How my sandwich bags ended up as gift bags

Beeswax sandwich bags was a new project I was very keen to learn, but my sewing machine had other ideas.

This post is one of learning and not one of 'look at what I made'.  I had seen beeswax sandwich bags and I thought they were such a brilliant idea, I'd love to give these a try.

The issue I had was how on earth does one sew a sandwich bag together once it's been covered in beeswax?  My poor sewing machine was having none of it and just refused to work!

I'd cut the fabric to size, I'd even spent an obscene amount of time grating that huge block of beeswax in the photo above, just enough to make one bag, and I'd melted the wax onto the cotton fabric.

But like I said, the next stage was to sew the edges, now in hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have melted the wax to the ends of the fabric, that is probably the answer, but I'm not going to be attempting that again any time soon!

When making the original sandwich bags I'd cut the fabric up ready to make a batch, but as we now know, I tried to kill my sewing machine, so I then had over 20 pieces of fabric cut to size and as it was Harry Potter newspaper fabric.  This can not go to waste!

So, I totally winged it and made fabric gift bags!

I think they've turned out OK.  I've made them so the tops just roll down and some pretty ribbon ties the bag up.

They are not solid bases or sides, but I've sewed the outsides of all edges to give them shape and the inside can always be filled out with tissue paper, along with a gift of course.

So, my beeswax is on the shelf, waiting for its next project and my gift bags will be making their way to friends and family over the course of the year.

Any tips on sewing the edges of a wax sandwich bag will be gratefully received...