Today was a big day for Bo, our preschooler. Instead of just going to school from 9-12, like she normally does, she stayed for the lunch hour. She was so excited, you would have thought she had Santa Claus for a substitute teacher. (Bad example. She hates Santa Claus.)
It's an option the school offers and one I think I'm going to take them up on often because I'm always having to cut Magpie's naps short so we can get to school to pick up her big sis. In fact, I still had to wake up little sis today, even with the extra hour.
It's a win-win, because Bo was thrilled to eat with her friends and take part in the lunchtime routine.
And, it's going to give me an excuse to start sewing cute lunch bags.
This is the part Bo isn't so thrilled about. She wants a Dora lunch box like one of her friends has. Like normal, I'm trying to avoid the commercial stuff. I know, I know. I had the Muppets, Mork & Mindy, Star Wars and everything else when I was a kid and I turned out fine (debatable).
I did take her to the store to buy a Dora sack but I just couldn't do it. They were $14 and we own so many other things that work just as well.
One of those things, I reminded her, is her favorite blue (plain old blue, no characters, no rock stars) backpack. She was happy enough with that, and I made an agreement with myself not to push any of my handmade lunch bags on her anytime soon.
That doesn't mean I can't make a reusable cloth sandwich holder, though!
I bet there are other tutorials floating around for similar things, so you might want to google around a while before you start sewing since I'm not convinced I have the best design on the Web. But I think this will work well enough, so follow along if you'd like.
Step one: Cut two pieces of fabric into 12-inch by 12-inch squares.
Please note--I placed a fake sandwich on the fabric to make sure it was big enough. It's in a plastic baggie so I wouldn't get crumbs all over the craft room (heaven forbid I mess the place up even more than it is), but the whole point of this project is that you won't need the plastic baggies anymore.
Put the fabric together, right sides facing, and sew the pieces together along three of the sides.
Turn the fabric right side out, and poke out the corners using a dull pencil or other pointy (but not sharp) object.
Sew the fourth side shut by tucking the raw edges in toward each other and topstitching over all four layers.
Decide what sort of notion you want to use to keep your sandwich holder closed. I'd planned to use Velcro but quickly realized I didn't have any. So I cut some snaps off of the girls' old onesies ...
... and sewed them onto the four corners of the sandwich holder*, making sure everything faced the right way so opposite corners snapped together correctly.
Take a quick photo of anyone who might be helping you complete the project:
Sandwich goes inside there:
Then the top two corners meet, snap, and keep the sandwich in place until chow time.
*Next time I make one, I might place the snaps differently so the holder folds like this instead:
Just seems like it'll hold the sandwich tighter. It's not like I'm packing grinders or anything.
There you have it. A 30-minute project that solves global warming. Almost. Not quite.
P.S. Wash often.
