Reusable snack bags: a sewing tutorial

Monkeys in underpants: cracks me up every time

Since moving to Vermont, I have been doing things other than cooking and eating. Really, I have.

My sister has been a big sewer and quilter for years and lately she's been making all sorts of really cool bags. She inspired me to take up sewing again. Well, "again" being about 30 years after learning how to use a sewing machine in Mrs. Charpentier's Home Economics class, although I can't remember if it was the unit before or after learning to cook by making meat loaf cups that swam in oil. But I digress.

As a refresher, I took a beginner's sewing class at a CUTE CUTE CUTE fabric and yarn shop here in Burlington called Nido (go ahead, say it out loud -- get it?). We made simple tote bags and I caught the sewing bug in a big way.

The best part is that there are now so many pattern ideas and tutorials on the web that you don't have to get stuck sewing pillows, curtains or ugly 1960s-ish Butterick blouses. Unless that's your thing, of course -- no offense.

Enter the snack bag. In the same vein as the reusable shopping tote, washable snack bags are a great way to cut down on your consumption of plastic (sorry, Ziplock). With a velcro closure, they can be used for toting small, non-messy stuff like cookies, crackers and grapes, to name a few. I've also found them to be handy in my purse or laptop bag for all the little crap that always winds up falling to the bottom, never to be seen again.

Snack bags: they're not just for snacks anymore.

Resources

• Reprodepot snack sack tutorial (this is the one I used)
• Phiona from Nido also has an easy tutorial, and it doesn't even involve velcro
• If you're more inclined to buy, you can find some cute bags at the Snack Taxi site (fair warning: these cost nearly nothing to make on your own)