Reusable Sandwich Wrap

Last summer, I won this awesome book called Lunchbags! from a Sew, Mama Sew! giveaway. I loaned it to a friend, and now that it's in my hands again, it's time to make some stuff!

The first project I chose was the Reusable Sandwich Wrap. I'm not much on Ziploc bags. They leak into my purse sometimes, and I feel incredibly guilty and wasteful when I use them. Enter this environmentally-friendly wrap.

Choosing a fabric for this was not easy. I only had one oilcloth print for the inside (good old polka dot!), but I had a billion fabrics to choose from for the outside. I eventually chose a purple and white polyester gingham. Gingham is a favorite print of mine and because it's polyester, I don't see myself making any clothing out of it. I'm way too sweaty for that. (And if you read this and said, "Polyester and oilcloth? That's disastrous!" then you are correct.)

I made this with:
One square of oilcloth and one square of polyester gingham, with 4" snipped off the corners
One button
Interfacing
One hair elastic

The purple gingham actually came from the fabric stash my great aunt gave me, so it should be no surprise that it smelled of mothballs. As soon as I ironed the interfacing onto the polyester, my entire apartment started smelling like mothballs. Two days later, my apartment still smelled like mothballs. As I write this, mothballs hang in the air.

The first thing I did was sew a small rectangle of interfacing on the back of the gingham where the button was going. Then I sewed the button.

Pinning the two evil fabrics together:

One thing that hung me up for a bit was the placement of the elastic. If you make one of these, tuck the elastic between the fabrics after you baste it, that way the elastic will be hanging right out of the seam.

I sewed around the wrap, leaving a 4" opening. Then I turned it inside-out.

Top stitching was by far the biggest pain. I broke a needle, then my bobbin tension was off. There was much swearing and quitting and "I'm never working on this again"s.

The guinea sandwich: peanut butter with cream cheese and Granny Smith apples. Yummers.

A few notes about working with oilcloth:
Don't iron the oilcloth. It will melt and ruin your iron -- possibly even ruin your life.

Don't fold the oilcloth to store it; roll it up instead. Otherwise, you'll get really big creases like mine. They don't want to go away very easily.

What I liked about this project:
I used materials that I already had at home. No spending! (Hey, even the book was free from a giveaway!)

What I didn't like about this project:
Sewing slippery oilcloth to anything is a pain. This project was no exception. I punished myself further by combining oilcloth with polyester. D'oh.

What I listened to while I made this project: Avett Brothers (handsome AND talented)