Just to get a break from making face masks we have started to make washable, reusable sandwich wraps which double up as a plate mat when opened up. The first one I made was for our youngest who’s at primary school. His initial feedback was that it’s great because he now doesn’t have to eat off the table! One of his friends actually thought he’d brought a plate to school! 🙂

As well as being a lot more practical, these wraps are a great environmentally-friendly alternative to aluminium foil or clingfilm. They are machine washable and you can also wipe them clean very easily. All have a cotton or cotton/linen blend outer (some are organic or Oeko-Tex® certified), with a waterproof ProSoft® foodSAFE® PUL fabric inner to keep sandwiches fresh, and a piece of strong Oeko-Tex® Vlieseline (which is partially made out of recycled plastic bottles) sandwiched as it were between the inner and the outer layer for added stability. Some are funkier than others but I think you might as well have something to cheer you up and make you smile when you stop for lunch, as well as keeping lunchtimes hygienic (as you’ve effectively brought your own plate from a clean home environment) end eco-friendly.

Whilst I am normally against using any sort of man-made fabric, I regard the foodSAFE® PUL as a compromise: it is reusable as opposed to disposable (although that term has always annoyed me as disposable packaging is not really that in environmental terms, if you get my drift), and although I am not a vegan I struggle with the idea of taking something away from bees which is not freely given, such as beeswax used in beeswax wraps, for example. The PUL also makes the wrap a lot easier to care for than beeswax wraps. What I am really waiting for though is a PUL type fabric made entirely from renewable resources.

I’m already getting carried away here with new designs being made every week, so keep popping in to see what’s new. A few weeks ago, I was extremely busy doing face masks (not quite so mad now and I actually manage to get the bed this side of midnight most nights) and I was desperately trying to get the bairns to make their own lunches. Now I find I look forward to using the wraps first thing in the morning and I have made the lunches before any child even appears downstairs for me to badger them into doing it themselves. Maybe that’s not such a good thing after all… :-/