Reusable Zippered Snack Bag Pouches – A Tutorial | Charlottesville VA Child Photographer

If you don’t already know, I love to make things. Especially as gifts. My love language is definitely gift giving so it’s also a major way that I express my love to others. If I take the time to make something for you or your child, there is no greater way for me than that to show you how much you mean to me and my family. Consequently, I dabble in lots of handmade things and people are always asking me how I made this or that. I’ve been wanting to make some tutorials for at least a year now but just haven’t had the time or made it a priority. Today my kids are under the weather and crabby and I’m battling the worst sinus pressure I’ve ever had so of course I thought today was the perfect day to do my first tutorial! Actually my son returns to preschool next week and I really needed to get these snack bags done because I’m out of disposable baggies and I’m just plain tired of throwing them away. So here we go!

Supplies:

2 pieces of PUL fabric cut to 8 1/2 x 7 for the outside of the bag

2 pieces of cotton fabric cut to 8 1/2 by 6 1/2 for the inside of the bag

1 7″ zipper

Ballpoint Needle No 9

Polyester Thread

Desired Applique (Optional)

Wax Paper (Now you think I’m crazy but hang with me)

I found these super cute PUL fabrics by Babyville Boutique at Joann’s and picked up some of their coordinating appliques to decorate the bags. In my mind I was thinking that I would make each child three and they would know their bag based on the character applique. Like Noah got the dinosaurs and the blue robot and Lucas got two monsters and the red robot. Now do I really think that’s going to work out? Fat chance. But, it was a nice thought.

Now I’ve read some articles saying that the PUL fabric can leach chemicals onto things when wet so chances are I’m not going to put wet things into these snack bags but I wanted to add a cotton liner just so the food doesn’t rest directly on the PUL. I still like the thought of the waterproofness of the bag, especially if I put M&M’s or something in it that could melt. You can totally make this with all cotton if that is your desire and leave out the PUL fabric all together.

The first thing that you need to do is sew on your applique piece. You cannot iron them on to PUL fabric, they must be sewn. So I used a zigzag stitch around the edge of the dinosaur to get him on there. I pretty much ran the sewing machine by hand for this because I wanted to be precise. That’s completely your call. (A side note I forgot to mention earlier, do not iron your PUL. Embrace the wrinkles least it melt.)

Next, you need to jump right in and get that zipper on. You’ll lay your zipper face down on top of your PUL fabric which will be right side up. Normally I would have pinned the zipper to the fabric but once you put holes in PUL they are there permanently so I didn’t want to add any extra holes by pinning it.

I was having a bit of trouble with the PUL sticking to the feet of my machine so I tore some wax paper to put underneath the PUL. It worked like magic. That PUL slipped right through my machine like butter. And when you’re done you just tear it off. Perfect solution!

Now, I was trying to be a cool kid and not use my zipper foot because that would obviously just take too much time. Don’t try to be cool like me, use your zipper foot. You are going to sew down to your zipper pull, stop with the needle down, push the zipper pull back to where you have already sewn, and then continue sewing to the end of the fabric.

Next, you’ll just lay your piece of cotton lining on top of your zippered piece and sew another pass right along the same line.

You’ll notice that I got a little off because of my cool kid antics and rebellious use of my regular presser foot but I decided to just leave it since it wouldn’t show.

Flip the cotton lining over to the other side.

Next you’re going to line the other piece of PUL fabric up with the top of the zipper. You want the right sides of both pieces of PUL together.

Then you’re going to put the other piece of lining on top. So you’ll have a sandwich of unsewn PUL, sewn PUL/zipper/cotton lining, and cotton lining.

Again, I’m using wax paper under the PUL to keep it from sticking. Here’s a look at what your sandwich will look like.

And when you’re done with that pass, just tear off the wax paper.

Front.

Back.

Now you’ll notice that the PUL doesn’t lay nice and flat against the zipper. It wants to puff up so I’m going to run a stitch along both sides very close to the edge of the fabric. This can safely be done with your regular presser foot.

Front.

Back.

Next we’re going to unzip the zipper about 3/4 of the way. If you don’t do this step you’ll have a very difficult time turning the pouch right side out. Be warned. Skip this step at your own peril.

Flip outsides together and insides together.

Now we’re going to sew all around the pouch in one giant rectangle leaving just about a three inch section in the lining unsewn. When I got to ends of the zipper, I stitched over them, backstitched over them, and then stitched over them again continuing around the rectangle. I also put wax paper under the PUL side. You’ll end up with this.

Cut your corners close to your stitching so you can turn your corners out nicely.

Flip back right side out through the hole left in the lining.

I feel like I would be doing you and injustice if I didn’t recommend using the eraser end of a pencil to push your corners out nicely.

Once it’s all turned right side out you should have this.

Now we need to take care of that hole. You could whip stitch this by hand if you wanted but, since our machines are out and ready to go, why not just stitch really closely to the edge. Looks good to me!

Turn the lining into the pouch and you’re all done! That was so easy you want to do fifteen more now, right?!

Seriously though, I really hope that someone finds this useful. I was going to buy these rather than make them but the only ones I could find at Target were just plain awful. These are SO much cuter. Plus, I think Noah now has the coolest snack bag in his whole school!