Introduction: School Bag/Man Bag/Any Old Bag to Cool Bag!

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Hello and welcome to my first instructable, the idea for this project came from taking my daughter for days out and noticing a need for a decent bag for the picnic. I see there are plenty of them out there however they don't seem to be designed to be carried around comfortably all day and those that do are generally the rucksack sort of design and between you and me there is a sort of fella that can get away with the rucksack look and those that can't so here is my solution:

Step 1: Find "your" Bag.

I use this bag to carry around my work stuff, I'm used to the way it hangs and I'm happy with the way it looks.

Step 2: Obtain the Essentials.

My supermarket sells these cheap keep cold bags so frozen food doesn't defrost on the way home this was 50p from Sainsburys, I also bought some bubble wrap, tape and an emergency blanket form Poundland so excluding the man bag this instructable is only £3.50 to make.

Step 3: Measure and Mark.

Push your stay cool bag into your man bag making sure it gets well into the corners and pulled straight and neat, using a pen mark where the bag pokes out the top of the outer bag then remove. Lay your stay cool bag flat and measure out a strip of bubble wrap that is long enough to cover both sides and lap over by a couple of inches when wrapped around the bag, cut 3 of these strips all roughly the same length.

Step 4: Upgrade the Insulation.

Wrap around and tape where it laps over, then repeat so it's got 2 layers of bubble wrap around the bag below the mark you made earlier and tape the top edge to the stay cool bag. Take the third length of bubble wrap, fold in half then fold it again length ways and lay it so it hangs off the bottom of the cool bag and tape in the middle, turn the bag over and tape to the other side leaving a couple of inches on  the bottom so when the bag is full there is enough room for the bottom of the bag to open out.

Step 5: Get Into Shape.

Stand the bag up and push the insides out so it stands on its own and tidy up the corners a bit like wrapping a present, then wrap the bottom of the bag in the foil emergency blanket.

Step 6: Installing the Stealth Coolness.

Now you have your custom cool bag all wrapped its ready to stuff into your outer bag, this isn't as tricky as you might expect but take care to not rip anything on the way in. Push out the inside of the bag and get a snug fit then trim off the rigid plastic handles, with this bag I find it easy to just roll the top over and tuck it into the top of the bag and zip it up - job done!