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Easy Homemade Reusable Snack Bags – A Simple DIY Tutorial

January 29, 2016 by Jennifer 25 Comments

Do you ever feel bad about how many ziploc bags you throw away? These homemade snack bags are the perfect solution. They’re also the perfect example of my saying “if I can do it, you can do it”. So easy to make. If you have a sewing machine, you can make your own homemade snack bags!

Easy Homemade Reusable Snack Bags

I first made these as party favors for my little girl’s second birthday party. While I try to stay away from candy as favors, it was a garden themed party and we had put gummy worms and such in cute watering cans and flower pots. Instead of doing cellophane bags for the kids to take the candy home in, I made these reusable snack bags.

This homemade snack bag tutorial is so easy to make!

They were so easy, I ended up making a bunch more. Now I use them instead of zip top bags. We put everything in them from snacks and bandaids, to hair accessories and socks… anything little (or big if you want to make them bigger).

I did a lot of research on what material would be safest to use… oil cloth, vinyl, food-safe fabric, etc. At first it seemed like there were a lot of options out there. But the more I dove into it, the more I realized you really do want to be careful what you use if food will actually be touching it. I finally landed on this amazing Etsy shop, “Laminates”. She has a TON of cute food-safe laminated cotton patterns.

Most of the fabrics are laminated on the front, which is fine. I’ve used them before and they work. But I personally got in the habit of using the “Laminated Cotton on Back” remnants. If you put something sticky in the bag, like a PB&J sandwich, it seems to wipe off a little easier. If you were feeling super fancy, she sells food safe vinyl that you could make your own laminated cotton. I’m not that fancy.

*Update: This particular shop doesn’t have any “Laminated on Back” anymore, but in her shop if you search for “food safe” a ton of cute options come up, check them out here.

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I tried oil cloth, too. It was ok, but quite thick and bulky to work with. Whatever you go with, I found a great trick was to rub chap stick on the foot of the sewing machine so that it doesn’t stick to the laminated fabric.

DIY Homemade Snack Bag

What You Need

Fabric

Velcro

Pins

Scissors

Ribbon

One zip-top bag

Pencil

Sewing machine

Homemade snack bags

Assembly

You are basically sewing a square leaving one side open.

1. Trace two lengths of the zip-top bag on the back side of the material.

Homemade snack bags

2. Cut the rectangle out, then pin each side of the Velcro on the top and bottom, looping the ribbon and pinning it in the middle underneath the Velcro.

Homemade snack bags

3. Sew the velcro down making a rectangle around the edges.

Homemade snack bags

4. Now fold it in half, still inside out, and pin the sides together.

Homemade snack bags

5. Sew each side “about” an 1/8 inch in. I am NOT precise about this. Then flip it right side in, and Voila! A quick easy homemade reusable snack bag.

Homemade snack bags

I like to make myself a little assembly line and do a bunch at once.

Homemade snack bags

For bonus points, if you want to be fancy, you can sew buttons on as well.

Homemade snack bags

And there you have it. An easy way to be a little more green.

You may also like these DIY projects:

Homemade Lip Balm

DIY Fabric Circle Nursery Wall Decor

DIY Hanging Wooden Jewelry Box

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Related

Filed Under: Crafts & DIY, Favorites, Homemaking, Living, Semi-Green Living Tagged With: eco friendly, green, reusable, semi green

Previous Post: « Dinner Menu Week Four
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Arden | The-Grandma-Blog says

    January 31, 2016 at 4:47 pm

    These are great for SO many things! (And much cuter than plain ol' zip-top bags too.)
    Reply
  2. Becca says

    March 2, 2016 at 2:53 am

    These are brilliant!! I love the designs and they can be used for so many things. Thanks for sharing such a great idea.
    Reply
    • Jennifer says

      March 2, 2016 at 1:52 pm

      Thank you. I seriously use them for EVERYTHING!
      Reply
  3. Valerie says

    March 12, 2016 at 4:47 pm

    These are the cutest things ever. Thank you for sharing at Simple Saturdays.
    Reply
    • Jennifer says

      March 12, 2016 at 8:35 pm

      Thank you, and thank you for Simple Saturdays. This was my first time visiting and read some great posts!
      Reply
  4. Brittany Nikole says

    March 17, 2016 at 11:59 am

    We're slowly making changes like this throughout our home, but the kitchen seems to be the hardest:) Thanks so much for the inspiration!
    Reply
    • Jennifer says

