Oil Cloth Snack Bags - Fail!

Awhile ago I saw some girl on Etsy was selling oil cloth, reusable snack bags. Now, it's not that I don't want to support another artist, it's just that I'm loathe to buy it and pay shipping if I could make my own. So, I decided that I'm going to make my own. I figured one 6" square folded in half for a snack bag, two 6" squares sewn together for a sandwich bag. Velcro closures on all of them.

So I go to Joann's for the oil cloth. I get there and they don't seem to have it. I asked the girl at the fabric table and she tells me it's hard to find and that I should try Fabric.com. I told her I was gonna try Fabrics by Allen out in the Kmart Plaza to see if they have any.

I browsed around some more and found a remnant of red checked flannel back vinyl and I'm thinking, that this could make a super cute lunchbag, and then at least the trip to Joann's isn't wasted. When I checked out, I mentioned my project to the girl up front, who proceeded to inform me that they don't make oilcloth anymore - this is completely untrue, we carry bags made of it where I work.

So then I drive out to Fabrics by Allen. They don't carry oil cloth either, but they're intrigued by my idea. I ended up buying some nylon mesh to make a bath puff, and some lightweight clear plastic that we're thinking may work for my bags. I promise them I'll let them know how my bags turn out and head off to finish my errands.

Then I come home and go online. Fabric.com does, in fact, carry oilcloth!! Yay! But, I'm not totally in love with any of the patterns, so I start Googling oil cloth. And I find out that the jury's still out on whether modern oil cloth is actually foodsafe, because it's cloth impregnated with vinyl.

So I look into traditional oil cloth, which is canvas or cotton duck, impregnated with Linseed oil. Which also may or may not be foodsafe. But you can make your own. With linseed oil from the healthfood store which is produced to by eaten as a supplement of some kind or another. Which means it's food safe. But probably a huge pain in the ass to make.

So now I don't know what I'm going to do, but I know that as much as I hate throwing them all away, I am not going to start washing zippy bags. To me, that just screams crazy person. I mean no offense to you if you wash yours, I just can't quite bring myself to do it.