So Sew Easy’s Boxy Bag

My version of So Sew Easy’s Boxy Bag

This is my new lunch bag. I have followed Deby Cole’s So Sew Easy’s blog and site for a while now. She has some great free patterns on Craftsy. It’s unbelievable the amount of patterns that she makes available for all different levels of sewing. I’m also a member of the FB group So Sew Easy sewing chat which I love. The sewers in this group are the most helpful and nicest people!

Anyhow, I downloaded this free pattern and realized I needed it bigger. I made some adjustments, added 2 inches to each end all around. Was not sure how it was going to work out since I did not make a practice bag, I just went ahead and did it. I used a regular canvas for both the top and the bottom. I really like the way the bottom piece looks, not so crazy about the top. Used a stiff fusible and didn’t consider how much it would wrinkle as you can clearly see. I can live with it for now. I also didn’t consider how tall it would be. Perfect for water bottles, and yes, that is my lunch in there.

I eat in most day of the week. I’m following a Keto diet and have lost about 10 lbs, it’s worked very well for me.

For the inside of the bag, I used Insul-Bright which I bought at Jo-Ann’s. I think the price was $6.99/yd and I paid less than that with a 20% off coupon. I bought the supplies earlier this year, it’s taken me a while to actually do it. I also added diaper PUL, it’s used for making diapers since it’s coated with waterproof polyurethane on the back. This stuff is the bomb but you can’t make many mistakes since it’s plasticky. One thing I disliked was the way to sew in the lining. I found it difficult to sew the lining at the zipper tape due to the PUL. I did it but didn’t feel like it was sturdy enough. I ran a second row of topstitching on the outside of the bag along the zip, I used orange thread on the top and white in the bobbin.

 

Not the best stitching in the world but I learned a lot. I learned that I like the straps to be against the body and not flap down and loose. So, the bag has already been constructed when I realized this so I had to do a second row of stitching, the inside lines, to hold the straps in place. And, this caused the terrible wrinkling. Attempted to iron out the best I could, I even used my hams but not able to get all the wrinkles out.