Brown Baggin' It.

I am back with my regularly scheduled programming of "Using What I Have to Make What I Need" this Tuesday.

 I made myself a new lunch bag for work.  And now that my son has seen it, he would like one to replace his lunch cooler.

 Because this (below) is the state my old one was in.

 I don't buy these lunch bags.  This one was free with a backpack that S got one year, so I have been using it.  The boys use nice sturdy small coolers for lunch.  Hard ones.  They have had the same lunch box since kindergarten and they should last all the way through to grade 8 without a problem, except, as I said, now S wants one like this new one instead of his cooler.

I had on hand:  one old linen blend skirt that doesn't fit, some leftover fleece from a Halloween costume from about 3 years ago (ideally I would have used wool, but I didn't have a piece that was big enough), and some leftover water resistant nylon from the year I had to make the boys some raincoats because there was not a single one to be found in town that fit.  Please, feel free to adjust the materials to what you have on hand that will work.

Cut one rectangle from each of the layers:  12" x 26.5".  Layer them linen, then fleece, then nylon.

I serged all around the 4 sides, but a good strong zigzag stitch may work just as well if you don't have a serger.  Sew down a nice seam along the top (one of the long edges) by turning it down about 3/4" and sewing along your serged seam.  Sew the short sides together, 1/4" from the edge (it's where my serger threads ended) to make a tube.

Cut one 6.5" square from each of the layers.  Layer them, and serge the edges.  Pin the bottom to the bag, right sides together, like this:

Sew along the bottom of the square, using the serged seam as your guide.

Ideally, I would have put grommets in the top to be able to thread something through to tie it closed, but I didn't have any on hand, so I just used this cording that was in my "bits and pieces" drawer.

This was the hardest part of the whole bag.  The rest was done in minutes.  I even had to use one of those little rubber grippy things made for opening jars to pull the needle through all the layers.  I will probably add grommets when this cord wears out, but let's just see how long it lasts, OK? OK!

And let's hop on over to Frontier Dreams to see what everyone else is "Crafting On" this week, shall we?
I'm also posting on Crafty Moms Share for Sharing Saturdays.

And, just in case you missed it...the Give-away is still open until Tuesday, here.