Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Tutorial: Reusable snack bag

Besides a sandwich I also like to carry some carrot sticks or almonds to munch on. Here's a simple drawstring bag that eliminates those throw-away baggies! I like this design because it stores flat, without any little corners to catch food nasties.

Reusable Snack Bag
This one is filled with carrot stick goodness!

Materials:
Two pieces of fabric, at least 9" or 10" square.
Two pieces of ribbon, about 30" long (each)

Cut out two circles of fabric. I traced around a bowl that is 8" in diameter.
Sew a small buttonhole, about 1/2" long next to the edge of one piece of fabric. It should be about 1/4" away from the edge. 

Fold the circle in half at the buttonhole, to mark the point on the circle directly across from the first buttonhole, and sew a second buttonhole on the other side of the circle.

Right sides together, sew the two circles together with a 1/4" seam allowance. The seam goes around the OUTSIDE edge of the two buttonholes. Leave a small opening to turn the circles right side out.

Turn the circles right side out, and press flat. 

Press the edges of the small opening in.
Top-stitch, close to the edge, around the entire circle. Sew around the circle a second time, this time INSIDE the edge of the buttonholes. You have just sewn the opening shut AND made a casing for the drawstrings (the ribbons).
Using a small safety pin attached to one end of one of the ribbon pieces, pull the ribbon through the entire circle. You will begin at one of the buttonholes, and come back out at the SAME buttonhole.
Tie the ribbon ends together with an overhand knot. Repeat on the other buttonhole. You want to have two ribbon drawstrings. Each one will go around the entire circle, and come out at the same place where it started.

Now you are ready to load some carrot sticks, crackers, almonds, or other snacky yumminess into your reusable snack bag, and pull on the two strings:

And there you go - a healthy snack for you, and a healthy, reusable snack bag for the planet!
The snack bag will reverse itself...you can still pull the drawstrings shut, even if the bag is "inside out."

2 comments:

Dorothy said...

Good idea. No corners! How many of these will you make, since obviously they will need to be laundered?

Kathy Haynie said...

I have 4 so far--2 for me and 2 for Mark. Our snacks aren't gooey.