Tutorial: Bento Lunch Bag

Thanks for the interest in a tutorial! Here's how I made the bento lunch bags.

First, gather your materials. I used a home dec weight material for the exterior and a quilting weight cotton for the interior. For the drawstring cover I used linen.

From your exterior fabric cut two panels 12" x 13"

from your interior fabric cut two panels 12" x 13"

From your drawstring cover fabric cut two panels 6.5" x 13" (or one panel 6.5" x 25")

From fusible fleece cut two panels 11" x 12"

1" cotton webbing - 24"

Other supplies:

one cord lock

one yard of cording

thread

iron

sewing machine

Note: all seams are 1/2" unless otherwise noted.

If you've never used a cord lock before, they look like this:

Cut a 2.5" square from the bottom corners of your exterior, interior, and fusible fleece panels. This will make it easier to do your boxed corners later.

Fuse the fleece to the exterior fabric, centering the fleece like this:

Sew the side seams and bottom seam.

Then box the corners by bringing the bottom seam up to meet the side seam. Stitch across the edge. Repeat for other side.

You should end up with something like this:

Press seams open. Turn exterior right side out, gently poking the corners out using the pointy device of your choice. I use an old knitting needle.

Repeat for interior, but keep interior wrong side out. Now you should have this:

Set the interior and exterior aside.

Take your drawstring cover panels and sew along the short side. Of course, this is when I realized that this could be done with one piece measuring 6.5" x 25" so feel free to do that if you prefer. (Note: To prevent fraying, serge or zig zag along the short sides and top edge.)

Press center seam open.

Fold top edge down 1/2" and press well.

Fold cover panel in half, right sides together. Stitch along seam, stopping just below the folded down top edge.

When you're done, the edge should look like this:

Open the top edge and fold in one corner to the pressed line like this:

Then fold back down along the pressed edge like this:

Pin in place and repeat on other side.

Stitch around the top, creating a casing for your drawstring. Press side seam open.

Next, cut your cotton webbing into two 12" lengths.

Find the top center of your exterior. Place handles 1-1/4" to each side of the center and pin in place. Be careful to not twist your handle.

Repeat for other side.

Place the interior inside the exterior of your bag (wrong sides together) and pin in place (matching side seams).

Then take your drawstring cover and place it outside the exterior and handles (right sides together) and pin in place.

Sew around the top of the bag securing the lining, exterior, handles, and cover.

Tuck the cover inside the bag and neatly press the top edge.

Topstitch around the top edge of the bag, about 1/4" from the edge. The place a second line of topstitching about 1/2" in from the first. This will give your bag a nice finished look.

If you look in the bag, you'll also see that the second line of topstitching will conceal the raw edges inside your lunch bag!

Thread your cording through the casing and secure in the cord lock to finish your bag. (If you need detailed instructions about how to do this, check out my reversible drawstring bag tutorial.)

And there you have it! A fantastic new lunch bag!

If you have any questions, just ask. And if you make one, I'd love to know about it.

Happy Crafting!

Tutorial: tab top bag

It's a sad state of affairs when the army guys have to live in the dishwasher of the play kitchen. Poor fellas. Let's make them a bag!

For this bag, I used:

Four 11"x11" fabric (you can make yours any size you like, adjust other measurements as needed)

2 for outer bag (camo print chosen by my son - nice work!)

2 for lining

One 10" strip of velcro

Two 3" pieces of wide twill tape (you could also use ribbon or make fabric tabs to match your bag)

sewing machine, thread

*Note: all instructions assume a 1/4" seam allowance unless otherwise noted.

Start by finding the center of the top edge of your outer bag fabric (I just do this by folding it in half and doing a light finger press).

Fold your twill tape (or ribbon, whatever will be your tabs) in half like this:

(Nice picture, eh? That's what I get for creating a tutorial at night with no natural light.)

Center tab at top edge of outer bag and pin.

Lay your lining fabric on top (right sides together) and pin along top edge.

Do this again for the other outer fabric, tab, and lining fabric. You should now have two squares that are an outer/tab/lining sandwich. Sew along that top edge of each one.

Open and press everything (wrong sides together and you'll have something like this:

Center and pin your velcro to the top edge and sew to attach.

