Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Waxed Cloth Food Wrap Tutorial

You will need :
Parchment paper,
 beeswax,
 cloth (large enough for what you plan on wrapping)
 scissors,
old cookie sheet (or something you can iron on that you don't need to worry about wax getting on)
 almond oil or another food grade oil,
 paint brush used for wax only,
  a pot used for wax only. (You may want to use a craft iron if you have one specifically for crafts.)
 Paper towels or old rags.
 Optional: pinking shears and ironing board

I used almond oil because it's what I had. I wouldn't suggest mineral oil because it's petroleum based.

Iron your cloth so that its nice and smooth. Then cut your cloth to size. Pinking shears may be helpful and add a nice edge around your cloth.

Grate your beeswax and melt in a double boiler. I used local beeswax which ended up changing the color of my fabric. A bleached beeswax would eliminate most of this though. I added just a few drops of almond oil to the beeswax to thin it out just a bit. This helps to get a more even coat on the fabric.

Put your cloth on top of the parchment to protect the surface your working on.  Start painting on the wax.

You will get some pooling of the wax but no worries, we'll eliminate that in the next step.

Put the waxed cloth in between 2 pieces of parchment. Make sure you have room all the way around the cloth for the excess wax to leak out.

Cover the waxed cloth with the top sheet of parchment and iron on a med-high setting.

You can see how the wax melts and moves to the edges as you iron. 

I like to use the edge of my iron to press out the extra wax.  

You may still see a slight layer of wax on top of the fabric. You can use a paper towel to blot this off while the wax is still hot. Let the fabric dry and then they are ready to use! 

Voila! Plastic-free food wrap. Next time I make them I will use a natural unbleached  cotton. This way I don't have to worry about dyes in the fabric. I really like wrapping cheese and butter in them. To was them use cool water and a little dish soap. Hang to dry.

9 comments:

  1. This is brilliant! I have to go and try it now. Thank you for sharing on KCCO!

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    1. Thanks! I'd love to hear how yours turn out!

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  2. Great idea- I'm gonna try this too.

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  3. this is so handy and smart! thank you for posting! but what do you use the oil for?

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    1. Oops! Looks like I forgot to add that part. I add a few drops of oil to the melted beeswax to thin it out a little bit. But only a very small amount will do. To much and you'll have a skin cream :) Thanks for letting me know about that! Have a beautiful day.

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  4. Thank you for sharing this great idea. Will definitely be trying it. Does it keep bread fresh?

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  5. I'm always looking for ideas like this thanks for sharing it on Sharing Creative Ideas!
    Have a wonderful weekend,
    ~ joey ~

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  6. Wonderful tutorial! I am going to make some to go along with our picnic supplies :) Thanks for sharing at Creative Learning

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