Reusable Snack Bag Tutorial.

January 14, 2011 By 9 Comments

One of my goals for 2011, as far as The Southern Institute is concerned, is to share more tutorials with you.  It may be something that I’ve made or a perhaps a sewing technique… the sky’s the limit!  Let me preface this by saying that I am not very good at pulling things out of the air and making something fabulous, but every so often I get an idea and I try it.  This was one of those weeks!


We use Charlie’s Soap Laundry Detergent around these parts.  I started using it when we were cloth diapering and love it so much that we have continued to use it for all of our laundry!  If you use or have seen Charlie Soap, then you know that it comes in a plastic bag within an outer cloth drawstring bag.  I’m a big fan of reusing what you already have.  I’ve started to save those cloth bags, thinking that I could surely think of something to do with them.  Earlier this week it hit me… why not make reusable snack bags?  I went to work and came up with this tutorial for you.  Obviously if you don’t use Charlie’s Soap (which I highly recommend) then you can use any kind of cloth bag, or you can use fabric scraps and just pick up with Step 2.

Step 1: Start with an empty Charlie’s Soap bag and cut off the top.




Step 2:  Turn the bag inside out.  If you’re starting your bag from scratch, with fabric scraps, just cut two pieces of heavier weight fabric in this shape, about 7″ across and 6″ tall, with rounded corners on the bottom.  Your bag won’t have the depth of this one, but it’s just a snack bag, no big deal right?:



Step 3:  Sew around the edges of the bag to make it “snack” size.  If you’re starting from scratch, use a 1/4″ seam.  Serge or use a zig zag stitch around the edge:

Step 4: Turn your bag right side out again, and cut a piece of velcro (both the soft and the prickly side) that measures the width of the bag.



Step 5:  Fold the top of the bag to the inside 1/4 of an inch and press.  Then fold the edge again, this time the height of your velcro (1/2 inch velcro works great), and press.  Sorry I don’t have a photo for this step.  You should be able to tell what I am talking about when you see the photo in Step 6.

Step 6:  Turn the bag inside out and pin the velcro to the bag:



Step 7: Sew around all four edges of each piece of velcro, making sure to lift your presser foot and turn your fabric at each corner.  Don’t forget to put your presser foot down before starting the next side.



Step 8: There is no step 8!  You’re done!  Wasn’t that easy?  Just fill your snack bag with your favorite snack.  These are one of mine… Glutino Gluten-Free pretzels.  Yum.
I’m linking up with Fun to Craft today!  Go over if you want to see other fun crafts.


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Jenny Yarbrough

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Jenny is a wife and mother first and foremost. You can find her here at The Southern Institute, as the founder and owner of the blog, as well as at unboundbirth.com. She enjoys blogging and sewing, cooking for her three picky eaters, and playing tennis with her husband, Tom.

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Filed Under: Charlie's Soap, reusable snack bag, sewing, tutorial

Comments

  1. Rachel R. says:
    January 14, 2011 at 4:17 PM

    Your snacks don’t get stale in these?

    Reply
  2. Amy says:
    January 14, 2011 at 4:32 PM

    I’m a tutorial junkie so I was excited to see this!! Great idea!!!

    -Amy
    Crafting by Candlelight

    Reply
  3. patterns by figgys says:
    January 14, 2011 at 11:13 PM

    SUPER cute Jenny!
    I’m going to buy some Charlies soap today!
    I’m so excited I ran out of our most recent purchase b/c I’ve been wanting to try it since i first saw the product on your blog! Thanks for the tut!

    Reply
  4. Kristina says:
    January 15, 2011 at 1:53 AM

    I love it! Now I wish I hadn’t given away all my extra Charlie’s bags at Relevant. Plus, double bummer, they discontinued the bags for the plastic containers. Super cute, though!

    Reply
  5. Everyday Mama says:
    January 18, 2011 at 8:44 PM

    Stopping in from SITS…what a great site you have with tons of crafty ideas — can’t wait to try some! Totally following you now for some Southern inspiration in Sunny California :)

    Reply
  6. Kristi says:
    January 19, 2011 at 10:14 AM

    i have made a few of these and people are always asking me about them. i love you fabric choose…very cute.

    Reply
  7. feelincrafty says:
    March 2, 2011 at 9:21 PM

    This is a great idea! I always wandered what to do with those bags. Too bad they don’t use the bags anymore… Any ideas for the jars? :)

    Reply
  8. patterns by figgys says:
    June 30, 2011 at 11:20 PM

    SUPER cute Jenny!
    I’m going to buy some Charlies soap today!
    I’m so excited I ran out of our most recent purchase b/c I’ve been wanting to try it since i first saw the product on your blog! Thanks for the tut!

    Reply
  9. Kristi says:
    June 30, 2011 at 11:20 PM

    i have made a few of these and people are always asking me about them. i love you fabric choose…very cute.

    Reply

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