One of my favourite places to eat, as I’m sure you know by now, is Spice Alley near Sydney’s Central Station. It’s a pretty hip place – cashless transactions, recyclable paper plates, biodegradable wooden utensils – and the food is great too.
Inspired by my friend Clare, I was keen to start bringing my own cutlery with me on visits there rather than using and throwing away the disposable ones on offer. But when I looked at buying a utensil carry case, I was taken aback by the cost. I’m sure we’d all live greener lives if it wasn’t so expensive to purchase eco-friendly kit. And I figured that as we’d already made our own mesh bags, beeswax wraps, furoshiki and crocheted dishcloths, how hard could it be to sew a utensil holder?
Turns out it’s not very hard at all. Here are my lazy sewing instructions – please adapt them however you wish.
I began with a $2.80 tenegui (Japanese tea towel) from Daiso. You could use any fabric you like, but this one already had hemmed edges and the weave was thin and easy to stitch through. Plus, the designs are dead cute and very affordable. I use the same fabric for both our cloth napkins and for lining my bannetons, so I knew it was going to wash and launder well.
Each cloth is around 35cm wide by 85 – 95cm long (for $2.80, you don’t always get precision sizing).
Step 1: Cut the fabric 56cm (22″) from one short edge. If your fabric is 95cm long, that will leave you with a rough square and a long rectangle.
Step 2: Now cut the long rectangle in half length-wise. You’ll end up with two pieces each approximately 56cm x 18cm (22″ x 7″).
Step 3: Hem the unfinished edge of the square. This will be your travel napkin. I use a double hem, but you could simply overlock (serge) the edge and turn the hem under…
Step 4: Hem the two unfinished edges of one of the long halves.
Now, grab your cutlery and decide how deep you want the pockets to be. I folded my fabric up 19cm (7½”).
Pin the sides and stitch them together to form one deep pocket. I stitched through all the layers, which was easy to do as the tenegui has such an open weave.
Tip: If you’re making this from heavier fabric, you might want to do an overlocked (serged) and stitched hem rather than a double hem, so that you only have to sew through four layers of fabric rather than six. Using a longer stitch length and a strong needle helps as well.
Step 5: using a washable marker, divide the single pocket into smaller ones. To be honest, I only marked it up for the photo – when I made mine, I just eyeballed the stitching lines.
I sewed one line down the middle first.
On the left side, I stitched another line down the middle to form two equal pockets. Then I sewed a line off-centre on the right side to form a bigger compartment for a spoon, and a smaller one for a straw.
Step 6: pop your cutlery in and check it all fits. You could also sew a tie on the outside, but I just roll mine up and pop a silicone band around it…
Ok, so it’s not a fancy quilted job with carefully finished edges and an attached tie…but that means it’s a doddle to wash, it only took ten minutes to sew, and it won’t clutter up my handbag any more than is absolutely necessary. Best of all, I didn’t pay $32 for it, and my $2.80 tenegui was enough for two utensil wraps and a matching napkin. That’s very cool, right?
As I mentioned at the start of the post, buying eco-friendly products can be an expensive exercise, especially if you’re serious about minimising single-use items. To replace paper towels, paper serviettes, plastic shopping and vegetable bags, and cling film, we use a large quantity of cloth napkins, crocheted dishcloths, beeswax wraps, furoshiki and mesh bags.
I’m not sure we’d have been able to afford everything we needed at retail prices – “green” products are a growing market and there’s a lot of profit being made at the moment. If you’re in the same boat, I’d encourage you to make your own. Here are all the patterns and tutorials we’ve written so far – hopefully they’ll be a useful starting point!
Mesh Bags (pattern at the end of the post)
Crocheted Acrylic Dish Scrubber
Cloth Napkins (second half of post)
. . . . .
And here are the posts so far on our Waste Reduction Plan:
27 Jan 2018 A Waste Reduction Plan
2 Feb 2018 A Long, Rambling Catch Up
15 April 2018 Our Waste Reduction Plan – Progress Report
20 April 2018 Our Waste Reduction Plan – Fine Tuning
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I have my mesh bags cut out and ready to sew. I’ve found that old bootlaces are perfect for the drawstrings, and as the Husband has to wear boots for work, I get a ‘volunteer’ every so often as he tends to replace the pair if one goes. I’ve noticed a very big reduction in our rubbish now that we’re RedCycling the plastics and Bokashi-ing the green waste. I like your cutlery roll, but would have very little opportunity to use it. I’ll file the idea away for a gift; someone in my life must need it!
