Lunchtime! Oilcloth Lunch Bag Completed

So my lunch bag is finished!  Yay.  I can't wait to use it tomorrow.  In the meantime, I thought I'd put a few tips online for some things I figured out that I hadn't seen mentioned elsewhere.  


You can see the super-cute fabric I got from fabric.com. (I thought they had the best selection, but Oilcloth Addict has a good selection, too, along w/ excellent project ideas & care instructions.) 


Oilcloth is not easy to work with.  It sort of fights back!  I didn't have any trouble getting the slick side to feed through my machine, but apparently some people do & use tissue paper so that the feed dogs can grip the oilcloth.  I didn't have to do that, but at some of the bulky points I did have to push & pull to help the machine.    

Line of stitches to make folding easier &
my rotary cutter, used to press seams & folds.

One thing I did figure out that if you needed a distinct fold sewing a row of stitches makes it a lot easier to fold.  Then you need something to "press" the fold over, because you cannot iron oilcloth.  The back of a spoon is one recommendation, but I found the handle end of my rotary cutter worked well.  


I was using Brett's post on Design Sponge, but really struggled with the measuring & getting things to match up.  I had to measure & re-measure & cut & re-cut, but I'm quite pleased with the result.  And even though no small project ever turns out to be that straightforward for me...I don't think I spent more than 3 hours on the whole thing.  


I am hoping that I will get better at it, because I really want to make a bunch of Brett's storage boxes to help with organization in my sewing room (and possibly in the kitchen, too).  For one thing, I think the little storage bins will be great for patterns.  Right now my patterns are mixed in with my fabric in large Ikea boxes, so a separate place to put them would be really useful.