after: hello kitty lunch bag + some helpful tips

So, I survived this crazy project. Actually, the only thing that was really difficult was the bias trim, especially around the corners. But I’m not very good at bias trim to begin with, so there’s that.

I was surprised how easy this insulated-plastic-foil material is to sew. I picked out the original trim stitches and all of the pieces fell apart. I cut everything down to size and serged around all of the edges, then I serged the pieces back together. I know that sounds like overkill, but the material was made up of three layers and I didn’t want manipulate six layers of slippery stuff when I did the trim.

Some very important things to keep in mind for a project like this:

• Remind yourself how much you love your child. I found this especially helpful sewing around those corners with the trim.
• Have a friend close by via text for encouragement. Send her pictures of your bent sewing machine needle just for fun.
• Keep chanting the mantra: It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to make my child happy.
• Embrace your organic style as breaking the rules and your wonky stitches as a design element.
• Remind yourself that some kid in China probably put this together the first time. If she could do it, so can you.
• Let go of the little things, like matching the black and pink trim in the handle. It’s just another design element.

That’s about all I’ve got to say about this lunch bag. My daughter loves the pink and she stuffed it in her backpack this morning with no problem.

stash: Finally digging into my thrifted stash of bias trim. It’s about time!