Lunchbags, Placemats, Kleenex Pouches

I was able to go to Camileee's for the weekend and have a sewing fest. It was so much fun. We made some cute stuff. The first project we did was lunchboxes for Madison and Callie. We got the pattern from here. We did make a few changes, like not using a pillowcase like the pattern says to use, but regular fabric and not using the iron on vinyl. We've heard that stuff doesn't wash up well. We wanted these to be machine washable. This was our first time with appliques, and we know how to do it better next time. We will use interfacing on the back so it doesn't pucker.

To square off the corners, we put the two bottoms of the bags together and sewed across the squared part and did them together, instead of squaring separately and then hand sewing the two together. It was easier this way.

This flower is from a tutorial we found here. We did add some purple netting stuff in between each layer. And we just used a hair alligator clip thing on the back to clip it to the handle, so it can be removed to wash.

Next time we aren't going to use twill tape on the casing for the strings. It was a mess to work with. It would be just as good and easier to just hem it under with a rolled em.

We used fusible fleece on the back side of the lining. It was fun. I defintely want to use this stuff again on something. And instead of hand sewing the lining to the outside of the bag, we topstitched with our machines.

This pattern came with a placemat tutorial. How cute! They won't have to put their lunches on the yucky cafeteria tables.

And what little girl doesn't need her own matching Kleenex pouch for her backpack? Here's the tutorial for that.