The idea of this kind of reusable snack bag is nothing new. We having been wrapping up food in cotton fabrics for millennia. I must admit that I’m a bit of a snap lock bag bandit and I never think twice about it. But other people do think differently! I also admit to being a mostly selfish sewist, it’s nice to have nice things, however I love a handmade gift. I know that the mumma I am making these for is trying to remove plastic of all kinds from her kitchen. So I thought reusable snack bags and bowl covers would be perfect. And then I fell into a sizable rabbit hole!
You see, if you want to include a moisture proof/retardant fabric in your bags there is so much debate! You can buy pre-laminated or PUL fabrics and you can buy laminate that you apply to a cotton fabric at home. There is also oil cloth, both the modern kind that is plastic-y and the kind you make at home in the traditional way from cotton fabric and linseed oil. There is rip stop nylon that apparently, comes in several grades and home beeswaxed cottons. Phew! I found this Etsy thread and through that a great blog post that covers a lot of food safety concerns for a variety of water resistant options. If you got through all of that, you’ll understand why I went with simple, plain cotton! If you fancy something more resistant, you have a boat load of info to inform your decision. There are also some questions about Velcro and if it is food safe, so I went with a flip design that needs no closures.
I’m staying with my 100% cottons! No, these cotton snack bags won’t contain loose yoghurt and the bread in a sandwich may dry up over the length of a long, hot day but they are perfect for snacks like carrots or pretzels or corn chips or popcorn. And because of their design they are silent too! I am sure that they will be useful help to my intended giftee mumma! The flap keeps snacks in so they don’t end up at the bottom of your handbag or nappy bag and they are still easy for little fingers to manage. It’s a nice way to control portions, especially when it comes to the very salty or sweet. They can be part of her plastic free kitchen regime and be at the ready for snacky little hands. The bowl covers are great for things that need a little air (like bread raising) or for keeping insect intruders out. I think I’ll make myself some for cat proofing! My fur boys love to taste the contents of unguarded bowls. The best part of both the snack bags and the covers is that you can throw them in the wash and they are good as new!
Having decided on cotton, I chose two prints that coordinated nicely and bought a half metre of each. I just love the sunny oranges and the bright fun polka dots! I also picked up some coordinating 12mm or ½” bias tape (single fold for my US readers) and used some 6mm or ¼” elastic from my stash. I wanted to get 4 snack bags and 3 bowl covers out of my fabric, so I needed to cut carefully. I decided to piece together some of the offcuts so I could still have bigger pieces for the bowl covers.
For each snack bag, you will need a lining and an outer piece. I made mine 30.5cm or 12” long and 18cm or 7” wide. If you are piecing bits together, sew them together first and press the seam open and cut them to the right size. If you have chosen to use a waterproof type fabric, it should be the outer, the side that doesn’t touch food and the lining should be cotton. These fabrics can be more difficult to sew and my post about sewing an oilcloth handbag is full of useful tips. Some fabrics can be ironed carefully (always from the wrong side) and some will flat out melt. So where pinning and pressing are mentioned, I am referring to the plain cotton. If you choose a waterproof type fabric, iron and pin carefully or skip that step.
Lay your lining and outer fabric right sides together and pin all the way around (or don’t of you are cool with sewing free) except for a hand size turning gap in one of the short ends. Sew from one side of the gap to the other, back stitching at the beginning and end. I used a 6mm or ¼” seam allowance and a straight stitch. Of course you can use whatever seam allowance you prefer.
Trim the corners and if you chose to use a bigger seam allowance, trim it to 6mm or ¼”. Now, turn everything right side out, via the turning gap. Use a chopstick or similar to poke out the corners (refrain from using pointy things like scissors or you might poke right through!). Give everything a good press, tucking in the seam allowance at the turning gap and making a rectangle that is super crisp.
