Oh Beeswax!

I sent Bee's Wrap brand wax wraps (https://www.beeswrap.com/, no affiliation, just a satisfied customer) to my siblings and siblings-in-law as holiday gifts for Christmas and Hanukkah the year before last. I don't know how well they were received or used (everybody lives in different parts of the country) but I had bought a set for myself and thought they worked rather well. Plus, we were all doing good things for the environment by using less single-use plastic.

This year, when my wax wraps were about a year old, they had reached the end of their useful life (according to the packaging information, as well as their condition). As they are made of organic cotton and beeswax, they could be composted. I did, however, want to replace them. The Bee's Wrap brand does a wonderful job and offers many sizes and styles of wrap, but it gets a little pricey, especially since I'd need to replace it every year. So I decided to see if I could make some myself.

First stop Google. I searched for "beeswax cotton wraps DIY tutorials" and there were quite a few hits. Here is the one I found most useful:

http://myhealthygreenfamily.com/blog/wordpress/plastic-wrap-alternative-diy-beeswax-cotton-wraps/

I followed the directions on myhealthygreenfamily's blog and now have a nice set of usable cotton and beeswax wraps for use in the kitchen. I bought organic cotton at my local Joann Fabrics (love their coupons!) and started with a block of organic beeswax that I had purchased for making personal care recipes years ago.

I looked at the sized of the Bee's Wraps that I had purchased, to get an idea of useful sizes, and then measured the width of the fabric on the bolt, and determined that I could most efficiently cut a reasonable set of wraps from 3/4 yd of fabric. I bought 3/4 yd in 2 different prints, just because it was more fun with 2 coordinating prints, and that would give me some to give away.

Here is my schematic for cutting the fabric. It will give me two 14" square cloths, three 12" square cloths, and two 7" x 8" cloths.

cutting plan

Here are the cloth pieces, cut to size and ready to wax.

fabric cut to size

grate the beeswax

spread grated wax over fabric

melt the wax into the fabric

Bake at 185 deg F for 5 minutes or so. Keep checking. I have a gas oven and it took longer than the instructions suggested, most likely due to vagaries of the oven.

finished products!

I ran out of beeswax before I ran out of fabric, and grating the wax was a real pain and hard on my arms. So I ordered a bag of organic beeswax pellets from Amazon in order to finish up. A little more expensive than grating my own, but worth it to me for the greater ease and speed.

I am now happily using my new cloth wax wraps, and have given a set to a friend as a birthday gift.
And I have all the equipment labeled "not for food use, wax only" so I can reuse it next year when it's time to make a new set or two.

Many thanks to all the DIYers who give such clear instructions for this project on blogs online.

~ShelleyinCT