Reusable Lunch Bag Tutorial

I have a little bit of a fetish for the traditional brown paper lunch bag.  From the amazing origami of how it folds so small and yet holds so much to the anonymous and simple brown exterior. 
Goodness knows I haven't used one since I was a kid, they're just so wasteful.  I've been wanting to make myself a reusable lunch bag for a while now, hoping that if I have a cute handmade lunch bag that I'll be more inspired to pack myself healthy and nutritious lunches when I go to work.  As silly as this logic sounds, these things actually work for me.  

I decided to use the sinful and yet coveted brown paper bag as my model and I even embroidered the word yummy on it as a as sort of inspirational message to my self.  If you'd like to make one too, all you need is...

a 13"X 21" rectange of heavy weight cotton canvas (I think that brown linen would look very brown paper bagish too)
a package of red 1/2" bias tape
red embroidery thread or pearl cotton
red sewing thread
a cute button

First cut your square of canvas and then lay it flat on a table.  Next, recklessly scrawl your inspirational message diagonally across the rectangle in chalk pencil.  If you don't like the way it looks, of course try again but I think that for this project, it will look coolest if you don't try too hard to make it look tidy.

Now embroider directly on top of your messy scrawl with your embroidery floss or pearl cotton, I used a backstitch because It makes a nice unbroken line and goes relatively fast for embroidery.  

I'm showing you this picture of my leather thimble.  I love it.  They are a great way to avoid sore fingers when embroidering or sewing something really tough like canvas or leather.  If you don't have one you should consider going out right now and buying one.

If you like you can also add a few free hand pieces of fruit to your design.  I added some cherries as an afterthought and I think that they look pretty cute.

When you have all of your embellishments in place, go to your sewing machine and zig zag the bias tape across the top edge of your bag following the directions on the package.

Now with right sides together, sew the two  short sides together using a straight stitch and a quarter inch seam allowance.  You will now have a  tube.  

Take your tube to the ironing board and press your seam open.  With the right sides still in, press your tube flat, with the seam in the center.  Carefully press the two sides flat (yes, even though  it's still inside out, this is the beginning of it's brown paper lunch sack shape)

At this point, I zig zagged on top of the back seam of the bag, to give it the look of the pinked edges of a paper bag.

Now sew up the bottom of your bag with a straight stitch and a quarter inch seam allowance.
Take your very cute but not quite done bag to the ironing board and using your best effort, press the bottom seam open and flat, seems needless and silly but believe me, it's necessary.

Now turn your bag right side out.  You will notice that the sides pull inward.   Good.  You need them to do that.

The next step is to square the bottom corners by pulling them open and pressing them flat the opposite way.   That is, match the pressed and folded side of the bag with the bottom seam of the bag and press it flat.  You will have two triangles poking up like doggy ears.  On each triangle, make a mark three inches from the corner on each side and draw a line from one mark to the other.  Zig zag around the triangle that you've marked off and do the same on the other side. Tack each triangle down to the bottom of your bag with a few stitches.

Now go back to your ironing board and make two accordion style pleats on each side of your bag, using the original sides that you've pressed inward and the other pleats extending upward from the corners of the flat bottom of the bag.  This might require a little fiddling with, what you want is a bag that folds flat the same way that a paper bag will.

Once you've accomplished this,  sew a loop of the bias tape to the center back seem of the bag and your cute as a button button onto the front.  Now you have your nifty and durable lunch bag.   As you can see, the embroidery becomes almost abstract once it's folded around four corners.  I happen to love this.  If you don't, you can easily make your embroidery a little more tidy and centered.

I did contemplate adding a handle for easy carrying but I sort of felt that this would ruin the brown paper bag quality of it. I won't judge you if you decide to add one though.

Hope you enjoy your bag!

Comments

[aprintaday]

cute! :)

[Sara]

Verrrrrrry cute!!

[Stephanie]

So cute!!! Thanks for the tutorial. I will have to try it out.

[regina]

Great lunch bag! Thanks for sharing!!

[allison]

I loved those leather thimbles, but got tired of replacing them after poking holes through the leather.
Check out the Clover website for Asian floral coin thimbles....they have a little metal "coin" and come in delicious colors.

[Jennie C.]

My children have used homemade lunch bags for years. They get thrown in the wash every week, so I make them out of sturdy denims and flannels.

I love how this looks like a paper bag.

[dawn]

Oh, I love this!!! Thanks for the tutorial!

[Elizabeth]

love this, and more importantly, love your style and abbreevs. TUTE. ha. love the campbell's soup can as accessory in photo. My son's name is campbell and he's obsessed with the sewing machine. thanks!