Back to school time has been kicking my butt. I haven't found any time to sew until I had to do this. My daughter got this bento box last weekend. It's square and wouldn't fit in her lunchbox laying flat so I decided to make her one. It's been an experience I don't want to repeat on my home machine.
Its 8 inches high, 7.5 inches wide and 7.5 inches deep but it kind of puffs out & looks much bigger.
Here it is open with plenty of room inside:
And here's a front shot:
She drew the phonebox on the front pocket.
The outside is actually an unfinished tote bag that was in the WIP pile for her. It's black cotton that I had interfaced and sewn into a bag shape. I just took a bigger seam across the points to make it square instead of rectangular. I bought a round and rectangular piece of plastic canvas, trimmed, then layered them to make the bottom stiff. The round one felt sturdier but I wanted nice straight sides. I hand-stitched them together then I stitched them in place.
I used some silver ironing board fabric & layered it with 2 pieces of batting to make the inside. This is where the hard part came in, I then decided to topstitch the seam allowances open so it would fit smoothly in the outer layer. Even with two sides open, there wasn't much space to fit all those thick layers under the presser foot. Next time I would stitch the seams to the right side and cover them with a binding, it would be much easier on a home machine. The top of the outer layer is then folded over twice to cover the inner layer 1 inch.
The original tote bag was much taller and I had to trim it 2 inches for this so I used the trimmings for the handles since they were already interfaced. They are the best handles I've ever made! I folded each side into the middle and secured it with a thin strip of interfacing and did the same to some of the red fabric cut 1.5 inches wide. I then top-stitched the red fabric onto the black and I made great sturdy handles!
The drawstring top on the bag was inspired by this lunchbox on Oh, Fransson! I didn't read her tutorial but I checked out the pictures on her Flicker group and loved how it all bunched together on the inside to close it. It's a simple drawstring band tucked under the self binding then the handles were layered on top of the band and also under the binding. I top-stitched it all together a 1/4 inch from the top and bottom then flipped the handles up and top-stitched them in place to stand up.
This took me three days! I think next time I'll buy one. The only thing is that this reflects her more than any we saw in the store this year. I just hope it holds up. I'm worn out now but I kind of want to make my own now.
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Here it is open with plenty of room inside:
And here's a front shot:
She drew the phonebox on the front pocket.
The outside is actually an unfinished tote bag that was in the WIP pile for her. It's black cotton that I had interfaced and sewn into a bag shape. I just took a bigger seam across the points to make it square instead of rectangular. I bought a round and rectangular piece of plastic canvas, trimmed, then layered them to make the bottom stiff. The round one felt sturdier but I wanted nice straight sides. I hand-stitched them together then I stitched them in place.
I used some silver ironing board fabric & layered it with 2 pieces of batting to make the inside. This is where the hard part came in, I then decided to topstitch the seam allowances open so it would fit smoothly in the outer layer. Even with two sides open, there wasn't much space to fit all those thick layers under the presser foot. Next time I would stitch the seams to the right side and cover them with a binding, it would be much easier on a home machine. The top of the outer layer is then folded over twice to cover the inner layer 1 inch.
The original tote bag was much taller and I had to trim it 2 inches for this so I used the trimmings for the handles since they were already interfaced. They are the best handles I've ever made! I folded each side into the middle and secured it with a thin strip of interfacing and did the same to some of the red fabric cut 1.5 inches wide. I then top-stitched the red fabric onto the black and I made great sturdy handles!
The drawstring top on the bag was inspired by this lunchbox on Oh, Fransson! I didn't read her tutorial but I checked out the pictures on her Flicker group and loved how it all bunched together on the inside to close it. It's a simple drawstring band tucked under the self binding then the handles were layered on top of the band and also under the binding. I top-stitched it all together a 1/4 inch from the top and bottom then flipped the handles up and top-stitched them in place to stand up.
This took me three days! I think next time I'll buy one. The only thing is that this reflects her more than any we saw in the store this year. I just hope it holds up. I'm worn out now but I kind of want to make my own now.
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