Insulated Picnic Bag

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Yesterday I made this bag to use for picnics and days out.

I used my tutorial for the Zipped Cylinder Toiletry Bag,

 and resized it to make a larger version!

For the outer fabric, I used some sturdy 

Cotton Canvas Fabric.

For the inside, I used some pieces of old inflatable pool toys - as this was waterproof and could be wiped easily if any food or drinks spill inside!

I also added a layer of insulation between the outer and inner fabric using an old car windscreen shade, and some other thin foam packaging pieces I had in my stash. 

This layer of insulation should help keep our drinks and food cool!  I've used old car windscreen shades for this before with my insulated lunch bags which our girls have been using for a few years now!

The car windscreen fabric - or packaging foam also provides stability and shape for the bag.

I tried my bag out filling it up with drinks in the main section..

And bags of chips in the drawstring section in the top of the bag - a great part for keeping lighter packs of chips or crackers separate from the bottles of drinks.

If you're interested in the measurements for this bag, I used:

Circular ends (2 of inner and outer fabric) - 26cm (10.25") diameter

Bottom bag part 

(1 Outer fabric, 1 Inner Fabric, 1 Insulation Fabric) 

- 82 x 30 cm (32.25 x 11.75")

Top bag part (1 Outer fabric, 1 Inner Fabric, 1 Insulation Fabric)

- 82 x 12 cm (32.25 x 4.75")

Drawstring section - 82 x 20 cm (32.25 x 8")

Zip measured to 70 cm  (27.5")

Strap - 100 x 10 cm (39.5 x 4")

I attached the strap to either side of the bottom bag part just before 

attaching that part to the zip. I just eye-balled where to put the 

strap.

Then I just followed my tutorial to make the bag, stitching the 

insulation layer to the outer bag part.

I'm really happy with how the bag turned out.

I even found a zip in my stash that was nice and strong and had 

two zip pulls on it!

And of course my daughters have already tried to claim it for 

themselves...

But this one I'm keeping for use as a family!

What do you think?

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