How to make soy wax wraps on the easy way
If you’ve been thinking about ditching plastics from your kitchen, this organic food wrap will be a perfect alternative for you.
Soy or beeswax wraps are reusable and sustainable. By using them, you are helping our planet and reducing plastic waste.
They can be a waxing paper alternative and aluminum foil alternative too. I use them to save cheeses, fruits, veggies, and herbs. They work perfectly as a cover on bowls and plates also.
Can you use soy wax for food wraps
YES! Soy wax is all-natural, and you can substitute beeswax to soy. It is not only an organic source but vegan too. If you want to save the bees, use soy wax for your DIY projects.
I used it to make scented candles and love it! I will make lip balms and furniture polish with it too.
Diy vegan food wraps supplies
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- Soy wax. You can purchase the same candle making kit I did, and make some candles, soaps, furniture polish with the leftover.
- 100% cotton fabric. I used a fat quarter for this project.
- Pinking shears. They avoid the fabric to fray. But you can use regular scissors too.
- Brush or toothbrush
Soy wax wraps recipe
I have to be honest; I only used soy wax, and it works well.
But if you would like to mix a little bit of coconut oil, the ratio that worked for me in the past is:
- 1/2 cup of soy wax.
- 1 tablespoon of coconut oil.
Reusable bowl covers pattern
I cut different sizes of fabric. To give you a little guideline, the most common sizes are:
- 4-inch squares.
- 8 x 14-inch rectangles.
- 10-inch squares.
The best practice is that you use your bowls and containers as your template. When you cut the fabric, make sure you cut it a little bigger than the plates and bowls so you have excess wax wrap folding down on the edges, and they can stick together to create a good seal.
How to make vegan wax food wraps
All right! We got to the fun part. Let’s DIY our organic soy wax wrap. If you are a visual learner, you can check out my quick DIY food wrap video.
If you like to read, keep scrolling for the step by step instructions.
1. Design and cut your fabric. Remember, you want to choose a 100% cotton. There are so many cute ones I decided to go with cute boho cacti designed material.
I wanted to cover some of my salad and snack bowls and used them as a template. For the rectangular shapes, I followed where the fabric was folded. From a fat quarter of fabric, I got 2 large rectangular, 1 medium, and 2 circles shapes.
Use the pinking shears to prevent the fabric from fraying.
2. Set up your oven. Preheat it to 200 F. Place the cookie sheet in the pan or add parchment paper. I did skip the protective covering in my video because I use this pan only for DIY crafts. But remember wax is a little hard to clean up, so parchment paper is probably your best friend.
3. Sprinkle the soy wax over the fabrics. You don’t have to sprinkle too much. Just lightly cover your fabrics, and if it is not enough, you can add a little more wax later.
4. Place the pan in the oven. It only takes a couple of minutes for the soy wax to melt. Monitor it and take the pan out when the wax is melted.
5. Brush the melted wax evenly in the fabric. Using a small painters brush or toothbrush, work the wax equally into the material. If there are dry spots, add some more wax and repeat steps 3-5.
6. Hang to dry. I like to hang them outside with fresh air, but anywhere is good. Let it solidify, and your vegan soy wax wraps are ready to be used.
How to use soy wrappers
You can use them for wrapping cheese, avocado, lemon, and apple halves. Pretty much all veggies, herbs, and fruits.
I love to make bread, and sometimes it is nice to freeze the dough to save it for later. Soy wax wrap is perfect for that.
After dinner, when you are lazy to transport the leftovers, you can just cover the salad bowl or plate with the wrap.
When you wrap the food, use your hand’s warmth to make the wax stick together.
After each use, you should rinse them in cold water with mild dish soap and store them folded in the drawers or on the counter in a basket. Warm water will melt the wax, so remember using only cold water to clean your vegan food wraps.
Soy wax wraps cracking
Naturally, wax food wrap will crack here and there when you wrap them around the edges of containers or avocado, for example. Usually, these wax wraps work for a year, and little by little, they will crack and lose wax.
If you don’t want to make another set of soy wax wrap, after cleaning your old wrap, melt more wax on them and hang to dry.
Soy wax wrap DIY experience
The whole vegan wax wrap project took me around 15 minutes and 10 more to dry them. I loved the process and didn’t make any mess.
Couple of tips you might find helpful:
- You can get around 5 different sizes of wax wrap out of a fat quarter cotton fabric.
- The best material for wax wraps is 100 % cotton. You want to avoid any polyester in the fabric so it doesn’t melt the fabric.
- Wash your soy wax wrap only in cold water to avoid wax melting.
This project was super fast and fun. Vegan food wraps are great for people who want to swap plastic for sustainable products. Since they are reusable for a year you’ll reduce your plastic waste too.
Do you have leftover wax? Check out these DIYs
- Scented soy wax candle with dried flowers
- Beeswax candles DIY
- Beeswax furniture polish with citronella
- Beeswax food wraps tutorial
What kind of organic wax projects did you make lately? Let me know in the comments.
Don’t forget to PIN it! That way you can come back to see the instructions.
didn’t work, it only seals around something if I use an elastic band
Hi Mik,
I made soy wax and beeswax wrap and I find the beeswax stickier than the soy wax. (beeswax is not vegan though…)
That being said, to really make your food wrap stickier than mine you might want to add pine resin. I’m not a fan of pine resin and that is why my recipe does not include it.
I hope this trick helps and you’ll try again.
Other recipes use tree resin to help with longevity ..does soy wax not require that?
Hi Theresa,
The resin helps to make the wax wrap stickier. I decided not to use it in my wraps, however, if you want to make sure the wraps are stickier please add resin with the ratio you read in the other recipes.
I hope yours will turn out perfect! 😉
I made a soywax wrap and am running into some issues. The wrap feels very sticky on my hands but is not exactly sticking to the bowl. In fact, the bowl is sticky and oily after trying the use the wrap on it, but it refuses to “stick” on the bowl on its own. Also after I washed it, it had white patches. Help! TIA.
Cecilia,
How did you wash the wax wraps?
If there is a residue from the wrap on the bowl you might want to use less soy wax. You don’t want the fabric swimming in the melted wax. You need only the amount that the fabric can absorb easily.
My recipe doesn’t include pine resin on purpose. I don’t like the stickiness of it. However, if you want to make your wax wrap stickier you might want to add pine resin.
I hope this little info helps.