As I mentioned the other day, school is rapidly approaching and as I've been inventorying all my school stuff I figured I should make myself a new lunch pail. Last year I made a simple drawstring bag from a bit of tie dyed material and a t-shirt I had outgrown.
This year I stepped it up. A zippered lunch bag made with a stuffed walrus. Yeah, awesome, I know.
For this fine little stuffed animal lunchbox you will need:
- Medium sized stuffed animal with a large amount of 'body' space such as a bear or a dog. (I purchased mine from Saver's for $2 and washed it.)
- 7 or 9 inch zipper, depending upon how large your animal is and how much large an opening you want.
- Color coordinating thread, preferably heavy duty
- Needle
- A few straight pins
- Scrap fabric, safety pins, and/or hot glue.
- Some problem solving skills
1) Decide where you would like your zipper to be and pin it in place while zipped.
2) Unzip the zipper and snip the fabric below the top and bottom of the zipper in the same direction that the zipper is going.
3) With the zipper still pinned in place, cut a slit where the zipper will go. Then unpin the zipper.
4) Unstuff the body and any limbs that will remain floppy and unstuffed. I saved the excess stuffing but that's up to you.
5) Now make sure that the limbs that you want to stuff and close off are stuffed evenly, and then really jam all the stuffing down to ends of the limbs to make the following steps easier. You'll fluff it back up later. As for myself, I chose to stuff and close off the 2 front flippers and the head.
6) Now comes the hardest part. We need to close off the appendages so that our stuffing and grapes don't mix. I cut ovals out of some scrap fabric and adhered them to the opening of the stuffed area in a variety of fashions. I tried to kind of turn the piece inside out ad to get the area I am working with towards the surface. At first I used a typical in and out stitch with my heavy duty thread doubled. Then I used a whip stitch. I tried using hot glue and it worked fairly well. Towards the end I got a bit lazy and used the smallest safety pins I had. All worked well, so whatever floats your goat.
7) Now it is time to sew in the zipper. I know that sounds scary, but it really isn't bad, I promise. Pin your zipper into place. If you need to cut the slit a bit larger, go for it. Pin the zipper in place, and begin sewing it in, allowing for some place between the fabric of the animal and the zipping part of the zipper so the fur doesn't get caught. As you sew, try not to pull to much as not to gather it. When you finish one side be sure to knot it really well. Do the same on the other side. When done with both sides go back through and secure the ends of the zippers together.
Here is what it looks like empty.
And here, almost full of lunch items!
I can't wait to start my sophomore year with my furry lunch companion!
In addition to my lunch bag, here's a great list of the stuff an average high school student should have in their backpack, as told by my friend Jessica. Check it out!
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