What you use to pack your child’s school/camp lunch largely depends on how much time you have to spend in the morning. Rushed parents sling things into plastic bags; those with time to spare fill up precious bento boxes. But most of us are treading a middle ground, lacking the time to fiddle excessively yet wishing to inject this mundane daily task with a scintilla of style.
Enter Mimi the Sardine, maker of sturdy, simple, brilliantly hued Lunchbugs. This photo doesn’t do them justice. The bags are beautifully crafted of eco-friendly coated cotton, with strong handles and smooth, heavy zippers that even small kids can operate themselves.
“We double-stitch, we make sure it holds up, and we have very few returns,” says Pia Andersson, a San Francisco Bay Area mom who began her business by sewing bibs on her kitchen table after she emigrated to America from Sweden and had a daughter. “I sent a few to Hanna Andersson, and because I have Swedish eyes and a Swedish visual sense, she bought them.”
Andersson wound up designing children’s clothing for Hanna Andersson and Garnet Hill, but these days her own line pays the bills, and she says Lunchbugs are the company’s most popular item. All Mimi the Sardine bags, aprons, cloths, mats and bibs are wipe-clean and feature bold prints and Marimekko-like colors.
Available at mimithesardine.com.