Oilcloth Lunch Bag Tutorial

A lot of hope rests in this little lunch bag:

    healthier lunches
    savings of dollars
    thinner thighs
    never having to eat the cafeteria’s sloppy joe again
    etc.

The first time I saw oilcloth, it was in a kids catalog, maybe Magic Cabin or something. A large piece of it had been edged and they were using it as an under-highchair splat mat. I thought it was pretty awesome, but we were beyond the age where we needed a splat mat. It’s taken me this long to realize that you can make things other than splat mats out of oilcloth.
Make Your Sack Lunch, a lunch bag tutorial
You will need:

    1/4 yard (not fat) oilcloth. I got mine at Sew Mama Sew. Modern oilcloth is pretty much like vinyl and not oiled cloth
    1/4 yard thin batting
    1/4 yard other plastic fabric for lining. I used a shower curtain because I had it left over from making sit-upons.
    3.5 in piece of velcro

EDIT – I thought I’d respond to a couple questions I got from people:
The oilcloth can be a bit of a challenge to sew, so you will probably be wrestling the material in your machine a bit more than you would with quilters’ cotton. You can line the bag with something other than vinyl. The vinyl was what I had handy, and it is easily wipeable, so that’s what I opted for. This pattern would also work for sturdy, non-plastic materials, like canvas. Hope you’re enjoying this and making some awesome lunch bags!

Cut one 7in x 31in rectangle from the two plastic fabrics.
Cut two 4.5in x 13in rectangles of the two plastics.
Cut the batting the same as the plastics, except make it 1/4in smaller on all sides

For each piece, sandwich the batting between the oilcloth and the vinyl.

Sew the fuzzy side of the velcro to the long piece of oilcloth so that the top of the velcro is 3/5in from the top edge.

With wrong sides facing line up the long edge of one of the smaller side pieces with the edge of the long main panel. Sew along this edge with a 1/4in seam.

When you get 1/4in from the corner, stop and backtack. Turn the long piece at a right angle, folding it along the edge of the short side of the edge piece. Stitch and repeat with the other corner.
Repeat with the other side panel

If the top edges are uneven, trim them. Then sew the prickly side of the velcro right at the top of the wide side of the lunch bag that does not already have velcro.
Stitch around the top edge