I’m taking a big leap of faith here by calling this “The Best Lunch Bag Pattern,” considering I haven’t actually made other lunch bags from other patterns. However, I can guarantee you that I searched high and low for a good, free lunch bag pattern, and this is IT.

I made these lunch bags for my awesome Sewing Summit swap friends (Sewing Summit post to come!). I knew I wanted to make something with laminated fabric, and someone suggested lunch bags, which seemed like a great idea. I don’t want to seem cheap, but I really didn’t want to buy a pattern for this one. In essence, all it is is a tote bag, and I’m saving my pattern budget for more complicated sewing projects.

Luckily, The Long Thread provides an excellent, detailed tutorial for how to make these lunch bags — and I will venture a guess and say it is the BEST free lunch bag pattern on the web today.

A few notes on the pattern, to ease your way: I recommend using fusible fleece instead of batting. Also, I replaced the snap with velcro, which is a far simpler insertion for a bag, and I think it’s sturdier (I’m tired of magnetic snaps ripping out of my bags!). Finally, I top-stitched around the top of the bag. I think it adds some needed structure to the pouch.

This is a great pattern for beginners, and I recommend it for swaps. Using just two fabrics, and pulling them from a palette that someone else picked for me, was a great way to think outside the box, outside my stash and my color comfort zone.

~ Kristina

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