Snack Bag Tutorial - Sewing Machine Version

I promised this tutorial a loooong time ago.  It was supposed to be done right after I published the serger version but what can I say...I'm really good at procrastinating.  I've come up with lots of different snack bags over the years but this is by far the fastest and easiest one.  This is one of my favorite projects to do with kids too!

Materials Needed:
•  2 Fabric scraps measuring at least 7 1/2" square
•  Velcro 7 1/2" long (I used 3/4" wide and cut it in half lengthwise to get enough for 2 bags.)
•  cereal bag plastic (pretty much any plastic found inside a cereal box.  If you can't rip it easily, it should work for this project.)
•  pinking shears (optional)
•  paper or cardstock to make a pattern

1.  First I made a pattern from card-stock measuring 7 1/2" x 7 1/2".  For a project like this that I might make several of a sturdy pattern is nice so I don't have to keep measuring everything.  Using the pattern then trace and cut out 2 pieces of fabric and 2 pieces of the cereal bag plastic.

2.  Next I cut my 3/4" Velcro in half length wise.  You can use the full 3/4" width but it makes it a little harder to open especially for little hands.

3.  Place one piece of fabric and a piece of cereal bag plastic right sides together.  I try to use the side of the plastic that touched the food as the right side.  You don't want to put pins through them so a clip of some sort is best.

4.  With the plastic on the underside (touching the feed dogs) and the fabric facing up, stitch across the top using a 1/4" seam allowance.  If you put the plastic on top it's going to be slipping and sliding all over the place.

5.  Flip the fabric and plastic so the wrong sides are now facing each other.  Pop the seam out as much as you can and finger press.  No ironing on this project!

6.  Take a side of the Velcro and stitch to the top side you just folded over.  Place the velcro about 1/4" below the top (so you can have a little to grab to get it opened).  Sew down one side, leave the needle in the down position when you get to the end, lift the presser foot and pivot the side to sew across the end of the velcro then pivot again to sew along the other side of the velcro back to where you started.

It should look something like this.  Don't be surprised if on the the rougher side your thread breaks.  Occasionally this can happen if it gets caught at just the right spot.

Now repeat for the other side.

7.  Match both sides up so the velcro is lined up.

8.  Add several clips all the way around the sides that don't have velcro.

9.  Starting at the top right stitch all the way around the bag using a 1/2" seam allowance.  When you get to the corner, drop your needle in the fabric, lift the presser foot and pivot to sew across the bottom and then up the other side.

Some helpful tips...
*Backstitch a few times at the beginning and end since those areas will be getting more stressed as you open and close the bag.
*If you find that the top fabric is starting to bunch and slide you can use both of your hands by grasping the top and bottom of a side to pull the side flat.  You are not actually pulling or pushing the layers through the machine but you are sort of stretching it to make it flat.  Let the feed dogs still feed the fabric through the machine.

10.  Use a pair of pinking shears to trim the edges.  If you don't have a pair don't worry you can also use a zig zag or decorative stitch around the edges or just two rows of straight stitches.  This is where you can get creative.

Here are some bags I found that were made by my kids.  They used a zig zag stitch.  The blue one has  been washed and you can see the fraying isn't so bad.

You can get real creative with these!  This one has colored velcro (and I see it was stitched on with a zig zag stitch too.)  Each side is also a different fabric.

I have been making these for my kids since they started preschool many years ago.  I typically wipe them out but if they get really grungy I will throw them in the washer with my towels and air dry.  It's a good idea to turn them inside out before washing.  These usually last us a school year rotating several bags.

I'd love to know if you made some and how they turned out.

A little trick for quilt binding

My biggest challenge in binding a quilt was to have it fold over easily and keep the binding edge looking sharp and straight.  I thought I would share how I like to bind a quilt.  Not saying it's the best way just the way that works best for me.

I always use a french fold binding, which means that I simply fold the 2 1/2" wide strip in half with raw edges meeting and press.  This will gives me 2 layers of fabric over my quilt edge and is a heck of a lot easier and faster, in my opinion, to fold it in half rather than use a bias tape maker or try to fold without a bias tape maker.

If I can I will machine stitch on instead of handsewing.  Usually by the binding stage I'm ready to be done with a quilt and want to get it over with.  But when I do decide to handstitch I end up finding a mental place and just enjoy the process.

So here is my quilt with the binding already sewn on.  I'm machine sewing this binding on so I first attached it to the back of the quilt.  There's a ton of tutorials and instructions out there leading up to this process so I won't bore you with that.  But I will say I always join my strips together on the diagonal and I do not use bias binding unless something has a curved edge.

Next and here's my "big trick"!  Get ready....

I press the binding away from the quilt.  A good steamy press and it always lays flat.  Now I use cotton batting so I'm not sure how too much steam or heat would affect a poly batting but I'll let you be the judge.

Once I've pressed it away from the quilt all the way around then I flip the quilt over and fold the binding over just as it will be sewn onto the quilt and press again.  This is definitely a pressing step vs. an ironing step and your fingers might get a little toasty but I get a rhythm and I can usually do it without burning too bad.

I pay special attention to the corners and get them to miter as perfectly as possible so I don't have to fiddle with it later.

Very often I do not even have to pin or clip the binding down to sew although when I do I end up taking the time to do it I am usually glad I did especially when I am handsewing.

