Guest Post A Lemon Squeezy Home

Another Awsome guest post. I asked Christie from a Lemon Squeezy Home to help me with a Back to School tutorial and she was so sweet and made this darling reusable lunch bag, I can't wait to make one for my daughter!!! Christie.....

Hello!  I’m Christie from A Lemon Squeezy Home.  I’m excited that Heather asked me to be on her cute blog today!  What a great idea Back To School Week is!  And didn’t she do a great job with her binder and pencil pouch?  Especially for not sewing very often!

Today I’m going to show you how to make a re-usable, washable, lunch sack. 



You will need:

-Flap pattern found here.  You will have one of your outer fabric pieces with the flap, and one of your inner fabric pieces with a flap, like this:



-PUL or vinyl fabric (only if you want the inside wipe-able, otherwise use whatever you’d like to for the lining).  Cut two pieces: one 10” x 11.5”, and another 10” x 11.5” with the downloaded flap taped onto the center of one of the 10” sides (see picture above for reference)

-outer fabric (I used home decor fabric so it was thick fabric).  Cut two pieces: one 10” x 11.5”, and another 10” x 11.5” with the downloaded flap taped onto the center of one of the 10” sides (see picture above for reference)

-heavy duty stabilizer, found at any craft stores (it isn’t fusible, but you could certainly get the fusible kind. 

This stabilizer is some nice, thick stuff, and it isn’t very expensive):  cut two pieces 10” x 11.5”—there are no flaps on the stabilizer

-2” piece velcro

-bias tape (optional, but it does give it a more finished look)

 



Sew the stabilizer pieces onto the wrong side of the outer fabric, with a basting stitch.





Mark 2.25” in from both sides, and the bottom. 





Sew along the lines you just marked.  Backstitch where the lines cross each other.

 



Now would be a good time to sew the velcro onto the middle front of the outer fabric without the flap.  Sew it down about 3” from the top, or wherever you think it should go.  My next few pictures don’t have the velcro sewn on yet—that’s because I should have done it here but I didn’t ;).





Pin the outer fabric pieces right sides together, and sew along the sides and the bottom with a 1/4” seam—leave the top open.  Please note that it may look like I sewed the top shut, but that is only the basting stitch from sewing the stabilizer on.





Take one of the bottom corners, and squeeze so you create a triangle following the sewn lines, as pictured.  Sew along the line that is already marked, and cut off the excess.  Repeat with the other bottom corner.
 

 



Repeat all the above steps with your inner fabric, minus the basting of the stabilizer.  Also, sew the other piece of velcro onto the inner right side of the flap, where it will match up with the other piece of velcro.
 


Once you are done sewing the inner fabric, you can either insert the outer bag into the inner portion, right sides together, and sew around the top, leaving a gap to turn and then topstitch around the whole thing.  That would be easy, but I like the way the bias tape looked, so that’s what I did. 

Sooo, if using bias tape, insert the inner portion into the outer portion, wrong sides together—so the outer bag is right side out at this point.





Unfold the bias tape.  See the top part above the fold and how it is narrower than the bottom part below the fold?
 



Take that narrow top part and start pinning that edge along the inside of the bag, as pictured below.




Sew along the fold closest to the edge.  At this point I clipped the curved part of the flap, but be very careful not to cut the bias tape.
 


It will look like this.


Now fold over the bias tape around the outer fabric and sew, starting with one of the ends of the bias tape.




Treat the corners like a straight line.  Since the flap is curved, it might curl just slightly.  It irons out quite nicely though. 





And you are done! 

Thanks for having me here today Heather!  It was fun!

How cute is that? Thank you so much Christie for helping out!!!! Don't forget if you make one of the back to school tutorials to link it up to the flicker group Here.