I'm gradually working on making our lives and our household more sustainable, environment and budget friendly.
This past week I whipped up a few small reusable snack packs. I find that I'm often wrapping home made cookies in foil and putting savoury scrolls and other home baking in paper bags for lunches. So these small snack packs should reduce our need for foil and paper bags!
I used scraps of fabric I had to make these packs. A laminate fabric for the outer fabric and rip-stop nylon for the insides. I chose these as they will easily wipe clean, and the waterproof laminate will be great in the kids lunch boxes as the outside of things often seem to be wet or covered in food by the end of the day - so again, easy to wipe and the cookies inside will be protected against any moisture.
You could use any fabrics to make these packs. I know some people are concerned about fabrics being food safe - but for me, clean, washed fabric has to be better than aluminium foil, cling wrap, or plastic boxes! It's a personal choice and making your own lets you customise to suit your own needs.
So how can you make your very own reusable snack packs in just 5 steps and 15 minutes?
You will need inner and outer fabrics and sew in velcro.
(alternate fastenings would also work if you choose - press studs or buttons for example)
Here's how:
Step 1
Cut your fabrics, 1 inner and 1 outer piece the same size.
I cut mine 30 x 12 cm (11.75 x 4.75").
Cut 10 cm (4") of velcro
Step 2
Place your fabrics right sides together and stitch around three edges, then turn right sides out. Use a chopstick to push the corners right out.
Step 3
Fold the open edges in on themselves to hide the raw edges, then top stitch around all 4 edges of your fabric.
Step 4
Fold your fabric up as you want it to be when it's a finished pocket, with a flap open at the top.
Place your two velcro pieces - one on the inside of the flap and one on the front piece of the pocket. Pin then stitch in place. Stitch around each velcro piece twice for extra strength.
Step 5
Finally, with your pocket folded, top stitch the two sides together. Run your stitches backwards and forwards over the edges a couple of times for extra strength.
And there you have your very own reusable snack pack!
I made a few smaller ones.
And a couple of larger pockets too.
(For these I cut fabric measuring 36 x 22 cm (14.25 x 8.75"))
These, together with the fabric lunch wraps I made a few years ago (get that tutorial here),
help us be a little more eco-friendly with our packed lunches.
For the free downloadable PDF version of this tutorial, click here.
And for more tutorials of things to make in 5 steps and 15 minutes, go here.
After a month away from craftng, sewing and my crochet learning, things have finally calmed down enough here for me to try a little more crochet again!
I started back with something small and simple - a bookmark using a pattern I'd pinned from here.
I learned why my crochet gets smaller and smaller as I work rows - you have to make an extra chain before you start each row!
Something I've probably read or been told before but it only just clicked this time!
I told my younger daughter this when she came home and she said," yeah, my crochet usually ends up like a Christmas tree! - smaller and smaller each row" - so now we know!
I also liked the simple tassles added to the end of the bookmark.
I'm looking forward to getting back to some weekly crochet learning. I've pinned so many amazing projects, but will have to try lots more simple ones first!
Today we head off on a family holiday to Japan, so I thought this would be a good time to showcase the 'Japanese' crafting I've done over the years - from Japanese style bags, to fabric and paper origami and some Japanese fabric too! Hope you like them!
I make this super simple and very tasty chocolate pots whenever I have left over cream. All you need with the cream is chocolate, honey and orange juice. They make the perfect little snack or dessert.
Here's how to make them.
You will need
400 g plain chocolate
4 tblsp clear honey
3 tblsp fresh orange juice
500 ml whipping cream
Break the chocolate up into a heatproof bowl and pour over the honey and orange juice. Microwave in short bursts of about 20 seconds, stirring well in between to completely melt the chocolate and combine the mixture.
Let the chocolate mixture cool slightly while you whip the cream.
Carefully fold the chocolate mixture into the cream.
Then spoon into pots or bowls and refrigerate until you're ready for a yummy sweet snack!
Plastic Bags are unnecessary and are destroying our environment.
We've all seen images like this. This particular photo was taken on a family holiday travelling through Asia in 2015, at a small village in Cambodia. So much waste littering the ground - and so much of that waste is plastic, and plastic bags.
Every day I hear or see another story, on Facebook or in the news about waste and environmental pollution. The problems seem so big and insurmountable for the average person. What can just one person do to alleviate such immense problems like
This Mokumentary created to raise awareness of the plastic bag problem in California - could have been made anywhere.
