Make your own Reusable Snack Packs in 5 steps and 15 minutes

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.