This binding method usually takes me under and hour to complete if I am machine sewing.  I like how it takes away the wonkyness that I used to get before I pressed. 

Snack Bag Tutorial

* This is a serger version but these are just as easily made on the sewing machine.  Sewing machine version coming very soon.

I've posted a snack bag tutorial before but it's been a couple years... what!?  And since then I've made dozens and have refined my skills and techniques.  So here we go with a 2nd take (2 1/2 years later) with a lot more pictures and directions. 

But first let me tell you why I really love these! 
~ I love to save money, be creative and add color to my life where I can.
~ I am directly recycling and using scrap fabrics.
~ These are food safe.  I was not comfortable making snack bags out of just fabric, nylon or laminated fabrics because for one, wet or greasy foods would leak through the fabric and nylon.  I wasn't getting any good answers from manufactures if the laminated cotton was food safe.  Plus let's face it, laminated fabric is expensive!
~ Easy to clean.  I frequently will flip them inside out and rinse them under the faucet adding a little soap if needed.  
~ These are machine washable!  When the fabric gets dirty I half flip them inside out, so the inside and outside of the bags are exposed and toss them in with my towels.  I don't use fabric softener in this load.  To be perfectly honest they often go in the dryer too.  I use a low temp setting and I have never had a problem.  Of course putting heat on them may make them emit some horrible chemical but my thinking is when it cools down it goes back to the original state...oh yes,  I have spent many moments thinking about all the possibilities!  The bags we have now are about 2 years old and are in great condition.

Materials:
Plastic cereal bag
scrap fabrics measuring at least 4" x 7"
3/4" velcro (hook & loop)
threads

Equipment:
Serger
Sewing machine
ruler
scissors (rotary cutter, mat & ruler are helpful)

 First grab a plastic bag from a cereal box.  I LOVE this stuff.  First of all you can't recycle them or at least around here that I know of, so this is a great re-use of a material that won't biodegrade for many years.  They come with food packaged in them so you know they are food safe and they are super easy to sew.  Sewing some plastics are impossible because once the needle hits it it will tear like you cut it with scissors.  This however, holds the stitches just perfectly.

 Next cut off the bottom and then cut up the seam line on the side of the bag to open it up flat.

 For these snack bags I cut them 4" tall x 7" wide.  Out of this bag I was able to get enough for 4 snack bags.  The next bag I used I could only get 2 so they will vary.

 I'm all about cutting corners and taking shortcuts so at this point I'm going to use the plastic I cut out and fussy cut the butterfly out.  It's hard to see the cereal bag plastic in this photo.  The left side is a little easier to see.  I am not concerned about keeping the sides totally straight...the serger will help me straighten them out.

 Next I'm using the fussy cut piece to cut out the other side.  Now if I had been thinking ahead I would have placed the other fabric underneath when fussy cutting so I could have avoided this step but I can't win them all. And, oh yeah, why not square up the edges...just because I said that I didn't care about it in the previous step.

 I cut in half a 3/4" wide piece of hook and loop.  The full width makes it a little too strong for little hands to get apart and lets face it if you can get two out of one, why not!?

 Ok so time to re-thread the serger.  Thought I would add a variety of colors to make it fun.

 Grab a piece of plastic and one fabric side, put together and zip through the serger on one long side.  Nothin fancy about it.  No need to do anything with the tails.  Those will be taken care of in the next step.  Repeat for the other plastic and fabric piece.  *Tip on sewing with the plastic.  I always put the plastic down and fabric face up so the feed dogs help pull the plastic through otherwise the plastic will stick to the presser foot and slip across the fabric resulting in a mismatched side.

 I cut the length of hook and loop about 1/2" shorter than the width of the snack bag that way it won't get too bulky in the side seam.  I stitch it on about a 1/4" down from the top.  Stitch across the top.

 Pivot and it will take about 3 more stitches down.

 Then pivot again and stitch back across the bottom.  You'll have to pivot once more on the end.

On the hook side (rougher side) you might find that the thread gets caught and messy.  It happens and I just take a deep breath before I start swearing then cut the thread, re-thread the needle and continue on. 

 Alright hook and loop done. 

 Now put them insides together, just like it will be when it's done.   The hook and loop will hold the top together.

 But you will want to hold the sides and bottom together with something.  Wonder clips are perfect here but any sort of clip will do, just not pins because you want to avoid putting unnecessary holes in the plastic.

 Put your snack bag into the serger starting at a top corner.  Run just a couple stitches, leave the needles in the down position then lift the presser foot, grab the tail and....

 ...swing it all the way over in front of the blade.

 Stitch all the way down to the bottom corner.  Run it off 1 or 2 stitches. Lift the presser foot and....

 ...pivot to the bottom edge.  Make sure that the needles will start right at the corner.  Repeat for the next bottom corner.

 Serge all the way to the last top corner and run off 1 stitch. 

 Lift the needles and the presser foot.

 Then flip over the entire piece carefully - your threads are still attached (you don't want to pull it too far out of the machine) and put it back in on the flip side.  Line up the needles so they will start serging right back at the top.  *It's important to lift the blade before you start serging again because you don't want to chance cutting your stitches.  (Please ignore the horrible nails.)

 Serge down about 1 1/2" and run off the side.

 Snip all your threads and your done!