My Decision to make a difference
Plastic bags - particularly single use plastic bags are everywhere. We all use them, but this is one thing that we can all do something about. And this is what I chose to try and make a difference with.
I sew, I make lots of bags in particular and I mainly sew with upcycled and recycled materials. So this was definitely the problem for me to try and solve!
My personal experience of the problem
Reusable Shopping Bags have been around for years. I bought myself a set and started using those for my weekly grocery shopping several years ago. They were a great idea and I was very happy with them. BUT I often forgot them and left them in the car.
They also weren't easy to clean. If any food spilled on them, the bags weren't easily washable, so began to smell after a while. Some shop assistants were very aware of customers bags smelling and would, and still do, put meat and other things that may potentially leak - into plastic bags before putting them in the reusable bags. Which to me defeats the whole purpose of the reusable bag in the first place.
Not only this, but some of these reusable bags I bought from the supermarket were biodegradable. One day I went to use my bags and some of them literally fell to pieces.
So - I decided to use my creative problem solving skills and come up with a solution.
My own solution to the plastic bag problem
First of all, back in 2010, I made myself a set of reusable shopping bags from an old sheet - and a small drawstring backpack to keep them in.
These were much more compact than the store bought reusable bags, and could be easily washed in the washing machine if things spilled on them by accident.
I used these bags for years - reducing the need for hundreds of plastic bags over that time.
However, there were still times when I forgot and left those bags in the car when I went to do my weekly grocery shopping and ended up with a few extra plastic bags.
So, over the next few years I played around with designs and finally came up with my own solution to getting rid of the need for any plastic bags when shopping.
I finally came up with a design and made my own
Eco-Friendly Shopping Bags Handbag.
This is a handbag that has a hidden compartment in the base where a bag full of reusable cloth shopping bags are stored. This means that as long as you have your handbag with you when you go shopping, you will also have your reusable bags. No more leaving them in the car!
I made a few bags over the course of designing and perfecting this bag. I also added some mesh produce bags in the side pockets for buying fruits and vegetables, and an extra handibag from a pillowcase inside for those times when I buy a few extra things.
An all round eco-friendly solution
All the while I was making this bag, I had the environment in mind and wanting to do my part to reduce waste. So these bags are made as much as possible from recycled and upcycled materials.
I like to work on the basis of
Use What You've Got
So, the main handbag is made from a pair of jeans - plus some co-ordinating fabric - from my stash or charity shops. The zips and bag accessories were reclaimed or again bought from charity shops.
The main reusable shopping bags were made from old sheets and pillowcases and the produce bags from old net curtains.
Testing
Once I had completed my bag design and pattern, I had a fabulous team of ladies to test the pattern and instructions out for me. They made some gorgeous bags and gave me some very positive and constructive feedback to enable me to polish and finish off my pattern, which had now grown into a small e-book.
Here are the bags they made:
Making a difference
I use my bags each and every week and never forget my shopping bags now. I always get lovely complements on all of my eco-friendly shopping bags and feel proud that I am taking some action and making a small difference to the problem of single use plastic bags.
Not only am I making a difference in having made and now using my own set of these bags, but through the sale of my e-book of patterns and tutorials I hope I am inspiring others to make their own eco-friendly, reusable shopping bags thereby further reducing the need for and use of single use plastic bags in other parts of the world where my e-book has sold to! The e-book contains instructions and plenty of photos to help make the handbag itself and all the reusable shopping bags that fit inside it too.
I wanted to make sure this e-book was affordable and so attractive to as many people as possible to try and spread the impact it makes.
I settled on the cost of a cup of coffee as the sales price for the book.
Just AU$5.00
So if you sew (and I tried to make all the tutorials as clear and detailed as possible with LOTS of photos) so even a confident beginner sewer can give these a try. Or perhaps you know someone who sews. Then why not, have a virtual 'cuppa' with meand
Help to make a small difference into a bigger and bigger difference by spreading the word.
I believe that one small action by a single person can grow and make a big difference.
What skills do you have that you could put to use Creatively Solving a Problem to make a difference. Even if the difference is only small - it's a beginning that can grow into something HUGE.
I'd like to leave you with one of my favourite quotes and one that inspired me to create these bags and sell this e-book.
What will it inspire you to do?
I would love if you shared this post with your friends and on social media - Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest - anywhere. Help me make the small difference I'm making into a bigger and bigger one.
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