This sewn lunchbox is perfect for holding your food and treats for the day while being able to hook onto other bags.
I have never been good about this whole lunch as an adult thing. One third of the time, I’m okay. The next third, I forget to bring food. And the last third is when I bring food but forget to eat. Not always my brightest moment. One of the big reasons I forget my food is not having a good lunchbox.
Well, I did have one, but it’s branded. And I felt weird about using a company branded item from a company I no longer work for. I might just be being oversensitive, but I have feelings about it. Adjusting my life to those feelings is pretty minimal impact. I felt I had two options, embroider the old lunch box to cover the logo and sew a new one.
I didn’t want to embroider over the logo yet, so I decided that a sewn lunchbox was the right direction. There is one caveat about what I did. I know most lunchboxes have some sort of insulated material for the insides. Temperature control was not a concern of mine, so I thought any cloth was fine.
Check out the Craft section of MCG for more fun patterns in strings and things or more unlimited ideas.
Supplies
I went a little overboard on this one in terms of fabric, but I felt it was needed. To make the sewn lunchbox, I used 4 different types of fabric. A patterned fabric for the exterior, cotton batting, fabric stiffener, and a plain fabric for the interior. I’m not sure if using both cotton batting and the fabric stiffener was overboard but I wanted it to be extra sturdy.
I also used cotton webbing for the strap, a buckle, gray thread, and a long zipper to craft the finalized piece.
Process
Prepping the Fabric
This piece was a bit odd because the fabric makes up the body of the sewn lunchbox as well as part of the handles. So, the shape for the two side pieces is a little strange. To make it easier on myself, I started with a rectangle and adjusted from there. Each type of fabric was cut into three pieces – 2 sides and one bottom.
Then, I put aside the plain material that would be the inside of the bag and started work on the remaining fabrics (patterned, cotton batting, and fabric stiffener) as they would become one piece to make out the outside of the bag.
Now, I just my pieces to the shape of the pattern but, in retrospect, I should have kept them as rectangles until all the fabrics were sewn / fused together. Cutting the shape out at this point would have resulted in some cleaner cuts.
Anyway, I first attached the patterned fabric and the cotton batting. I tried to play a little with the stitching, but I didn’t want to go too crazy. I finally landed on using a striped pattern. Then I repeated the process for the other side and bottom.
Next it was time to fuse the fabrics. I attached the stiffener to the cotton batting using an iron. I typically like to use the fabric stiffener that is heat based because I find the bonding easier to do. Although, I didn’t think about how cotton batting regulates temperature. The heat would not go through the patterned fabric and the cotton batting to get hot enough to fuse the stiffener. The easy fix was just approaching from the other side.
Flanking the Zipper
While it didn’t feel like there were many lines to sew, the fabric placement position often ended up being a bit more finicky that I would have liked. It started out easily enough. The first thing I did was sew the sides to the zipper. One type of side (plain and patterned) for each size of the zipper.
I like to think that sewing in suppers are like making sandwiches. The bottom layer is the plain fabric with the right side up. Then the zipper goes on top with the outside edges aligned and the zipper zip facing up away from the plain fabric. Finally, the very decked out pattern fabric goes on top with the right side down. The long edge (18 inches) is straight, but all fabric is lined up against it.
I sewed the one side and then the other. This give a butterfly feeling with the zipper being the body and the fabric being the wins spreading out away from it. I debated iron the project at this point but decided not to. Didn’t really have a good reason for that, just went off instinct.
Adding the Bottom
And then came the hard part. Adding the bottom layer was a lot more difficult than I expected. Mainly because I wanted to connect what effectively was a solid line to a line that turned four times. And two of those turns were effective a 90-degree turn.
I started by aligning the fabric and clipping it into place. Having the fabric generally stabilized in position made it easier to work with. I placed the right sides of the fabric facing each other. This gives a clean edge with a hidden stitch when turned inside out.
And then came the sewing. I’m not sure which was worse: sewing the pieces together in awkward angles or getting the needle to go through the thickened fabric. I didn’t’ really think about this until after the fact but I was asking my machine to sew through 6 layers. That it a lot….
