New Insulated Lunch Bags

Well, it's almost that time again.  Everywhere you turn there are back to school sales.  I have completely finished buying Aly's supplies and have most of Abby's taken care of too.  Just a few things like Clorox wipes and Dixie cups left to buy for her, not the actual school supplies like crayons, markers, glue, etc.  I try to stock up on those things each year when they are really cheap so the next year I can just pull them out of my file cabinet drawer and not have to spend so much money all at once on everything either. 

With everything else mostly taken care of, I got this bug to make the girls both new lunchboxes for school this year.  Not that there was anything functionally wrong with their old ones, I just wanted some to better fit their personalities, and not be some cartoon character.

I started with a 99 cent McCalls pattern.  I made one from the pattern, and it turned out just ok, not great, just ok.  Then, I altered the pattern to make a smaller one with a shorter handle and better insulation.  And, while I liked the finished product, they made it way harder than it should have been to make that style bag.  So what did I do? 

Drafted my own pattern for the bag in 2 different sizes.  Then I got all technical (for me anyway) and scanned my pattern pieces and wrote up step by step instructions with lots of pictures and made that into a PDF pattern so I could put it in my Etsy shop.  Pattern available HERE.

I got one of the $1 fat quarters from Wal-Mart for Aly's.  Abby picked out her Owl fabric from Hancock Fabrics.  I like owls, but Abby LOVES owls.  Anything to do with them, reading books with real facts about them, cartoon owls, clothes, literally anything.  We found this fabric within 60 seconds of entering the store.  I tried showing her some really cute fabric with birds in birdcages on it and all she said was "those are birds, not owls".  That's Abby.  There were several other cute owl fabrics, but she kept hugging this one tight saying she wanted it. 

I made both of these in the larger size since we use re-usable containers for drinks (way cheaper and better for the environment).  The smaller size is great if you are sending juice boxes or capri-sun type pouches.  And no, I won't hold it against you if you choose to send those, it's just not what we choose to use.

I just need to make some matching luggage tags to hook on the strap so I can put their names on them.  I just can't make myself Sharpie their names over all this cuteness!