      March 18, 2016 at 4:13 pm

      I hear ya, Brittany! We're on the "slowly but surely" program. I recently switched out our plastic plates and bowls to silicone as well.
      Reply
  5. Danielle Burke says

    May 2, 2017 at 7:23 am

    Hi there, how do you wash them? With warm soapy water or in the washing machine. I normally use Tide, but I do have 7th Generation for my woven wraps and cloth potty training underwear. Very interested in going green. I will probably still use plastic, but only for raw meat.
    Reply
    • Jennifer says

      May 2, 2017 at 7:06 pm

      Hi Danielle. I just turn them inside out and use warm soapy water and the dish sponge. If it was just crackers or something I'll just rinse them out. They wipe clean really easily so it doesn't take much at all. Also for anyone that still has a nipple tree for bottles and such, that makes for a great drying rack!
      Reply
  6. Sherri says

    May 6, 2017 at 11:58 am

    Great idea with simple instructions but I think you forgot the step where you see down the Velcro. I looked back 3 times thinking I missed that step.
    Reply
    • Jennifer says

      May 6, 2017 at 2:36 pm

      Oh no, thanks for the heads up. I'll go fix that!
      Reply
  7. Ruth says

    November 16, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    The tutorial was very well done. However, I still worry about the safety of any plastic touching food, especially for children. I'm not sure that laminates are truly chemical free. I make snack bags out of cotton that has been washed. They can be put in the washing machine. For messy food, perhaps wax paper would work before putting it in the bag.
    Reply
    • Jennifer says

      November 17, 2017 at 9:59 am

      I was worried about that as well. I did a ton of research on the laminates I use and feel good about it, however you could easily just use cotton fabric instead of the laminates with the same pattern.
      Reply
  8. Akaleistar says

    February 20, 2018 at 6:13 pm

    Those snack bags are so cute!
    Reply
  9. Leslie says

    February 23, 2018 at 8:53 pm

    I'm so glad you mention how important it is to make sure that the materials used are food safe. It seems a lot of people don't really think about that with their food crafts. I definitely like how bold these are too! We had some vinyl ones that were all thrown away too quickly at school, because they look so similar to regular zip-top bags. Thanks so much for sharing at the #happynowlinkup!
    Reply
  10. Jen says

    February 26, 2018 at 8:39 am

    What a great idea! I love this. Definitely pinned for later :) Thanks for sharing this at the #happynowlinkup!
    Reply
  11. Lauren says

    July 16, 2018 at 6:01 pm

    I went on that Etsy shop and there are only 9 fabrics that are laminated on back. Do you know of any other places to get this? Have you made them with the white laminated cotton and then a regular cotton patterned fabric sewn together?
    Reply
    • Jennifer says

      July 31, 2018 at 9:50 pm

      I've found after a few years using both, that the regular laminated fabric from that shop works just as well.
      Reply
  12. Vanessa says

    February 11, 2019 at 11:57 am

    Thanks for sharing! How long does it take to make each one?
    Reply
    • Jennifer says

      March 6, 2019 at 11:19 am

      I do a bunch at a time and I'd say I can do 6 in a couple hours or so. When I get on a roll they go quicker.
      Reply
  13. Deborah says

    March 3, 2019 at 5:04 pm

    Hi - First thanks for mentioning my store - laminates.etsy.com. To bring you up to date I am not having any of the "laminated on the back" manufactured Unfortunately there wasn't enough of a demand - however the laminated on the front has some laminates that have been tested "food safe." To view those you can do a search "within" my etsy shop using "food safe" and all the prints and sizes will show up for your selection. I am hoping to get more and more tested as $$ permits.
    Reply
    • Jennifer says

      March 6, 2019 at 11:18 am

      Great to know, thank you! I'll update the post.
      Reply
  14. Baleeia Minggia Baker says

    July 31, 2019 at 9:31 am

    I AM A LITTLE CONFUSED. ARE YOU PUTTING THE ZIP LOCK BAG INSIDE OF THE HOMEMADE BAG AFTER IT IS MADE? IS THIS JUST THE FABRIC BAG?
    Reply
    • Jennifer says

      September 7, 2019 at 5:14 pm

      The fabric bag acts as a substitute for a ziploc bag. You can put anything in it that you would normally put in a plastic zip bag.
      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 8 Easy Ways to be a Little More Green says:
    July 18, 2017 at 10:20 pm
    […] Easy Homemade Reusable Snack Bags – An Easy DIY Tutorial […]
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