Back to school means school lunches. If you or your student needs a lunch bag and you’re not interested in the designs offered at the store, you can easily make these homemade lunch bags.  These lunch bags are easy to clean, too. They can be wiped down or filled with warm, soapy water for a good cleaning.  (It seems that anytime tuna-fish is packed for lunch at our house, a major scrub down is needed!)

Homemade Lunch Bags

With 1 yard of fabric, (58” – 60” wide) you can make 3 lunch bags with a few scraps for you to create something else.  Attaching the Velcro first (before you sew the side seams) is the best plan of attack on this project.  It’s so hard to get Velcro attached once you’ve finished this project and are left with a very small sewing space!

This gives you a general idea of how the bag is put together.  Side seams are sewn first and then the bottom is turned into a “box” shape.  It starts as a big rectangle and is one piece of fabric.

The rectangle is cut to measure 13” X 30” but you can easily adapt this bag to make any size lunch bag or other tote bag.  You could also add handles to this bag.

You don’t have to add this label to your bag. These are iron-on labels that I simply sewed on with my sewing machine using a button-hole stitch. Nylon outerwear fabric is another good option for making homemade lunch bags.

The fabric all came from my favorite fabric store, Fabric Depot. I’m on their mailing list and they send out 40% off coupons every month. You can also shop on-line and receive e-mail coupons.

Do you pack your lunch for work or school or do you pack one for someone else?

Go Gingham related links:

What every room needs: a tissue box slipcover
Thanksgiving table-cloth made for our dining room table
Matching napkins for the table-cloth – made from an old skirt
How to make a waistband smaller without pins!
How to turn jeans into capris – easier than you think!
How to make skinny jeans from wide leg jeans – make your own “jeggings”
How to mend pillow cases to improve your sleeping – hah!
Want to learn to sew? Start here with easy cloth napkins