Reusable Sandwich Bags…Wednesday Windings {LINK UP} 04/06/2011
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Wednesday Windings…wherever the creativity takes us!
I hope you’ll join us by linking up one of your recent creative adventures (just add you link over to the left side bar!) and share some inspiration by checking out the other projects posted too!
Last week I discovered a blogging gem, Jen, at Kitchen Counter Chronicles (listen to me, as if I’m some kind of professional talent scout rather than an obsessive mom-project-web-surfer!). She posted this great article about ironing plastic bags to make reusable sandwich bags–which she kindly linked up here at Wednesday Windings last week! Naturally, after seeing how easy she made it seem and considering the vicious baggie-buying cycle we’re on with packing school lunches every day, I decided to try it.
Now you’re expecting me to share my success with you here, no doubt. And that leaves me in a blogging quandary. Does sharing my semi-screw-ups make you love me more? I hope so.
Here we go.
First I folded and stacked my plastic bags together. I did remember to fold all the wording to the inside so it didn’t bleed out everywhere when I got to the iron.
Then I placed them between some wax paper to be ironed.
I had decided that if they could be sewn like fabric that I would just sew a fabric shell to them to make them fun, and since I needed some fabric for the ironing anyway, that’s what you see here…
Here comes my lesson in reading directions 101. I ironed. I ironed and ironed and ironed. I definitely ironed until the plastic bags were all fused together. And then until the wax paper was fused to the plastic bags. Looking back, (and re-reading the directions) I think I should have stopped before melting the wax paper into my project…
I never did get all the wrinkles out. (Hm, wonder why?)
But I had one solid sheet of…cardboard-ish, plastic-y…stuff, so I just kept moving forward.
I hemmed my cute kid fabric onto my wrinkly, crinkly plastic/cardboard/recycled-stuff.
Then I did some eyeballing and cut it to a reasonable sandwich size. (Enter lesson #2). I won’t bother telling you my measurements because it doesn’t fit a sandwich, but if you’re eyeballing something like 12 inches x 5 inches you’re probably right. (You need more width if you’re trying this at home. More width!)
Then I folded my wrinkly, stiff, crinkly, plastic/cardboard/recycled creation into a pocket and sewed up the sides.
Then I attached sticker Velcro (formally know as “self-adhesive”), sewed it into place so it would be firm, ripped out those stitches because apparently I’m the worst eyeballer in the world, repositioned it several times until it wouldn’t have “self-adhesived” if I paid it, and sewed it back on there.
All drama aside, it only took me an hour. I sent the Ladybuy’s half a turkey sandwich off with it as a test run this morning. We’ll see. Meanwhile, now that I understand the directions a little better, I can’t wait to try again.
There’s just one small problem (which Mr. Fix-It apparently got a kick out of pointing out to my recycling-blinded eyes)…our grocery store doesn’t use plastic shopping bags. Those 4 from last night were the only ones I had, and only because we had company that brought them from out-of-town two weeks ago. Mr. Fix-It said, “That’s great Sweetpea, now we know how to reuse something we don’t use to begin with.”
Well, I’m not giving up on this good of an idea that easily!
And, as usual, I’ll also be linking up with Someday Crafts for their Whatever Goes Wednesday. They have an awesome crafty link up over there with over 200+ projects every week. You should definitely stop by and scan through–there are some amazing women out there sharing their skills with us less creatively-blessed but equally motivated ladies!
Your hubby is too funny! What a cute idea. We don’t have too many plastic bags either since we have the re-useable kind…but this is so neat! They would make a great snack bag for my LO (since he isn’t eating sandwhiches yet). I’m inspired. And this looks like something even I could do (since I’m crafting challenged).
It really was pretty easy, although I have some corrections to make on the next one. Jen didn’t even bother covering hers with fabric, she just folded them up and sewed them, but I think the fabric makes it cute. We’ll see what the Ladybug says today when she gets home.
Oh my goodness!!! This is just so funny….and something I would done, since I loath directions and generally eyeball everything 🙂
Scrapbooking and cardmaking I never measure anything, really. Sewing is a whole different ball game, apparently. My eyeballing has gotten my seam ripper some serious practice the last couple months! 🙂
Oh Jamie — don’t you worry about the plastic bag shortage, I have about a million at my house that you can use to your heart’s content. It seems to me every time I go to do my “big” shopping trips, my recycled bags are never in my jeep…go figure. Anyway…your project looks great and I’m going to give it a try myself this weekend. Good job!!
Way cool! If only I had sewing abilities of any sort…LOL. I think yours turned out great. I’ll have to remember this project should I ever have a need for this! Thanks for sharing!
I love this post BECAUSE your project didn’t turn out perfect! I’m not a very hands-on crafty person and often am intimidated by project instructions I see online. So, it’s comforting to know that crafty people like you don’t always get it right the first time! It’s a cute project, though, and I’m sure next time you’ll get it just right.
Those are so great! I’d love to have you share them at my For the Kids Friday Link Party (still open). Thanks for the tutorial!
http://sunscholars.blogspot.com/2011/04/for-kids-friday-6.html
What a great upcycle for Earth Day. I will be bookmarking this post for my Earth Day Craft Features next week!
If you have a moment today, please share this with my readers @Creative Juice Thursday Hope to see yours among all the amazing projects!
Thanks! I linked up and I’m enjoying paging through all the great projects already there! I’m excited to try some more once I stockpile some more bags. I’ve had several people bring me there’s since I posted the article! 🙂
Friday will be the day for the Earth Day feature…
Thanks for sharing this at Creative Juice! Hope to see you back at the party tonight!
Love it!! Great tutorial!!
Thanks for stopping by, glad you liked it.