Sandwich and Snack Bags

More sandwich bags!

Yesterday we went to the park and tested our new polka-dot lunch baggies with a little picnic. They were great!

After I got the kids to bed, I made eight smaller snack sized reusable bags.  They are cute! And handy to have.  One thing I noticed about the reusable bags is something I hadn't thought of at all - and it's a huge perk!

The kids can reseal the bags all by themselves!  As opposed to ziplock baggies. This is super awesome!

These eight baggies are destined for my daughters' school's Little Farmers' Market. The kids sell things (usually cookies, garden vegetables, and little crafts). They keep half of their profits and donate half to their classroom.  The school they attend encourages green living, so they are very appropriate for the Little Farmers' Market.

I think I'll buy some plain white PUL (polyurethane laminate fabric) and make some lined sandwich bags next. It will be fun to have lots of different prints and colors. Also, I have some Star Wars fabric that would be fun to turn into sandwich bags for my daughter's lunchbox!

A little tip with making these lunch bags:  I think using a plastic zipper is best. I have mostly used metal zippers because I am recycling my zipper supply.  I went to a fabric and notions garage sale one day and it was actually more of an estate sale; I asked if there were any zippers because I can always use a few and the lady running the sale said "wait here". She was back in a minute with an armload of zippers!  Almost all were metal and a lot of them were taken from garments, or had been used in some way. I washed them all and tested each one to make sure it worked (after I got home and untangled the huge wad of zippers).  That was three years ago and I'm still well stocked with metal zippers.

Besides, I broke two needles on my sewing machine putting in the metal zippers!

I hope the metal zippers do not pose a problem with the sandwich baggies. I'll buy some more plastic zippers soon.

Reusable Sandwich Bags

I finally ran out of sandwich sized ziplock baggies. I still have an endless supply of snack sized ziplocks though, so I will keep using those.

My kids go to a wonderful school that encourages healthy living. A lot of the kids use "green" snack bags rather than disposable plastic bags and now my kids will join the green lunchbox revolution. They will have reusable sandwich bags!

Honestly, I don't know how "green" polyurathane laminate fabric is, it's care and cleaning with use of soap and water, or the industry of zipper manufacturing as opposed to the manufacture and disposal of ziplock baggies, so I'll just leave that side of it alone. Let's consider the reuse of PUL bags as environmentally friendly.  I will use these in the girls' lunchboxes and for our snacks when we go on outings.

My friend uses them all the time. She's had her sandwich bags for years and she says they wash up great and stand up to all sorts of snack packing. She has three children and they all lunchbox at school and on outings too. I figure if a mom of three has been using the same little bags for years, they might be handy.

She has both zipper and velcro style bags. All of hers are PUL lined with something cute on the outer side. I decided to only use PUL which means my seams are exposed to the interior of the bag and might become crumb catchers. We shall see.  Maybe I will cover the seams with double folded bias tape, that might be a good trick.

These four sandwich bags took me about an hour to cut and sew together, although I had interruptions and I wasn't sewing in a hurry or anything. I am sure if I only had a half an hour, I could have still done up a couple of them at least. I used old zippers taking this reusable thing to a new level.

Here they are!  And yes, the green bags are actually pink polka dots. Who says being green can't be cute?