5 Top Tips for Making Waxed Cloth

Last week my friend, Lee Cheng, (The DIY Secrets) invited me over to her home to experiment on making reusable waxed cloth with scrap fabrics and beeswax. We were exploring alternatives to using disposable cling wrap in the kitchen, and thought it would be pretty straightforward. Boy, were we wrong! We consulted a few sites on how to get it done, but encountered a few hiccups along the way. Here are our tips. 

Thank you to Lee Cheng for supplying the beeswax.

What You Will Need

Tip #1 Oven Method is the Best!

We experimented with 3 techniques.

Beeswax melts at about 60C and has a low flashpoint as we decided the best course of action for us would be to use a bainmarie.  We poured about 70g of the wax onto a lined tray (as shown in the picture below) and waited for it to melt. This took about a minute once the water in the lower tray was boiling.When the wax was completely melted, we dipped the cut fabric into the wax, removed quickly and let cool. The problem with this method was that we were left with pieces of waxed cloth that were extremely stiff and with blobs of wax in certain areas.

With the pour method, we melted some wax in a beaker and then poured the wax onto the fabric. This was less than ideal as the wax seeped into the cloth so quickly that we had no time to spread it, and in the end, we ended up using more wax than was necessary. But, I think it was better than the bainmarie method.

With the oven method, we sprinkled the wax over the cloth in a lined tray and popped it in the oven.  As soon as the wax melted we had to remove the tray immediately and quickly use a metal spoon to smooth out any pools of wax. There were a couple of times that we left it in too long and we were left with smoke in the oven!  To make sure we got full coverage, we sprinkled the whole cloth with beeswax - it felt like we were making pizza! The end result was waxed cloth that was still flexible enough yet did not crack. 

Safety note: set oven for < 200C, or you can pre-heat oven and switch off when melting the wax.

Tip #2 Choose the Right Fabric

We had experimented with a dish cloth and diaper pre-folds. As the latter was very absorbent, we ended up using all of the beeswax, and it was difficult to spread the wax easily because of the fabric's high absorbency. The whole process resulted in a piece of waxed cloth as stiff as cardboard! Remember, once the wax is absorbed, there's no way you can get it back out. So, try a small piece first. We found the dish cloth worked perfectly.

Tip #3 Use a Spoon

Yes, that's right, use a spoon instead of a brush. Once the wax cools, it will be difficult to remove the wax from the bristles, but with a spoon, you can scrape it off with a knife and reuse the wax (and spoon!). 

Tip #4 Use Chopsticks

We found that chopsticks were the best tool for handling the hot waxed cloths. Tongs or tweezers make marks on the wax. 

Tip #5 Perfect as Covers

The waxed cloths we made are great as covers as the cloth was flexible and didn't crack! On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend using them as wraps as the wax did crack slightly at the creases and I did get a few flakes (too much wax perhaps?)

Have you tried making your own waxed cloth? Share your tips here!

Like this? You might want to make this!