Anyway, after a fight I was able to get the bottom pattern strip sew to the side patterned pieces and create an enclosed piece. As a side note, I did make sure the zipper was open before doing any of this. The only edges that I left open were the small ones at the end of the zipper (the section that is 1 ½ inches on the bottom strip). This will get sewn together later.
Then I repeated the process on the plain fabric. The only real difference here is that I left a semi-medium hole in the piece in order to turn the sewn lunchbox inside out later.
The Clasp
Before turning the sewn lunchbox inside out, there was one more element I needed to sew in. And I realized that even though I was asking for 6 layers before, that suddenly became 10 with all outside layers, all inside layers and the cotton webbing strap.
Before sewing, I weaved the cotton webbing through one end of the buckle and positioned the buckle in such a way that the right side was facing out when the bag was turn into its final positioning. This took a lot of placement trial and error just because I was having trouble visualizing spacing. To get around this, I would clip the cotton webbing in place and semi turn the bag inside out to see how it would end up.
While this sewn line was one 1 ½ inches, it was still a bit of a nightmare to deal with. I only added the cotton webbing in to hold the buckle, but it did give me a bit of a struggle. This step was repeated for each side buckle.
Then, to complete the sewn lunchbox, I turned everything inside out. The patterned fabric because the outside, the buckle was at the ends of the zipper, and the plain fabric was on the inside. But! I still had a hole on the inside since I needed a place to turn the bag, I grabbed a sewing needle and used a hidden stitch to close up the piece.
Reflections
This sewn lunchbox was a lot more finicky than I expected. Sewing a straight line against a turn edge is definitely a challenge. And adding the buckle added another layer of difficulty. I do like the way it turned out. The design is a little smaller than I was hoping for, but it still is enough space to hold my lunch containers and other things. While a bigger box could hold more, I don’t know if I necessarily want to have more food available to me…
Lessons
It Didn’t Sew!
When I turned the sewn lunchbox inside out, I noticed a section of the exterior that wasn’t sew together properly. I tried to turn it back and sew it but the fabric and sewing machine were just not being cooperative. So, I decided to switch it up and sew it by hand. I really love the hidden stitch style of sewing; it just has such a clean look.
But it’s good to remember that just because something doesn’t work when using one method, doesn’t mean there aren’t other options. And while the other options might require a bit more time, the result is worth it.
Pattern
Sewn Lunchbox
Ingredients
- 3 Pieces Plain Fabric 2 pieces 18 inches by 8 inches and 1 piece 30 inches by 5 inches
- 3 Pieces Pattern Fabric 2 pieces 18 inches by 8 inches and 1 piece 30 inches by 5 inches
- 3 Pieces Cotton Batting 2 pieces 18 inches by 8 inches and 1 piece 30 inches by 5 inches
- 3 Pieces Stiffening Fabric 2 pieces 18 inches by 8 inches and 1 piece 30 inches by 5 inches
- 1- Inch Buckle
- 1- Inch Cotton Webbing 10 inches
- 18- Inch zipper
- Thread
Instructions
- Use heat (or as instructed) to fuse stiffening fabric to cotton batting. Repeat with other set.
- With the four 18 by 8-inch pieces remaining, cut according to the attached pattern (side). With the 2 remaining 30 by 5-inch pieces, cut according to the attached pattern (bottom).
- Using one patterned side piece and one plain side piece, layer the plain piece right side up, the zipper right side up, and the patterned piece wrong side up. The 18inch edge should be aligned. Sew along edge to connect in zipper. Repeat with the other side pieces on the opposite side to the zipper (the layering position should stay the same). Open zipper
- Line up a pattern side piece with the patterned bottom piece along the remaining edge. The right sides should be facing each other. Sewing for the 30-inch section of the bottom (not the caps). Repeat with the other patterned side.
- Repeat the above step with the plain fabric leaving a hole large enough to pull the project through on one side
- Weave 5 inches of cotton webbing through one end of the buckle and another 5 inches of cotton webbing through the other end of the buckle.
- Place the webbing so it threads through the 1 ½ inch hole remaining at the end of the zipper. The buckle will be inside of the project at this point – only the edges of the cotton webbing should be visible from the outside. Repeat for the other side.
- Pull project inside out, use a hidden stitch to sew the hole on the plain fabric shut.
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