Snack Bags: Redesigned!
My dad takes a ridiculous amount of vegetables to work every day to snack on. My mom packs them in plastic baggies (the fold-top kind) and he, sadly, throws them away every day. (I know. It hurts me, too!) My mom said she’d bought him some re-usable containers and he complained that they took up too much space and thus wouldn’t use them. So, for Father’s Day, I decided to take it upon myself to make my dad a reusable snack bag.
My old design was alright - but I really don’t like velcro. Why?
- if you pack a snack with crumbs, it gets all in embedded in it
- it closes when you don’t want it to
- it’s hard for little hands to open or keep open
- it’s loud
- it’s irritating to sew, and lastly
- it’s a plastic product, and I’d like to be able to make these out of completely non-plastic supplies
So, I took to the internet and checked out various designs. I adapted some of what I saw and came up with the following - keep in mind, it’s a large bag … I’m planning to make some more soon that aren’t quite so big! The bag is two layers of cotton with ripstop nylon in between to give it some water resistance.
The bag closes by folding over both layers of cloth and securing the flap to the body with a button and a loop of cotton yarn - yay for renewable resources! (Yes. The button is plastic. But it could be wood!)
This snack bag measures around 20cm x 30 cm on the smallest setting - 20cm x 40cm on the largest.
I hope he uses it every day and loves it! When I make my next one, I’ll do a tutorial 
Dave said,
June 23, 2010 @ 4:33 am
Err, isn’t Nylon a plastic? Still, I applaud you for maximizing the use of renewable resources as much as possible.
Dave
Heidi said,
June 23, 2010 @ 7:57 am
Great idea. I think I actually have that same fabric, bought it at a place on Ottawa Street! If you are interested in sewing feel free to join us at Little Bird on July 8 to help make sanitary pads for women in Africa. Email me at heidi(at)vanderkwaak(dot)com. (We met at Little Bird’s Nest last week by the way)
kim said,
June 23, 2010 @ 10:35 am
Dave - yes, nylon is a plastic!! I’m hoping to someday find some old-school oil cloth … ya know … which is waterproof canvas without any plastic. Sadly, all the oilcloth tablecloth material has been replaced by icky PVC!!!
Heidi - I got mine on Ottawa Street too! July 8 I might be able to do … I had a previous commitment last Thursday!
jenny the big sis said,
June 24, 2010 @ 8:45 pm
I love it!! Hopefully Dad loves it too. He’s so oldschool… but not afraid to try new things. Did you know he ate Tziki when we were down? I was so proud of him. He said it was really yummy. Anyway, the bag is super cute. You are so talented sis
Nadine said,
June 29, 2010 @ 2:04 am
hey, if you sewed a button on the reverse side of the bag it could wrap right around itself too - if you wanted to make it adjust to be smaller
Shannon said,
July 12, 2010 @ 11:30 pm
My friend made me some nice snack bags. They have a drawstring closure (she uses ribbon). We love them! Yours looks great too!