Make your own re-useable soy wax food covers

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I love sewing and always have various projects on the go meaning my scrap fabric bag is huge! As any fellow sewer will understand you hold on to all these scraps 1) because it seems so wasteful to throw away and 2) you always think you can use them to make something!

At the end of last year I finally got around to making re-useable food covers with them and thought I would share as so many people have commented on them. I always tended to see beeswax ones everywhere, but quite liked the idea of making them vegan friendly so opted for soy wax instead, a quick online search will show several suppliers that you can order from.

For the fabric strips I would recommend using 100% cotton if possible, however you could try it on any scrap fabric you have available.

Tools:

Pinking shears
Scrap fabric
Greaseproof paper
Iron
Soy wax

Method:

Wash your scrap fabric in the washing machine and dry thoroughly
Cut into varying sizes with the pinking shears – I didn’t follow a pattern or size structure I just knew that I wanted a variety of different sized covers, some rectangular, some square etc
Prepare your ironing board & iron (if, like me, you haven’t got an ironing board just use a towel on a table top!!) the iron should be on a medium/high heat. Line the board with greaseproof paper
Place your prepared fabric on the paper and sprinkle the wax over the fabric – be generous ensure the scrap is well covered
Top the fabric and wax with another piece of greaseproof paper and iron over the top melting the wax into the fabric
Remove the strip and hang out to dry

How to care for your soy covers:

To clean you just wipe with a cloth you can use anti-bac spray or a small amount of washing up liquid and water
Do not submerge in water and if using water to wipe down make sure it is not too hot
Over time the wax cracks and the fabric can become a bit tired at this point you can refresh the fabric with a bit more wax. Repeat the method above just without the pre-machine wash

What can they be used for:

Wrap almost anything in them – whatever you would wrap clingfilm or foil in, you can use these for in its place. I personally don’t use them directly on raw meats however there is nothing to stop you doing that I would just recommend keeping a supply of covers for meats and a separate one for your vegetables for hygiene reasons.

I was impressed at how easy these are to make and the skill involved is minimum. If you don’t have an abundance of scrap fabric you can cut up any old clothes, tired teatowels, or anything you can think of. Everyone usually has that pile of clothes either too shabby for the charity shop and no one wants to send any thing unnecessarily to landfill. This is eco friendly and productive recycling and if everyone used them, even for a small amount of things, it would make a very positive difference.The photos have been supplied by my friend Hannah Crocker who I made a batch for this Christmas