Today I was making my lunch for work tomorrow, and I thought to myself, jeez, I use a TON of ziploc bags! Today I think the count was 7. What a waste! Then we went to Easter dinner and my sister in law happened to have a reusable snack bag with her. Brilliant! I had seen patterns but I needed a really easy one since PUL is a PITA. I used this tutorial from We Wilsons. It could not have been easier!
I decided to make 4 baggies just to see if I like them. I made them full sandwich bag size. This was purely because I have no snack sized bags to use as a template. I cut my scrap fabric with the rotary cutter. The three in the front are cotton fabric, the animal print behind them is a printed PUL, and the white under that is 3 sheets of plain PUL.
I cut the velcro, but not according to the tutorial. I kind of winged that part. I have really wide velcro so I cut each piece in half lengthwise.
I ironed my very sloppy looking fabric. The printed PUL was a bit wrinkled as well, so I ironed that very carefully on low.
I started by making a baggie with the printed PUL. I figured this was my easiest bet since there would be less steps. I sewed the velcro to each end, going across each piece 4 times. It isn't exceedingly neat, but I am not going for neat here, just for utility.
Then, I got to the point where you turn it inside out to sew the sides together. I remembered what a PAIN IN THE ASS PUL is to sew!! Then I remembered a tip a sewing colleague of mine told me. She said whenever you have something fluffy, slippery, or difficult to hold still, just put a piece of paper on it and sew through that. It will rip right off just fine after you sew it together. Well, looking through the supplies from my mom I notice I have something that seems as if it was made for this purpose (on the left). It is a fibery paper material that you can pretty much see through, and it rips off the stitch really quick.
My finished monkey bag! I did do the topstitch around the edges to make it neater.
Then I started #2, in Apples and Pears, with the plain PUL liner. I used the same paper trick. This one was a tiny bit more work, but not much.
The finished inside, before turning out.
Topstitched finished product! Not perfect (as you can see the seams on the outside are uneven), but I like it!
A view from the inside!
All in all, two bags, including the cutting for 4 and all, took about 30 minutes to make. I think the other two will go much faster.I am going to try my hand at snack sized bags next. I have a lot of scrap and a TON of PUL so this should be fun!
cool, I didn't know you where sewing now.. makes me want to bust out my machine I haven't sewed since we moved in.
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