Cloth Lunch Bags

We've been on a 'fiscal prudency' kick around my house this year.  Tightening of belts (both literally and figuratively) has occurred. In the spirit of saving money AND getting ready to spend 10 days in Florida, I made lunch bags for all of us...using fabric (and velcro) I already had on hand.

These are not fancy at all. In fact they are the antithesis of fancy.  I call them: "Quick and Dirty Lunch Bags".  Kidding.  I don't call them anything that fancy. They are simply cloth lunch bags designed to keep everybody's lunches separate, while residing in the same backpack. No handles, no pockets, nothing extraneous. Yes, some do have simple appliques, but those are so they don't get mixed up.

Ready. Set. Go.

Materials Needed:
2 pieces of fabric measuring approximately 81/2 inches by 26 inches (there is nothing magic about the size I picked - you can easily make these larger or smaller. The fabric can either be the same of contrasting.
3 - 31/2 inches of sew on Velcro.
Optional fabric for appliques.

The first step would be to apply the appliques, but since I didn't take any pictures, let's just move on to the next step, which is to sew up the side seams.  I used a serger, but you totally don't need to.

Step 2 (or 3...if you put on appliques), is to spread out the corners, iron flat, and then sew about 1 inch from the tip.  Trim.

Turn the outside piece to the...um...outside, then slip the inside...er...inside.  At this point I serged the two pieces together, but this isn't absolutely necessary.

Turn the top down a bit, iron, then topstitch.  I did two rows on this one, but  only one on the others.

Stitch one side of the velcro down about 2 1/2 inches from the top.

Flip the bag over and stitch the other side of the velcro near the top edge.

Done!

Done!

Done!

I put these together like an assembly line...these are done at this point except for the velcro.