My Very Own Lunch Bag

I recently fell in love with a few small pieces of fabric  called fat quarters, and I didn't really know what I was going to do with them, I just knew they had to be mine.  (Fat quarters are squares of fabric that are roughly a quarter of a metre square)
Then I received a link from fellow sewing blogger gMarie and knew immediately that this project would definitely allow my new little pieces of fabric to sing!

Lunch bag Tutorial from Ayumi at the Pink Penguin.

Ayumi's tutorial is a lunch bag that is just the right shape to hold those small, square lunch boxes with all the little compartments inside them (Bento Boxes).  It could be used for other things too of course - holding a hand stitching or crafty project, a little person's bag of treasures, to pop into your bicycle basket when cycling down to the village...etc.
But My Very Own Lunch Bag will be used for taking my (healthy) lunch to work.  And here it is!

Yay!  I found a use for those lovely vintage ladies as well as the Kaffe Fassett cabbage fabric on the handles.
It took about a half hour of careful cutting with my rotary cutter to get all the pieces ready, then it took a couple of hours following Ayumi's tutorial step-by-step to create my very own lunch bag.  I am confident that it would take far less time if I were to do it again.

The bag has a drawstring cover to keep dust out
and would keep my lunch from falling out,
 if I tip the bag over in transit.

Hope you can read the novelty ribbon in this photo.  Such fun!
This photo also shows my one mistake - a little inserted pleat because I didn't pin.

Here is the second one I have made - this one will be a gift.

Do you ever find you just HAVE to add one of these small pieces of fabric to your shopping basket?