Lunch Bag

I made this lunch bag for my mother for Christmas. Yes, it’s nearly June, and I still haven’t blogged all my Christmas projects. This project was even late for Christmas. My mother, bless her heart, knew that I was scrambling to finish all the projects I took on for my own family for Christmas, and she told me not to worry about it if I had to give her a rain check. I finished this and gave it to her mid-January, and I think she found it worth the wait. My mother works as a secretary at an elementary school, and I wanted her to have something nice to hold her lunch each day.

I found this wonderful tutorial for the lunch bag, and it was really helpful and easy to follow. I love the drawstring top on the bag to keep everything covered.

I only made a few minor changes from the directions on the tutorial.

I couldn’t find vinyl-coated fabric for the lining, so I bought some clear vinyl and sewed it in when I sewed the lining. (This is a view of the bag inside-out so you can see the vinyl lining.) Also, even though it was on the inside of the bag where no one would really see, I didn’t really like leaving the exposed seam between the drawstring portion and the lining; I’m just picky. So, to remedy that, I tucked the drawstring portion down into the bag while I sewed a couple rows of topstitching just below the orange band on the bag. You can see the stitching if you look closely at the picture below. It encased the exposed seam on the inside of the bag, added a little character on the outside, and pulled the starting point of the drawstring portion down just a bit. Works for me!

My mother has loved taking it to work. She says she always gets compliments on it, and she loves being able to tell them her daughter made it for her. One of her co-workers even asked for the directions so she could make one (and of course I shared the link). I just love giving handmade gifts!

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