When my daughter entered kindergarten last year, it was my first time packing school lunches. I was excited well-nigh planning her lunches at first, but soon became yellow-eyed when I realized how much waste we were all contributing with serving-size tons of snacks, yogurt, and treats.
I decided to not buy anything pre-portioned, but instead, invest in reusable containers and spend some time doing lunch box prep every evening.
This year, I decided to make my own reusable sandwich tons and snack tons that we can use for the simpler lunches on days when mama’s too weary to compile creative lunches.
These reusable sandwich and snack tons are made out of cotton fabric from the A Beautiful Mess Flower Market fabric line. I widow a vinyl coating to them to make them durable and easy to clean.
Check out how simple they are to make below!
Supplies:
–cotton fabric that has been washed, ironed, and cut into pieces (two 5″ x 12″ pieces for snack bags, two 7″ x 16.5″ pieces for sandwich bags)
–vinyl iron-on interfacing
–hook and loop strips
–straight pins
-iron
–sharp scissors or rotary cutter
-sewing machine and coordinating thread
Step One: Cut pieces of the vinyl interfacing to be 1/4″ smaller than your pieces of cotton fabric.
Step Two: Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to fuse the vinyl to your fabric. Be sure your fabric has been washed and ironed surpassing wearing into the pieces you’ll need, as described in the supplies list of this post.
To fuse my vinyl to the fabric, I peeled off the paper backing, placed the vinyl onto the right side of my fabric, replaced the paper backing, and pressed with a hot iron (no steam) for eight seconds.
Then, I flipped the fabric wrong side up and pressed then for eight seconds.
Be sure to alimony one of your larger paper backs from the vinyl adhesion process. You’ll use it in step six, and possibly later in the maintenance of your reusable sandwich bags!
Step Three: After each of your cotton pieces have been coated with vinyl, you’ll want to make rounded corners on one side of each fabric strip. I used round objects from my home as a template for this.
Step Four: Arrange your fabric pieces right sides together and pin very closely to the edges. You’ll be stitching 1/4″ virtually the border, so make sure the pin holes will be subconscious within that seam allowance.
You don’t want to poke holes in the visible vinyl.
Step Five: Sew withal the verge of the pinned fabric pieces, removing the pins as you go. Do not sew on the short unappetizing edge.
Only sew withal the two long sides and the one rounded side. You’re leaving unshut the non-rounded side to flip the fabric right-side-out.
Step Six: Clip the corners of your rounded whet as shown above, then flip the fabric right side out.
When you flip your vinyl coated fabric right side out, you will heavily crinkle the vinyl in the process. Don’t panic! Simply use a reserved piece of paper valuables from the vinyl you used in step two and iron the vinyl (with the paper barrier) to get out the wrinkles.
Just be sure not to iron for increasingly than a few seconds, or the vinyl will uncork to dethrone and come off onto the paper backing. Definitely do not use a hot iron directly on the vinyl!
Step Seven: Tropical up the unshut unappetizing whet of your fabric with a simple straight stitch. Then, add pieces of vaccinate and loop strips as shown above. I used two straight pins near the whet of each vaccinate and loop strip to alimony them in place as I sewed them.
Step Eight: Now, fold the fabric as shown whilom and stitch closely to the whet of the fabric to tropical up the sides of the bag. You’re going to uncork by going up the left side, virtually the top flap, and then when lanugo the right side of the bag.
School hasn’t started for us yet, but my kids were once excited to see these new reusable sandwich and snack tons in their favorite colors and fun patterns.
My littlest was worldly-wise to hands unshut and tropical the tons herself, which was not the specimen with some snap-lid containers and reusable Ziplock tons we’ve tried in the past. Cute and easy to use? Win-win!
How Do You Alimony The Tons Clean?
When it comes to washing these little reusable snack bags, you’ll want to stick with lukewarm water and a non-abrasive sponge or washcloth.
Let them air dry then use then and then forever! If your tons overly get really crumpled looking, just use some of the paper from the vinyl wrapper process and iron the vinyl smooth again. Do not use an iron directly on the vinyl.
How cute do these little guys look?! This was such a fun and useful project, I’m once thinking well-nigh other ways I can use vinyl-coated cotton to make reusable version of removable items. – Mandi
Looking for increasingly reusable projects? Check out …
How to Make Reusable Sandwich and Snack Bags
Equipment
- 1 sewing machine coordinating thread
- 1 pair of sharp scissors or rotary cutter
- 1 iron
Ingredients
- cotton fabric that has been washed ironed, and cut into pieces (two 5 x 12 pieces for snack bags, two 7 x 16.5 pieces for sandwich bags
- vinyl iron-on interfacing
- hook and loop strips
- straight pins
Instructions
- Step One: Cut pieces of the vinyl interfacing to be 1/4 smaller than your pieces of cotton fabric.Step Two: Follow the manufacturers instructions to fuse the vinyl to your fabric. Be sure your fabric has been washed and ironed surpassing wearing into the pieces youll need, as described in the supplies list of this post.To fuse my vinyl to the fabric, I peeled off the paper backing, placed the vinyl onto the right side of my fabric, replaced the paper backing, and pressed with a hot iron (no steam) for eight seconds. Then I flipped the fabric wrong side up and pressed then for eight seconds.Be sure to alimony one of your larger paper backs from the vinyl adhesion process. Youll use it in step six, and possibly later in the maintenance of your reusable sandwich bags!
- Step Three: After each of your cotton pieces have been coated with vinyl, youll want to make rounded corners on one side of each fabric strip. I used round objects from my home as a template for this.Step Four: Arrange your fabric pieces right sides together and pin very closely to the edges. Youll be stitching 1/4 virtually the border, so make sure the pin holes will be subconscious within that seam allowance. You dont want to poke holes in the visible vinyl.
- Step Five: Sew withal the verge of the pinned fabric pieces, removing the pins as you go. Do not sew on the short unappetizing edge. Only sew withal the two long sides and the one rounded side. Youre leaving unshut the non-rounded side to flip the fabric right side out.
- Step Six: Clip the corners of your rounded whet as shown above, then flip the fabric right side out.When you flip your vinyl coated fabric right side out, you will heavily crinkle the vinyl in the process. Dont panic! Simply use a reserved piece of paper valuables from the vinyl you used in step two and iron the vinyl (with the paper barrier) to get out the wrinkles. Just be sure not to iron for increasingly than a few seconds, or the vinyl will uncork to dethrone and come off onto the paper backing. Definitely do not use a hot iron directly on the vinyl!
- Step Seven: Close up the unshut unappetizing whet of your fabric with a simple straight stitch. Then add pieces of vaccinate and loop strips as shown above. I used two straight pins near the whet of each vaccinate and loop strip to alimony them in place as I sewed them.
- Step Eight: Now fold the fabric as shown whilom and stitch closely to the whet of the fabric to tropical up the sides of the bag. Youre going to uncork by going up the left side, virtually the top flap, and then when lanugo the right side of the bag.
Notes
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