With both pieces of velcro attached, place your bag pieces right sides together.

I pinned all along the center of the bag because I'm going to serge my edges. This way all the layers are held securely together but I don't have to remove pins as I sew. If you don't have a serger you should get one. It will change your life!

Flip the bag right side out and press. I like to do a final topstitching around the entire top edge because it finishes everything off nicely. And that's it!

What I love about this bag is that my kiddos can easily open it using the tabs.

Hopefully, this will help give those poor little army guys a decent place to rest at night. You know, other than the dishwasher.

Tutorial: reversible drawstring bag

Owen got this puzzle at Christmas. It's pretty cool. The puzzle pieces are actually the shapes of the states. Good for the budding geographer. Not so good for states like Delaware or Rhode Island when there are two kiddos and two cats in the house! We needed a way to make sure none of state pieces went rogue and left to form their own country (no doubt with all of the lost socks from the dryer).

A puzzle bag was what we needed! If you want to make a fun reversible drawstring bag too, here's what you'll need:

fabric for bag (outside and inside - both cute if you want your bag reversible!) - size will depend on how big you want your bag

*Note: my fabric measured 26"x18", which will fold in half to make a bag that is 13"x18")

one 1.5" strip of fabric for casing (should be double the width of the top of your bag, minus two inches)

* my casing strip measured 24"x1.5"

cording/drawstring (the width of your bag plus about 10 inches)

two small pieces of fusible hem tape (optional)

one spring cord lock

sewing machine, thread

*Note: all directions assume a 1/4" seam unless otherwise noted.

If you've never seen one before, this is a small spring cord lock. At my local fabric store, they have them with the trims, webbing and cording for about 50 cents.
If you're like me and you cut your casing strip the same width as your bag fabric, be sure to trim those two inches off so that when you lay them out there's a one inch difference at each end like this:
Take your casing strip and lay one of your small pieces of fusible hem tape at one end like this:
Fold the end over again and press in place. If you don't have any fusible hem tape you can just do a small double fold and stitch it, but I (often) have issues when trying to sew teeny tiny pieces like this because my machine like to suck them down into the stitch plate and get them all mangled. So yay! for fusible hem tape!

Now your casing should look like this:
Fold it in half and press.
Now lay out your outer fabric and find the center (I do this by simply folding it in half and doing a slight finger press). Find the center of your casing strip as well. Match the center points so that the raw edge of the casing is lined up with the top edge of the outer fabric.

It will look like this at each end:

Next, take your inner fabric and lay it face down (so that you have right sides of the two bag fabrics facing each other) and pin in place. You should have a nice little sandwich of outer fabric, casing, and inner fabric. Stitch along the top securing all three layers.

When you're done stitching you should have something that looks like this if you open it up and lay it out flat:
With everything all laid out flat, fold it in half like this (right sides together):
Be sure to line up the seam where the casing is stitched because this will be the top of your bag. I always start pinning there because I know that's where matching the seam is most important. Pin all the way around and stitch, leaving a small opening in the inner fabric for turning.

Clip the corners.
Turn right side out so you now have something that looks like this:

And tuck in whichever side is your lining. Press the top edge all the way around taking care to keep the inner and outer fabrics from creeping up around the casing.

Topstitch all around the top of the bag. Hand stitch the opening you left for turning. I use a ladder stitch but you can use whatever you like. Just remember to keep it pretty! If you ever want to reverse your bag, this stitching will be visible.

On to the drawstring (you're almost done!) I put masking tape around the ends of the drawstring to stop fraying and make it easier to handle.

Thread one end through your spring cord lock by pinching it and threading the string through the hole.
Attach a safety pin through the other end and thread it through the casing.

When you get all the way through, remove the safety pin and thread this end through the spring lock. Again, you'll need to pinch the cord lock open and guide the drawstring through the hole in the clasp.
Tie a knot in each end of the drawstring cord and clip off the tape tails.

You did it!

Here's one side of our new puzzle bag:

And here's the bag turned inside out:

The moment of truth:

Yay - it fits!

I hope everything was clear. If you have any questions, just let me know. As always, if you make anything from this tutorial I'd love to know about it!