beeswax food wraps

In the summer I have a table at our local farmers market.  It is a small group of vendors and at one of the neighboring tables is a couple who have beehives and they sell their honey and beeswax along with garden produce.

I buy their honey and have bought their beeswax.  Besides cooking with the honey I put it in my honey and oatmeal soap.  I have used their beeswax to make candles and am considering pouring it into chocolate molds to make tree ornaments.

My most recent beeswax project was to make food wraps.  Food wraps are a reusable alternative to plastic wrap.  They can be used to wrap food or cover containers.  There are quite a few etsy sellers offering them for sale but I have not seen them locally in our often behind the times rural community.  When I mentioned them to my much trendier metropolitan daughter she said that she was wanting some and thinking of putting them on her Christmas list as they were a little pricey.  Prior to this they were barely on my radar but I did order the other ingredients and make some.  The farmers market season had ended but I did offer them for sale at a craft fair that I participated in the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Only one customer that stopped by had heard of them, having been given a set last year as a gift.  She said that she was still learning to use them.  There was some curiosity about them but, alas, no purchases.  It seems my kids will be getting some in their stockings this year.  :)  I will be using mine this winter so that I can share personal experiences with the customers at the market next year.

I do understand how they can be pricey.  The ingredients are kind of unusual and not available in stores around here.  Perhaps they could be found in a bigger metro area but I needed to order mine. I also had to purchase a lot more of the ingredients than I would need for a couple of batches of wraps.  The process is not hard but time consuming.  The melting of the ingredients involves the pine gum being melted first and then the beeswax being added to it and allowed to melt.  The jojoba oil goes in last and then when all are combined they are painted onto the fabric squares one at a time with a paintbrush and then since the mixture begins to harden as it cools the sheet is placed in a warm oven for a couple of minutes to soften the hardening beeswax mixture and brushed again.  A second sheet is added as a blotter for the first, they are turned over so the blotter is on the bottom and warmed again.  After another brushing to spread evenly the wax mix the first sheet is hung to dry and the process is repeated again with the blotter becoming the new first sheet and a second sheet becoming the new blotter.

drying on my pasta rack

When making my food wraps I used the instructions found here.

Shared with BNOTP here.

A repurposed thrift store find

When I check out our local Goodwill or some of the other thrift stores I occasionally visit I tend to spend the majority of my time in the housewares section with a quick swing through the frames, the furniture and the fabric/linens.  Less frequently I peruse the books but I really need to be in the right mood for books unless it is a cookbook.

One of the things that I have been finding is drapes.  I have been grabbing them up to repurpose into reusable grocery or market bags.  I have been picking them up for cheap but haven't had too much time for sewing them until now.  So this week I did the first of the bags.  The drapery used for this bag is a pretty gray and cream buffalo check.  There were two narrow panels priced separately at $2.99 each.   I don't recall what I actually paid since I often have a coupon or a senior discount which are 25% off so it was probably less.  The fabric is a heavy home decor type fabric and the curtains are made with a blackout type lining that was attached on both of the side edges and the top edge and loose at the bottom hem.  Cutting across the panel I was able to use the side edge of the curtain for the top edge of the bag.  The second side edge was trimmed off and became the handles.  A little bit of thread and a couple of french seams on the sides and bottom and a couple more seams to box off the base and the bag was done.

Completely lined, the bag is sturdy and should hold a lot of stuff.  And the best part is that the each panel should make  two and one-half bags.  My mom loves buffalo check and hates plastic grocery bags so I am thinking that when I get the other four done I will see if she wants to use these when she does her shopping. 

The first finished bag

Interior

A fun quick project.

Shared with BNOTP here.

Jack's Gift

The first of my handcrafted gifts for this year is done. I shared in my previous post that I was hoping to restart a long neglected sewing hobby and this is one of my first projects.  My brother makes a killer cheesecake.  It is a little embarrassing.  I taught him to make cheesecake but his cheesecake is far superior to any that I have made even though he still uses the recipe that I gave him.  'Our' recipe uses a 10 inch diameter springform pan and this year for his gift I am giving him a smaller 6 inch diameter pan so that he can make cheesecake for a smaller crowd without having half a cake left over.  The handcrafted part of his gift is a pair of potholders with his recipe printed on them.

