Skip the plastic forks and spoons during your next picnic date, camping trip or neighborhood barbecue! Follow along with Bonnie Liston from Peppermint Magazine to learn how to sew your own sustainable cutlery holder, perfect for keeping reusable utensils clean and cozy wherever you go.
Roll Up and Roll Out with This Cutlery Wrap
Bonnie: As we enter the prime picnic months of summer, our thoughts turn to all sorts of fun activities that involve eating outdoors.
Of course, we’re all sustainably-minded folks here – trying our best to eschew single-use plastic – but to do so, we need reusable utensils ready to hand! You can’t simply chuck them all loosey-goosey inside your bag, getting that weird purse sand all up in your straw, or leftover food residue in your good purse sand.
You need a smart solution to keep your utensils together, safe, clean and organized. This easy-to-make fabric utensil holder is just the ticket, and can be created with just one fat quarter of suitably summery fabric!
Materials
Skill level: Beginner
- 1 fat quarter of home decor suitable fabric (we used Ukrainian artist Ilona Repkina’s Sunflowers Field on Blue in Linen Cotton Canvas)
- Sewing machine
- Fabric scissors or rotary blade
- Pins or fabric clips
- Measuring tape
- Fabric marker or pen
Steps to Make Your Cutlery Wrap
1. Prepare Your Fabric
Cut out two rectangles measuring 8 x 20” (20.3 cm x 51 cm) and two rectangles measuring 1.5” x 10” (3.8 cm x 25.4 cm) from your fabric.
2. Make the Tie Pieces
Take your two small skinny rectangles, fold in one of their short edges by 1/5” (0.5 cm) and press down.
Fold one long edge to the centre and then the other so they meet in the middle, similar to the process of making bias tape, and press.
Fold the strip in half and sew down along the open edge. You should now have two neat little ties!
3. Begin Body Construction
Place the two larger rectangles on top of each other, right sides facing, and sew together along the edges leaving a gap of approximately 2” (5 cm) at the halfway point of one of the long edges.
Using this gap, pull the rectangle right sides out and press flat.
4. Make the Pocket
To create the pocket where the utensils will sit, fold up one of the short edges of the rectangle by 5” (12.7 cm) and pin in place. It should be partially covering the gap in the rectangle seam.
Before you sew down the edges of the pocket, take your two tie pieces and tuck their raw edges inside the hole. Pin in place.
Top-stitch around three edges of the rectangle, excluding the folded edge. This sews the pocket in place, closes the gap and attaches the tie pieces!
5. Finishing Touches
Divide the pocket into five equal sections of about 1.5” (3.8 cm) each and mark with fabric marker, chalk or pins. These will form the sections you store your utensils in so depending on what you are planning to put in your wrap, you may divide it up differently.
Carefully topstitch down these lines to divide your pocket, making sure to backstitch at the beginning and end to reinforce the stitching.
You’re finished! Pack up your cutlery and go find yourself a celebratory snack to eat in style!
