How to Sew a Lunch Tote

Take your lunch tote to school or work.

Making a lunch tote is a cost-effective way to carry your lunch every day. Save the Earth and keep money in your pocket by foregoing the buying and discarding of traditional paper lunch bags. Create your lunch tote out of canvas to give your bag a sturdy and long-lasting surface. Employing a cross-stitch pattern to each edge of the tote provides double strength support to ensure that you have a reusable lunch bag for a long time to come.

Things You'll Need

• 10-inch by 26 1/2-inch canvas strip
• 2 5 1/2-inch by 10-inch canvas panels
• Needle
• Thread
• 1-inch by 12-inch canvas strap

Instructions

1. Lay a 10-inch by 26 1/2-inch canvas strip out flat on a work surface. Adjust the strip so that one of the long edges is facing you.

2. Overlap one of the 10-inch edges of a 5 1/2-inch by 10-inch canvas panel by half an inch over top the 26-inch strip. Adjust the panel so that the left side is flush with the edge of the 26-inch strip. Sew the 10-inch edge of the panel into the strip using a cross-stitch pattern.

3. Overlap and sew the next two edges on the panel to the strip using the cross-stitch pattern. The 26-inch strip is now a "U" shape and in perpendicular position around the edges of the panel.

4. Sew a second 5 1/2-inch by 10-inch panel into the opposite edge of the "U" shaped strip using a cross-stitch pattern. The body of the tote is now complete. Flip the tote inside out.

5. Sew the short ends of a 1-inch by 12-inch canvas strap into the top left and right narrow sides of the tote using a cross-stitch pattern. Overlap each strap end onto the tote by one inch. The strap now measures 10 inches long. The strap acts as a handle.

References

• The Long Thread; A Simple Lunch Bag Pattern; Ellen Luckett Baker
• New England Classic Stitch; Types of Stitches; 2010