Why do I do things which infuriate me?

I've long wanted to make my own reusable sandwich wraps. It just seems silly to throw out a perfectly good plastic bag when I'm too lazy to wash the poor thing. Buying them on Etsy is pretty expensive ($10 per) and it looks like a fairly straightforward project with my favorite sort of straight lines.

Then, one day, I found this sandwich bag pattern: Baggie o' dreams.

What a great idea! It works just like those old baggies with the top that gets a flap folded in and then *whoosh!* you flip a pocket over the top and it's a delightful little leaky package. The lines were so clean and the fabric looked so nice that I had to give it a try.

I used the fabric I had on hand and a freezer bag from the drawer and went to town.

Here are my results:

Do yourself a favor and don't click on those photos. They're garbage because it's 1am here and I'm too tired to rig lights.

Laying flat:

Sandwich bag insides:

I measured everything with exact precision. I measured backward, forward, examined the instructions until even I, in my OCD perfectaplegic torment was satisfied that I had done it right. When the *whoosh!* flippy pocket got folded I realized that my sandwich would be more along the lines of peasant panini roadkill instead of fluffy goodness:

There was sadness, anger, and a Google search as follows: the whole thread thingy fell off of my Brother sewing machine.

Which, oddly, led me precisely to the answer I needed. Go figure. One crazy tiny allen wrench, thirty swearing minutes, and thankfully no broken needles later, I was able to finish my pathetic prize. Yah. Saving the Earth one screwed up project at a time.

But no. I was in peachcot mode and I wasn't letting this one go without a fight. So I researched. I researched materials (nylon is agreed to be the best plastic for food purposes, saving mylar's presence which I don't have. I guess I could have sacrificed for the peachcots and bought a bag of Doritoes just for its mylar but whatever) and patterns and applications and care instructions until my eyes literally crossed.

I get emails from this great website called Tipnut. Here's what they say about lunch bags and accessories.

Down in accessories, I saw #4 and knew that simplicity was what had to happen after I came this close to throwing my machine into the street. Once again, I'm being literal. Into. The. Street. (there are some potholes in front of my house)

I liked the idea but I wanted something that would at least attempt to keep juicy tomatoes to themselves.

Behold, my creation:

(repeat above disclaimer about garbage pics)

Flat with the pretty side up: I happen to love colorful daisies. Not those insipid white chaps.

The inside:

Three slices of bread, middle slice representing the cornucopia of options for sandwich fillings.

Sides folded in:

Bottom side folded up to showcase the strip of velcro (hook and pile fasteners, sorry) that help the whole thing adjust capacity:

And voila:

Work those angles, baby:

Here was the process: Iron some Stitch Witchery onto nylon rip stop. Which sucked because the adhesive seemed to soak right through the nylon. Which kind of defeats the point of using pure cotton and neutral nylon if you're just going to get cancer from the adhesive after all. Anyway, the adhesive soaked through which clung to the red cotton I used under the whole thing "just in case" (go me). You can see some of the red spots on the solid blue side. I'll have to figure that one out. Maybe iron with parchment paper underneath. And yes I tried ironing plain old nylon and, though it became misshapen on the cotton setting, it didn't melt on its own. It's definitely the interfacing.

Anyway, peel off the paper backing and then iron the rip stop onto the wrong side of your cotton. I went ahead and stitched around the edges (bead stitch) just because I don't trust things that look sturdy enough as they are (big girls never do). The velcro is in an experimental arrangement with which I'm not entirely happy.

But it'll do. And now my obsession can wane long enough for me to go back to the store and get more interfacing.

Oh, it measures 18" and I trimmed the corners off since they didn't seem necessary. The wrap doubles as a place mat. I'm going to fiddle with the whole thing some more and see if I can come up with something with which I'm really happy, and that process should net us enough wraps to have a picnic at the very least.

This rotten project has kept me up until well after pumpkin hour for me, but season 7 of Scrubs kept me company.

As painful as the whole thing has been, I still feel triumphant that I didn't spend $10 on the mat now on my dreadfully abused dining table. I can see how one might be able to "whip out" such projects after one can swiftly and with ease fix their sewing machine when the needle thingy comes loose or when one finally realizes that it's better to just buy the bolt of Stitch Witchery instead of running out after one and a half projects. Maybe, one of these days, I might try to make an article of clothing once more. Hah! I made a funny.

Holy crap I need sleep. Have a good weekend, people.