In The Great Gatsby Jordan Baker assures Daisy that “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” I couldn’t agree more! This time of year always feels like a new beginning to me, a good time to make small resolutions. This year I’m vowing to stop buying takeout sandwiches for lunch and to start making them, and so I made these simple Button Lunch Bags to get me started!

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

Sewn up in sturdy, washable cotton fabric, each bag is finished off with a sweet little button to keep your sandwich safe. These sacks are so pretty, in fact, you might want to use them for more than lunch!

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

To figure out what to pack in our Button Lunch Bags we turned to our friends Frances Boswell and Dana Gallagher and their great new blog, Kitchen Repertoire. Chock-full of delicious lunch (and breakfast, dinner and dessert) ideas, Kitchen Repertoire aspires to make cooking (and eating!) joyful with recipes that are approachable, unfussy, and very tasty. Even if you can’t boil water, Dana Gallagher’s photographs are so mouth-watering you’ll feel compelled to learn! We’re so excited that Dana took these beautiful pictures and that Frances has cooked up some lovely back to school lunch recipes to go with our lovely new Button Lunch Bags… find these lovely lunch recipes right here on Kitchen Repertoire today!

Happy fall and happy lunch! -Molly

Materials

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

To make one Button Lunch Bag you will need…

  • ½ yard of sturdy fabric. I used Robert Kaufman’s Denim- 8 oz in Indigo Washed and Robert Kaufman’s Railroad Denim in Deluxe Twill Stripe Indigo.
  • A package of Captain 88’s Solid Linen Cotton Bias Tape to match your fabric. I used Navy and Natural.
  • Two 110-yard spools of Gutermann’s Cotton Thread to match your fabric and bias tape. I used colors 6210 and 1040.
  • One of Purl Soho’s Oblong Buttons. I used Fuchsia and Marine.

Size

Finished Dimensions: 6 inches wide, 11 ½ inches tall when open, 8 ½ inches tall when closed and 4 inches deep.

Notes

Prewash and dry the fabric but not the bias tape. If your fabric is double sided like the fabrics I used, you can pick which side you’d like to be the right side and wrong side. For the example in these photos I used the lighter side as the right side.

Pattern

This pattern is also available as a printer-friendly PDF. Just click here!

Cut

From the fabric cut:

  • One 11 ½ by 29-inch tall rectangle.
  • One 1 X 5-inch strip. This will be the Button Loop.

Make the Button Loop

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

  1. Press the 1 x 5-inch strip flat with the right side facing up.
  2. Press both of the long sides ¼ inch towards the center of the strip, right sides together.
  3. Press the two long, folded sides together, thus encasing the raw edges. Pin the two long sides together.
  4. Edgestitch the two folded edges together and cut the strip to 2 ¾-inches long.

Sew

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

Fold the large rectangle in half lengthwise so that a middle crease runs the long way down the center of the rectangle (highlighted in pink in the photo above).

Fold one of the short sides of the rectangle over ½-inch twice towards the right side and press and pin the fold down.

Pin the raw ends of the Button Loop under the fold so that the ends are at either side of the center crease. Here is a more close-up shot….

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

Make sure that the Button Loop isn’t twisted and that both sides are lying flat under the fold and are meeting at the center crease.

Edgestitch this fold down, thus sewing the Button Loop in place.

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

Press the Button Loop upwards, away from the fabric, and pin it in this new orientation.

Sew over the Button Loop, along the path of the previous seam. Go forwards and backwards a few times in order to really secure the Loop in place.

Hem the second short side of the rectangle in the same way but without the Button Loop: Fold the edge over ½ inch twice towards the right side, press and edgestitch the fold down.

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

Now press the piece in half, right sides together, so that the hemmed edges meet up. Pin in place along the two long sides.

Sew the two long raw sides together with a ½-inch seam allowance.

Orient the bag so that the opening is at the top, the fold is at the bottom and the raw edges of the fabric are at the left and right.

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

Pin the bias tape around both of these raw left and right sides. Start at the top, tucking the end of the bias tape under itself so that no raw bias tape edges show, then pin the bias tape along the length of the edge. Don’t worry about tucking the ends of the bias tape at the bottom of the edge; just trim the tape flush with the end of the seam.

Edgestitch this bias tape into place, making sure to catch both sides as you sew.

Make the Boxed Bottom

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

With the wrong side still facing out, pull the two layers of fabric away from the corners and away from each other until the bottom forms a diamond shape with the bottom fold (represented in gray, above) going straight down the center.

Mark a line at each corner perpendicular to the center fold, 2 inches away from the corner and 4 inches across (represented as pink lines, above).

Pin the two layers of fabric together along these 4-inch long markings, making sure that the fabric isn’t bunched up or gathered and that the bias tape covered seams are lying flat.

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

Sew over these markings and then cut off the corners, leaving a ½-inch seam allowance.

First, press the bias-taped side seams over to one side. Then, pin the bias tape over the two 4-inch raw edges, making sure the unfinished ends of the side seams get pinned inside the bias tape. Trim the bias tape so it is a little longer than the 4-inch sides and tuck the ends of the tape inside so that no raw edges are showing.

Edgestitch the bias tape into place, making sure you catch both sides as you sew.

Finish

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

Turn the bag right sides out. On the side of the bag without the Button Loop, mark a spot 5 inches below the top edge and 5 ¼ inches from either side seam. Sew on the button here.

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

Press the bag into a lunch bag shape by pressing a vertical crease up from each bottom corner to the top of the bag. Then press a horizontal crease from each bottom corner to the next bottom corner.

Bon Appetite!

Button Lunch Bags | Purl Soho

Update 2024: You can explore our current collection of beautiful fabrics and supplies on our page of Sewing Tools + Notions!