Project #32 - Reusable Sandwich Bags

I have got to admit that I am hesitant about this project. In theory it should work fine, but I am not sure how it will withstand daily wear and tear or how well it will seal the sandwich in to stop it from drying out. I guess there is only one way to find out - let's try it!

I stumbled across a tutorial on the French Sleep Deprivation Study Blog whereby fabric scraps and old chip packets are recycled into sandwich bags, essentially saving the environment not only by eliminating the need for gladwrap but also by reusing items so that they don't end up as landfill. Sweet!

Here are the materials I used for the sandwich bag who, from this point forward, will be known as Gerald:

- A grain waves bag (mylar)
- A piece of vlisofix
- A piece of fabric from my fabric stash
- Some elastic I found laying around in the bottom of my sewing box
- A button from my button collection

The tutorial was nice and easy to follow, however in hindsight I would have:

• Make Made Gerald approximatley 0.5cms wider, as it was a little bit hard to squash the sandwich in him (however, you wouldn't want it too loose either or your fillings might fall out!)
• Attached the elastic when sewing the outside together as the instructions say to sew the elastic on last, which results in the outer stitching being a little bit messy
• Coordinated my fabric, thread, elastic and button choices a little better. Let's face it, Gerald is pretty damn ugly!

Here is a picture of Gerald just after he'd been made:


And here he is again, this time with a sandwich in him!


The plan from here is to see how the sandwich is at lunch time tomorrow to ascertain whether the mylar is enough to stop the sandwich from drying out. Then we will give him a wash and see how he does with that (and what the drying time is like) and then, provided everything looks ok, my friend Kate is going to give him a good trial run with her sandwiches next week.

Once we know how Gerald performs under pressure, we'll make him some friends!