Mushroom Lunch Bag Tutorial

Yes.  It is true.  I am Nacho. nachOOOOOOOOO!   Another lunch bag tutorial.  I didn’t want to wait on this because it’s time for school to start very soon!  Remember how I bought this fabric and could only find and afford one fat quarter?  Well, this was the idea that popped into my head.  And surprisingly, my son D claimed it as his since big brother got the first one.  I thought it was a tad on the girly side, but he loves it because of the cute little critters on it.

You can make the entire thing waterproof, or just the inside, like I did.  Laminated fabric is so cute, but that and oilcloth are too pricey for me right now, though someday I’d love to buy some.  
These lunch bags really are so easy to make.  And one reader mentioned adding Insul-brite to make it insulated as well.  Great idea!

You could even forgo the flap and make another mushroom top for the other side, joining the middle with velcro to close the bag.

I do have one more idea with a mushroom lunch bag that I might give a whirl one of these days.  My list of projects is pretty long though, so it just might not happen.

The design is the same as my other lunch sack, but to add the flap changed things up a little so I did another tutorial.  Also, I didn’t figure anyone would want to flip back and forth between tutorials.  So here we go!

What You Will Need:
-2 pieces of duck cloth or other thick fabric cut out using the pattern here, and 1 piece of heavy duty stabilizer cut using same pattern
-circles of various sizes
-1” velcro
-5” strip belting
-1 piece each measuring 5” x 4.5” of outer fabric, heavy duty stabilizer,  and PUL or other waterproof fabric (if you want the inside wipe-able)  ***this is for the piece of fabric the mushroom top is sewn on.  Alternatively, you could cut one of your outer and inner fabrics with this flap bit added on so you don’t have to sew it on separately, like on this bag.  Your choice!
-out of the outer fabric, cut two 11.5” x 10” (the 10” being the bottom and top of bag, the 11.5” being the sides).  ***My outer fabric is similar to duck cloth, so it’s nice and thick.***
-out of inner fabric (I used PUL), cut two 11.5” x 10”
-out of heavy duty stabilizer, cut two 11.5” x 10”

First, cut your heavy duty stabilizer about 1/4” smaller just on the mushroom top.
Arrange your circles, pin, and zig-zag stitch around them all, just on one of the two mushroom tops..

Two words for you.  Corn starch.  OR baby powder.  Great stuff for sewing on vinyls and PUL fabric that sticks when you sew.  Just dab a little on your finger and rub over the difficult fabric and whala!  Easy to sew on.

For the 4.5” x 5” pieces, layer them as follows, with the right sides of the PUL and outer fabric together, and the stabilizer behind the outer fabric.  Sew, leaving one of the 5” sides open.  Clip corners, turn, and topstitch.  (You could insert your belting here to sew with all the layers—you’d want to sew it 1/2” from the side that will be staying open and unfinished.)
 
Mark 1/2” from the unfinished side and use that as your guide to where you’ll put the belting for your handle.  Zig-zag stitch the belting onto flap.

Baste the stabilizer onto the wrong side of the outer fabric.
  
Mark 2.25” in from both sides and the bottom.  Sew along those lines, making sure to backstitch where the lines cross each other.

Center the small flap on the front of one of the outer pieces and sew along the top edge, right sides together.

***This is important !!!  Sew on your velcro now!  I don’t have it pictured because I forgot to, and it wasn’t easy once I did remember.  So do it now:).***
Place the outer pieces of fabric right sides together.  Pin and sew along both sides and the bottom.

Take one of the bottom corners, and squeeze so you create a triangle following the sewn lines, as pictured.  Sew along the line that is already marked, and cut off the excess.  Repeat with the other bottom corner. 
Repeat from the steps where you mark the lines 2.25”, up to the step pictured above with the PUL or other inner fabric.

Insert the inner bag into the outer bag, right sides together, and pin.  Stitch all the way around, leaving a gap for turning.  I made sure to catch the flap and not have that end up where the opening was left.  Set aside.

Take the outer mushroom piece without the circles sewn on.  Baste the stabilizer onto that piece.
Pin it to the flap like this. 
And sew it around the rectangle as pictured below.
This is how the other side will look.

Now pin the mushroom top with the circles on top of the one you just sewed on above.  Zig-zag around the edges (or serge if you have one).

You will have to do a little maneuvering to get the bag out of the way and not sew on it.  For example, see how the bag is pushed towards me here?

In order for me to now sew it, I had to tuck it under at a latter part while sewing.

Clip extra threads and that’s it!