Toy Bag

Now that Jonah is getting to be more active (ha, when was he not active?!?) we have more need for toys when we go out, specifically to restaurants. Nana & Papa (aka my Mom & Dad) bought him a little set of Tonka trucks and book. We'd had it in a quart-size plastic sandwich bag, but it was starting to get yucky and the book didn't really fit when all the cards were added in.
This is where knowing how to sew can come in handy. Don't have a bag that works? Make your own!

I dug around in my stash of fabrics until I found 2 that coordinated and I deemed "boy" enough. I did have to run down to Joann to get a zipper, but that's only because I normally only use invisible zippers and I really wanted just a regular zipper for the bag.

Then I remembered that I'd pinned this tutorial on one of my Pinterest boards for how to make a flat-bottomed bag. Seemed just right for my purposes. The biggest problem with the plastic baggie was that it had no give for the chunky little trucks that needed to fit inside.

Following the tutorial I drew out a pattern based on my measurements of the book. I drew as she described adding a quarter inch seam allowance.
Then, I ironed stabilizer to my outer (patterned) fabric. The tutorial says to iron it to the inner fabric, but my outer was lighter weight, so I decided that it would be better to iron it to the lighter of the two.

Next, I laid my pattern directly on my fabric and used my rotary cutter and quilter's rule to cut out the pattern. I really, really dislike tracing and then cutting, and since it was all straight lines, I took a little shortcut.
I assembled the bag as the tutorial described. Once the zipper was sewn into place the bag was put together exactly like the snack bags are except that the hole to turn was left in the lining instead of the outer bag. (I think that's how I'm going to do the next snack bag because it looks so much neater).

Once everything was sewn, I did pink the edges of the inner (solid) lining fabric because it has a tendency to fray and the corners. Didn't seem worth hauling out my serger over...

Turned the bag right side out, pushed out all the corners, sewed the hole in the lining up and ta-da(!) bag was complete:
The book and four little trucks fit well inside. In fact, the bag is roomy enough to accommodate one more little books and maybe a couple more cars/trucks and it still slid well into his diaper bag!