Wallet and Earth Friendly Sandwich Wrapper Tutorial

We were walking through the grocery store today and one of the things that was on our radar was school supplies.  We want to make our school lunches as Earth and wallet friendly as possible and healthier than the fried junk and carb-heavy meals they tend to serve in the schools.  There are a couple ways we already do this:

• We picked up reusable juice boxes.  These not only save on needless trash that regular disposable juice boxes create, but filling those little guys is only a fraction of the cost of individual juice boxes.  $2 worth of 100% juice from a concentrate in the frozen section will fill something like a dozen (I haven't actually done the math or counted) of these easily.  $2 might get you 6 juice boxes on sale if you're lucky and many juice boxes don't have 100% juice in them.  (I won't get started on the Nestle thing, but I also don't buy Nestle and they are the ones that make Juicy Juice.)  So, we're greatly reducing trash, we're cutting the cost by at least half and we're avoiding a brand with questionable ethics as a company. There are two cons to the particular brand I picked up.  You do have to keep them washed because they get gross like sippy cups do if you let them sit long.  They are also NOT labeled as being BPA free. If anyone knows of some nice (not outlandishly priced) BPA free ones, please link in the comments.  I want to get some. 
• We use wipe-able cloth lunch bags, rather than paper lunch bags.  Again, you have to clean them frequently, but you are significantly reducing waste by using them vs the paper bags.  (If you do use the paper bags, please at least recycle them.) They are also cheaper than buying paper bags several times a year (even more so if you make your own from scraps!)  They are also insulating.  Some have actual insulation built in, some are just fabric, but are still offer more insulation than paper.  They also have the advantage of not turning to mush if they get wet from sweating items within.  They protect the food within better. 

One thing  I'd been struggling with is a good way to wrap sandwhiches.  I hate using plastic bags for them.  They are wasteful, nearly impossible to wash and they get expensive over time.  The plastic sandwhich keepers are never the right size (they assume you're using crappy enriched spongy bread) and they break.  Today at the store, we saw something brilliant.  They had fabric wrappers that just fold around the sandwhich and are fastened with velcro.  They are easy to use and totally machine washable.  Fabulous!  The not-so-fabulous part was the price tag.  They were asking $5.99 for those stupid things.  They can kiss my butt.  I'm not paying $6 for something I can make a whole army of for free out of scraps in just a few minutes.  Not to mention, mine will be WAY cuter than the plain, solid colored ones at the store.

And yes, they use resources to wash.  But they are tiny.  You can throw a few in with a load of laundry you're doing anyway and they won't make a lick of difference.

Read on for the tutorial on how to make these simple little items! If you can sew, fabulous.  If you can't, I have an alternative.

Materials:

• Scraps of fabric- I used quilting cotton scraps.  Oilcloth would work well too, and you could wipe it off in between uses instead of washing it any time it gets soiled, but it is also more expensive up front. 
• If you aren't much of a sewer and don't have scraps around, you could use lightweight dishtowels that you can get REALLY cheap at the dollar store. 
• Velcro
• Thread

Directions:

1. Cut a 15"x15" square. This will fit a nice sized slice of homemade bread.  You can make it smaller if you use smaller slices or half slices. It does not have to be exact.
2. Cut off the corners. I folded my square so all the corners were together and cut them all off in one cut.  This ensured they were all even.
3. Optional: overstitch or serge the raw edges.  You could also hem with bias tape or binding.  
4. Sew, use "stitch witchery" or hot glue (if you use hot glue, this becomes hand wash only) small strip of velro to the top and bottom flaps so they will match up when folded. I made the one on the bottom flap longer than the top, which I allowed to overhang.  This will give you more room for wiggle on the size of the sandwich.
5. Wash and use!     

To use: