DIY Beeswax Wraps: Make Your Own and Ditch the Cling Film!
Single-use plastic is OUT, and greener, more environmentally viable options are most definitely IN - but what are those options... and can you craft them at home? You certainly can - and the lovely Sarah Cawood is here to show you how! Check out her DIY Beeswax Wraps tutorial below, and discover just how easy it is to make a fantastic alternative to clingfilm that the planet will thank you for!
Sarah Cawood's DIY Beeswax Wraps
We are deep into the 21st century now, a fresh new decade is upon us and we are all keen to look after our beleaguered planet. One of the things I’m trying to do is cut down on our household plastic use. We are back to using soaps, have dispensed with disposable wet wipes and the cling film has been well and truly banished. I bought some beeswax wraps last year and they have been a revelation in my house! I use them for loads of stuff but mainly for wrapping up fruit and veg and I now wouldn’t be without them. Clingfilm BEGONE! They were, however, a bit expensive so I decided to have a go at making some of my own and the good news is, it’s REALLY easy! Some tutorials recommend using pine resin and jojoba oil too but they don’t really improve the wraps so you may as well save your pennies.
Follow the photographic tutorial and have a go yourself! What a wonderfully thrifty way to use up old fabric scraps and help save the planet!
Just a quick clean-up tip: the wax will stick to your baking trays LIKE GLUE! I used A LOT of boiling water and washing up liquid to get them clean; you’ll have to do repeated boiling water ‘melts’ on them, but they do come clean eventually! Beeswax is STICKY! Great for food wraps, bad for baking tray clean-ups!
Would it not be easier to scrape the wax off or reheat and pour off. This way excess wax can be reused.
If you line your baking tins with foil, and keep this waxy foil for future soakings there is no need for lots of boiling water and as Margaret comments above, you can re melt what is left of the wax to be used on more fabric. Having said all this I know that despite explaining to him, my husband would start moaning about all these ‘mucky’ bits of cloth in the kitchen and have already put them in the washing machine to be cleaned with the next load.
Does it matter what material the fabric is? Would cotton be best?