I know, when you think “school lunch ideas,” you probably think food, but how you pack that food is just as important. This simple utensil wrap doubles as a cloth napkin, and it takes maybe 5 minutes to make.

School has been back in session for a while, but it’s never too late to start healthy habits, and that applies as much to your packaging as the food itself. Most school lunch ideas are food-related, but there’s more to a healthy lunch than food. You don’t want to go through the effort of packing your kiddo a healthy lunch, only to have him eat it with plastic utensils, right? Plastics can leach into your child’s food, and those disposable utensils are wasteful to boot. You can reduce the waste and save money that you would have spent on disposable utensils and napkins with this tutorial.

This wrap keeps your dirty utensils from messing up the inside of your kid’s lunch bag, and he can use it as a cloth napkins. It makes toting reusable utensils and a cloth napkin practical and easy!

This project is something I’m developing for my buddy Scott Cooney who runs Pono Home, a cool home assessment service company that he just launched. He’s going to include these utensil wraps in his green living kits, so don’t think that school lunch ideas like these are just for kids! Grownups can get in on these healthy, plastic-free school lunch ideas too! I’ve got two methods for making this wrap: one has open ends and the other uses a burrito method to fold it up.

School Lunch Ideas: Make a Simple Utensil Wrap

Scott is partnering with PeopleTowels to source materials for these wraps, and PeopleTowels sent me a few of their towels to craft with. You can use a PeopleTowel for your utensil wrap, or you can use a cloth napkin from your stash.

Open End Wrap

Materials

1 PeopleTowel or cloth napkin

reusable utensils – I chose a small fork and spoon from my utensil drawer

21 1/2″ piece of machine-washable ribbon from your stash – I used my organic cotton ribbon from May Arts

sewing machine, pins, thread, iron

Directions

1. Iron your PeopleTowel and your length of ribbon. If you use ribbon made from organic fibers, like I did, just use pinking shears to trim the ends, so they won’t fray. Not sure what your ribbon’s made of? You may as well pink those ends, just to be safe.

2. Measure 2″ from the left side of your cloth and 4 1/2″ from the top. This is where you will pin your ribbon. Fold the ribbon in half lengthwise to find its center, and pin the center of the ribbon to the spot that you just measured:

3. Use your machine to sew a straight stitch shortways down the center of your ribbon. Back stitch a few times over this row, so the ribbon is nice and secure.

4. To wrap your utensils, fold the towel in half, and slide the utensils in so they’re touching the fold. Fold in half again, and use your ribbon to tie the wrap closed:

Burrito Wrap

Materials

1 PeopleTowel or cloth napkin

reusable utensils – I chose a small fork and spoon from my utensil drawer

21 1/2″ piece of machine-washable ribbon from your stash – I used my organic cotton ribbon from May Arts

sewing machine, pins, thread, iron

Directions

1. Iron your PeopleTowel and your length of ribbon. If you use ribbon made from organic fibers, like I did, just use pinking shears to trim the ends, so they won’t fray. Not sure what your ribbon’s made of? You may as well pink those ends, just to be safe.

2. Measure 3″ from the top of your cloth and 3″ from the left side. This is where you will pin your ribbon at a 45 degree angle. Fold the ribbon in half lengthwise to find its center, and pin the center of the ribbon to the spot that you just measured:

3. Use your machine to sew a straight stitch shortways down the center of your ribbon. Back stitch a few times over this row, so the ribbon is nice and secure.

4. To wrap your utensils, place them at a 45 degree angle inside of the towel, then fold in the pointy ends, just like if you were folding up a burrito. Then, roll it up (keep thinking burrito!), and use the ribbon to secure it into place: