorite colors and fun textures.
My youngest can easily open and close the bag on its own, which is not the case with some of the quick-closing containers and reusable Ziplock bags we’ve tried in the past. Cute and easy to use? Mutually beneficial!
How do you keep the bag clean?
When it comes to washing these small reusable snack bags, you’ll want warm water and a non-abrasive sponge or towel.
Let them air dry then reuse over and over again forever! If your bag looks really crumpled, just use some paper from the vinyl adhesive process and iron the vinyl smooth again. Do not use the iron directly on vinyl.
How cute are these guys?! This is such a fun and useful project, I was thinking about other ways I could use vinyl coated cotton to create reusable versions of disposable items. – Barbarian
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How to make Reusable Sandwich and Snack Bags
Sew your own (reusable) sandwich or snack bag out of any fabric!
- cotton fabric has been washed iron and cut into pieces (two 5″ x 12″ pieces for snack bags, two 7″ x 16.5″ pieces for sandwich bags
- iron interface on vinyl
- hook and loop strip
- straight pins
-
Step one: Cut pieces of vinyl look that are 1/4″ smaller than your cotton fabric pieces.Step two: Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for combining vinyl with your fabric. Make sure your fabric has been washed and ironed before cutting into the pieces you need, as described in this post’s supplies list.To stick the vinyl to the fabric, I peeled off the backing, placed the vinyl on the right side of the fabric, replaced the backing with paper, and pressed with a hot iron (no steam) for eight seconds. Then I turned the fabric upside down and pressed again for eight seconds.Be sure to keep one of your larger paper backings away from vinyl adhesion. You will use it in step six and possibly later in the storage of your reusable sandwich bags!
-
Third step: After each of your cotton pads has been coated with vinyl, you’ll want to create rounded corners on one side of each strip of fabric. I used round objects from my house as a template for this.Step four: Line up your pieces of fabric right on both sides and pin them tightly to the edges. You’ll be stitching 1/4″ around the hem, so make sure the pin holes are hidden to the extent that the seam allows. You don’t want to poke holes in visible vinyl.
-
Step five: Sew along the hem of the pinned fabric pieces, unpinning as you’re done. Unfortunately on short flat edge. Vertical sewing thread two long edge and a round face. Leave the non-circular side open to turn the fabric right side out.
-
Step 6: Clip the corners of your rounded edge as shown above, then flip the fabric right side out.When you turn your vinyl coated fabric right side out, you will wrinkle a lot of vinyl in the process. Don’t panic! Simply use a dedicated piece of vinyl backing paper you used in step two and iron the vinyl (with a backing) to remove wrinkles. Just be sure not to iron for more than a few seconds, or the vinyl will start to degrade and flake off on the backing. Sure Do not use hot irons directly on vinyl!
-
Step 7: Use a simple straight stitch to close the flat edge of the fabric. Then add the crochet pieces and loop strips as shown above. I use two straight pins near the edge of each hook and loop band to hold them in place as I sew them.
-
Step 8: Now fold the fabric in half as shown above and sew close to the edge of the fabric to close the edge of the bag. You’ll start by going up to the left side, around the top flap, and then back down to the right side of the bag.
Let them air dry then reuse over and over again forever! If your bag looks really crumpled, just use some paper from the vinyl adhesive process and iron the vinyl smooth again.
Do not use the iron directly on vinyl.