I had never printed on fabric before.  There are many methods out there on the web.  I used one where the fabric is attached to a piece of freezer paper cut to the size of typing paper and then it is run through the printer.  I prewashed my fabrics to remove any sizing and make sure that it wouldn't shrink when the finished project was laundered.  I double checked to make sure that my printer ink was compatible with printing on fabric.  I prepared my document so that it was the size that I wanted for the potholder and bolded the font to make it a little darker.

After I printed it I cut it to size and applied fusible interfacing to the back.  I then attached a single layer of cotton batting and the ticking fabric to make the pocket.  I made the potholder that the pocket was going to be attached to by sandwiching four layers of the same cotton batting between two layers of ticking.  The back ticking layer was cut larger so that it could be folded over the edges of the potholder and stitched on the front making a binding.  I sewed a few lines of quilting on the potholder then attached the pocket.  I attached a hanging loop in the left upper corner as I stitched the binding in place.  I am happy with the result.  I learned one method for printing on fabric.  My new sewing machine with the self threading feature allowed me to sew all I wanted without needing to get help when my needle came unthreaded.  And I have one gift done.

Sharing with BNOTP here.

Jack's cheesecake recipe is here.

Done

The farmers market season is over.  The garden has been put out of its misery by the onset of cold weather.  Thanksgiving is coming and I have a lot for which to be thankful.  I am a glass half full kind of girl and one of the things to be thankful for is that we get to start over again next year after a challenging this year.  I am thankful for new beginnings.  Very thankful.

After only posting one blog post all summer I am looking forward to seeing if I remember how.  I have a couple of ideas of things I could share.  I am probably a little late to the party but I made some beeswax food wraps.  My intention was to make them to sell at the holiday extravaganza that i had committed to having a table at.  My thought process went like this--if they didn't sell I could always put them in the kids' Christmas stockings or save any surplus for next year's market.  I only took one picture of the process, and that picture was of the finished wraps drying on my pasta rack.  That is not going to be a photo-laden post.

I have made a couple batches of homemade soap but I am eager to try another method of soap making and more recipes.

I am trying to restart an old sewing hobby.  My poor eyesight has made it pretty difficult to sew.  Threading the needle on the sewing machine was impossible.  I recently bought a different sewing machine, one that threads itself.   Additionally one of my favorite fabric stores closed this summer but before they did they had deep discounts on all of their fabrics.  I bought fabric for a duvet cover and curtains for my newly gray bedroom.  I bought fabric for table linens and throw pillows and linen bread bags and reusable grocery bags.  I have been watching youtube videos about making purses and bags and it looks like fun. 

I haven't added any recipes recently to my recipe blogs.  But this summer I took breads and scones and biscotti and fun jelly to the market.  I tried to expand my repertoire of gluten free offerings for the market, trying to make that my niche in our small group of vendors.  I bought some fun pasta making tools, wood ones for cutting pasta and ravioli and gnocchi that I should learn to use.  And vintage steamed pudding molds. 

I haven't done any tablescapes with any new to me dishes.  I could at least share some thrift store finds.

I haven't started the table that will hold my vintage sink that will be outside.  I have barely started to build the bar that will go in my chicken coop.  Both are outdoor projects that could see a little progress on a sunny winter day.

And...we have three weddings next fall!  So that will mean engagement parties and bridal showers  It is going to be so fun.  My niece wants vintage dishes used at her wedding so her mom and I are on the hunt for white china and brass candlesticks.  I have some.  Well, quite a bit, actually.  Her mom has some too, but more are needed.  We like to thrift so it is not like it will be a hardship to search out the additional place settings that she will need.     

Yep, it is going to be a good winter.

Lorri