Friday, July 30, 2010

shower curtain lunch sack tutorial

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IMPORTANT UPDATE ON THIS PROJECT!
It was just brought to my attention that many of the vinyl shower curtains may contain harmful chemicals and icky fumes. I did not know this!!! Where have I been?!? BUT the good news is that many stores sell alternatives at great prices and there are always fabric shower curtains or even fabric.

I will be stopping at my local IKEA and picking up one of their alternatives to vinyl made from PEVA at $3.99 and redoing my lunch sacks ASAP!!

In our house we have made it a goal to save money where we can. One of the easiest ways to cut costs is to make our lunches everyday- well at least make my husband's lunch- I eat lunch at home while painting and sewing- he has to go to work. Every morning I reluctantly roll out of bed at 5:30am with Andy and make him a yummy lunch- he eats a ridiculous amount of food so taking lunch everyday has saved us some money. Up until this point, I packed his lunches in whatever bags we had laying around and finally decided that it was time to create some simple reusable lunch bags. It is truly the simple projects that bring me the most delight in my creative life!


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While shopping at Target it struck me that a $3.00 vinyl shower curtain liner would be the perfect material and the perfect price to make a handful of lunch bags. Because it was for my dude, I had to keep it plain and but did you know that there are some REALLY cute shower curtains out there?!


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I started by cutting out two squares- one front and one back.


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I sewed the sides and the bottom together with a straight stitch.


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While the bag is inside out, I folded the corners into triangles and sewed them down with a straight stitch.


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The last step is to attach velcro to the bag.


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I used sticky back velcro and attached to the top and bottom.


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And there you have it! A simple and easy to clean reusable lunch bag (in size XL for huge lunches).


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I couldn't resist making a more girly version for myself with lots of leaves sewn with machine stitching.


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And now we have nice little collection of lunch bags all ready to be put to use!

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20 comments:

Cherish @ My Cup of Tea said...

What a GENIUS idea. You are SO creative!

Jenny Stevning said...

Egads!! Genius! Love this!

~jolene said...

Alisa, your creativity is AMAZING! Your ideas are so unique and original - a TRUE artist.

Itaya Art said...

Oh My Goodness! I feel LOTS of Christmas presents coming to mind!! You are awesome. :)

Holly Knitlightly said...

SUCH a great idea! Love it!

Alissa said...

And with the leaves now you can tell them apart! LOVE your blog and your creative ideas. Keep up the great work!

Lotussooz said...

AWESOME! those look great

Craftcherry said...

I LOVE those! What a lucky hubby you have. Mine would LOVE it if I got up and made him lunch every morning. :o)

Dita Maulani said...

This make me rush to buy a sewing machine!

lindamay said...

Great idea Alisa, I wonder if this might be what I am looking for as an alternative to plastic bags at the grocery store. I have been seriously trying to cut down on the plastic I bring home and this just might be the solution for toting veggies and fruits home from the market.

OrangeFarmhouse / www.moodkids.nl said...

love it! wish I had somebody to give that to everyday. But my one year old is still eating at home (just like myself) and my sweetheart is making his own bread at the office (typical dutch, I think...). well it's also useful for a picknick so I'm going to make it anyway..
Thank for sharing this!

Lori P said...

What a great idea - easy and adorable. Thanks for another great tutorial.

*jean* said...

instead of using a vinyl product, you can make it out of canvas and rub two coats of beeswax on it and you have waxed canvas...used for centuries...ehow has a toot for making waxed canvas...you just rub the wax on and set it in the sun ( or use a heat tool) to get the wax to soak in...wash the canvas before you start your project...

~jolene said...

Geesch, now I am going to replace the shower curtain liners bought at Target in our bathrooms! Who knew is right! I knew they always smelled weird when first taken out of their packages! Thank Buddha for IKEA! Appreciate the update!

Suzanne said...

The Aug/Sept issue of MaryJanesFarm magazine has a great article about shower curtains going natural.That will give you a good explanation as to why the PVC curtains are bad. Basically, it's the vinyl, so don't use anything with a "V" in its initials. She suggests hemp curtains, but they are expensive. Cheaper are cotton canvas curtains. So there you go -- canvas after all!

Julie K. said...

I have just discovered your blog in the last week and I adore your projects and style. I have tried and tried to free motion sew things and I just can't seem to get it right. Can you give a couple of tips on what settings you use on your machine? My biggest problem is my top-stitch is way too loose! What am I doing wrong?

Anonymous said...

Alisa - I love your leaf design on the shower curtain lunch sacks! I am 'novice' with the sewing machine but would love to make some leaf designs for euro shams I'm working on. (Novice meaning I have to get the Singer Manual out just to thread the machine!) Could you give me so 'simple' how to on the leaves? Love your website by the way! bryadams1@yahoo.com

Karen = ) said...

these are perfect for taking lunch on a hike... no trash, and totally cute! Thanks for sharing!

Linen Shower Curtain said...

Hello,

This is a beautiful and wonderful and sunny shower curtain. I love the image on the shower curtain, it is absolutely beautiful!

Ariana said...

Oh no! Well I still think it's a great idea and will defiantly try it but maybe with some oil cloth? I love the leaves!

www.abillionleaves.blogspot.com

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