So we need to close up that turning hole and do some nice top stitching along the short edge. I think it looks nice to top stitch both short ends. It makes everything look finished and nice and prevents things from getting out of shape with use. You can absolutely eyeball it but if you have an edgestitch foot, it will keep your stitches straight and that’s useful if you’re a beginner. So go ahead and topstitch along both short edges. If your machine doesn’t like to start close to the edge of a thick seam like this one, I have a trick. Lower the needle into the fabric at your desired start spot, to anchor the fabric and lift the pressor foot. Fold up a scrap of fabric so it’s as thick as the seam you are about to sew and put in under the back of the pressor foot, behind the needle. Your seam should sew easily and the scrap with fall out the back, ready for the next seam. You can also by various tools for this purpose but I find it easier to grab a scrap.
Now we are going to finish these babies off! Fold up one of the short edges, towards the other short edge, food safe lining together BUT you are going to leave 5cm or 2” free. Press that fold! Now fold those free 5cm or 2” down toward the body of the snack bag and pin (or don’t if you prefer) along what was your long edge. You should have three layers for the flap and two for the body. Topstitch down both open edges, through all layers and shazam!
On to the bowl covers! If you have a specific bowl you want a cover for you can either use a fabric marker or chalk to trace the bowl and then add 5cm or 2” of space around it as per the graphic (green line is cutting line) or just find a bowl or plate that is that is appropriately bigger to trace. I used a round cutting board to trace the circle for my biggest bowl cover, so get creative! Once you have things traced, cut out your circles.
Now you have a design choice to make! You can have the bias binding showing on the right side or hidden on the wrong side. I made one of each to show you. It’s purely aesthetic, both work exactly the same. I love the look of the contrast binding, so I prefer mine to show. The binding will end up on the opposite side to the side you start sewing it on to. So if you want it to show on the outside, you will start sewing it to the wrong side. Keep this in mind for the next step.
Have the binding with the folded in edges up, open the fold and bring over the short end a little. You can put in a pin to hold it still if you like or even sew a tiny seam. Open up the fold closest to the raw edge and align the raw edges. You’ll be stitching in the little fold of the bias. I like to move my needle to make it easier to get my stitches to fall in the right spot. Sew a little, adjusting the bias so that it is against the raw edge until you get back to where you started. Overlap the bias by a centimetre or so, do a little back stitch and trim the excess bias. You can pin if you prefer but I find it more frustrating than adjusting as I go because the pins get in my way.
You are halfway through the sewing! Hit the ironing board and fold the bias binding towards the right side (or the wrong if you went for hidden bias). I find it easiest to work in small sections with a dry iron until the bias is mostly in the right place. Now we wonder at the magic of bias and steam! Hit that bias with steam and watch it shrink into a nice, flat circle. The smaller the circle, the more fandangaling you are going to need to do but it always magically works!
Let’s make the elastic channel. Back at the sewing machine, you want to sew along the loose edge of the bias, as close as you can comfortably manage. Again, moving my needle position helps. I just like to have a place to aim the edge of the bias at and know that my stitch will not fall off the edge. Just take your time and readjust as needed. Sew most of the way around, leaving a small gap to thread the elastic through.
Put a small safety pin in the end of the elastic and thread it through the channel. Once you get all the way around, place the cover over the intended bowl and work out how long the elastic should be. Cut the elastic to the correct length plus 2.5cm or 1”. Make sure the elastic is flat and not twisted, overlap the elastic a little and sew it into a loop. I like to use a 3 step zig zag and make sure I backstitch at beginning and end. Sew the gap in the bias shut (being sure not to sew through the elastic) and voila!
I am super happy with how cute these turned out! I love how bright and colourful they are and they are really functional too. Just as I was wrapping up sewing for the day, Mum asked if I had enough scraps to make a couple of covers for her larger size dog food cans. I managed to squeak two out for her (they are on the small maroon noodle bowls in the pics) and she loves them! I haven’t had the chance to give these to my intended giftee yet but I know she will love them too.
You might also like
Leave A Reply