Upcycled Lunch Bag

I love being able to create something from stuff I just have around my house ... and after 20+ years of living in the same place, I'm (almost) embarrassed to admit that we have a LOT of stuff.

Most people know that we have a backyard flock of suburban chickens.  They are pretty amazing for giving us eggs and helping keep the backyard tick-free, but since we give them layer pellets and scratch, we end up with a lot of spare feed sacks.  

Back in my Granny's day, those feed sacks were made of cloth and were repurposed into things like undergarments for my dad and his siblings.  These days, the feed sacks are made from a (recyclable) plastic material.  Sure, it's recyclable, but as many of us are painfully aware, much of the "recyclable" plastic isn't being recycled.  It's one of the reasons we have looked for alternatives to things like bottled drinks.  Sure, we can return the bottles - out of sight, out of mind.  Right?  But the fact is that recycling is the last of the Three R's, because it's the least effective way to deal with our excess of "stuff."  Better is to reuse and/or repurpose.

So, I'm always looking for ways to reuse those feed sacks.  We've used them to winterize the chicken coop and rabbit hutches.  I've used them to grow potatoes.  

And today, I found a new repurpose - a lunch bag.

Deus Ex Machina takes his lunch to work every day.  It's usually leftovers - because I almost always cook too much.  He's had a variety of lunch bags over the years.  The one we purchased for him the most recently (a couple of years ago, now) is starting to show its age in some not really great ways, and so I figured it was time to get him something new.  

Making it rather than buying it is one of my favorite things, and so I decided I would try my hand at making him one out of an empty feed sack.

The lunch bag he has been using has never been quite the correct size.  We reuse those rectangular, plastic take-out containers, and unfortunately, the lunch bag wasn't big enough to allow the take-out container to sit flat on the bottom of the bag.  I remedied that problem with his new bag.  It's the exact size to allow the take-out container to sit flat.  

And it's tall enough that he could take multiple containers (one for salad and one for an entree, maybe) stacked neatly inside the bag.

It was a super fun project, and I'm thinking I will probably make a few more, because why not?  

What I did:

1.  The first step was, of course, to clean the bag, which was easily accomplished by wiping it down with a damp cloth to get the dust from the feed off of it. 

2.  Using the take-out container, I measured the sides of the bag.  As it turns out, the bottom strip on the feedsack was exactly the correct size, and so I just cut out the blue colored strip for the sides and bottom of the lunch bag. 

3.  For the front of the lunch sack, the picture of the chicken was the perfect size.  With the feed bag still, mostly, intact, I cut two pieces (front and back) using the chicken picture as my guide.  

4.  With right-sides together, I pinned everything together and sewed a seam inside the bag, attaching the back and front to the side pieces.  

5.  I folded over the top edge and stitched a hem around the top.

6.  Then, I put a little stitch in the top corner of each seam so that the bag would sit square.

7.  Using one of Deus Ex Machina's old, worn-out, mesh belts, I made a couple of handles, and stitched them on.

Et viola!  A "new" lunch bag for Deus Ex Machina.

At worst, it's a fun conversation piece.  I mean, how many people have a picture of a chicken on their lunch bag?