Shoelaces are the best! I found a stack of them at Reverse Garbage leftover from a World AIDS Day event. Isn’t it great when we can see our red bins start to empty? We’re seeing the same thing, and it’s sooo satisfying!
Recycling or mending the Husband’s work clothes is fun: I made him a whole quilt for his truck from his old shirts and pants. Now I have a use for the shoelaces too!
“Eyeballing the stitches” … go Celia! Thanks for this well-presented tutorial. Ideal for sewing newbies like me. Might make a paintbrush roll for myself.
I’m not saying my stitch lines are always straight, Peter. But the cutlery seems to fit, which is all that matters (to me, anyway). :) xx
Another lovely idea – it’s always handy to have your own cutlery – you just never know when you are going to need it👍👍
Margo, a lot of the ready made ones seem to be quite thick – most of them are lined and large. The advantage of this little one (apart from it working out at about $1) is that it’s light and doesn’t take up a whole lot of space. Plus it’s easy to wash if you need to put dirty cutlery back in to bring it all home (although I’ll probably wrap it all in the napkin).
Thank you for listing the patterns. All good 🙋
Yay! I hope you find them useful!
Thank you, will definitely be sewing some of these. I have been making mesh bags for friends. I bought a “new” sewing machine on eBay a few days ago, a 40 year old Elna Lotus in pristine condition so I am happily gathering projects to do when it arrives in a few days time from Qld. My longest serving sewing machine I bought from Waltons 44 years ago but it finally died so I replaced it with a new, cheapie Brother from Myers. It’s OK but seems to overheat and just stop working. My sister alerted me to the Elna Lotusus on eBay so I jumped in and bought one. I love sewing machines. I have the treadle Singer mum was given for her 16th birthday in 1939. I bought my first Singer (electric portable in a wooden carry case) machine in 1961 and have kept sewing ever since. You are such an inspiration Celia I am happily into Furoshiki, buying remnants from our local Red Cross Shop, hemming pieces to have them on hand to wrap presents.
Sandy, you bought a machine from WALTONS! Goodness, that takes me back, it’s been years since that department store was around (we’re showing our age). I have a gorgeous Janome which I bought 20 years ago and it’s still going strong, plus I was given a broken industrial machine about 15 years ago which gets a good workout as well. I’m so glad you found a replacement for the cheapie Brother – Elna is a fabulous brand. Enjoy playing with the furoshiki – I still am! Everything in the house is wrapped in bits of fabric these days.. :)
What a grand idea! The pattern is also cute. I have made similar pouches for wrench tool sets, complete with tie strings to prevent the tools from escaping. The “rolls” were handy when the wrenches were carried along in the tractor, or place of use. I made mine out of jeans as the wear and tear was much greater. They have held up for over 10 years of heavy use, so I’m sure your cutlery holders will last a very long time. Here in Canada, eco friendly products can also be expensive, although some stores locally have dropped prices in an effort to promote healthy, clean living.
One a side note, although I think you may not be needing to use them anymore, another option for helping the environment is using a menstrual cup and/or cloth pads. Both are washable and reusable and greatly reduce waste as well as being much healthier for the body. I have switched to those and am very happy with my choice in more ways than one.
Manuela, it IS a bit late for me, but the younger members of our family are raving about the menstrual cups as well. It’s so good to finally have viable eco friendly alternatives to something which every woman deals with for 40 years of her life!
I’m going to make some of these – I’m sure one would be appreciated by my daughter and I’m very hopeful of picnic weather 😀. The napkin wrapped in with it is a good idea.
Hooray for picnic weather! I thought of the Management today, Kim, when I watched a bin chicken feeding in the bay. He was sticking his curved beak inside gaps in the rocks and dirt, and I thought…”yep, that’s how they’re MEANT to be feeding, not scavenging in bins”.. :)
He’s still very taken with bin chickens 😂
Such a fantastic idea, will be great to make some of these for our travels. And I love that you include chopsticks and a metal straw… Genius!!
T, the metal straw was a gift from my friend Al after I’d complained about not being able to find one. It’s super!
Am going to buy some for us! When we’re driving they’re brilliant for using en route as drinking out of a (reusable) bottle would be dangerous!
Another clever creation! I love this. There is no end to your creativity, Celia!
Ah you’re kind Debra, thank you! xx
I love the idea but I don’t have a sewing machine and can’t even imagine where I would be able to store one in our small home. Maybe there are barter systems to swap some sewing machine time for some sourdough bread!
Johanna, as my Pete pointed out, you could just wrap the cutlery in a napkin.. :D
What a lovely idea. Great for a gift too! Meg:)
Difficult to keep up with you and your green ventures :) This would also work as a knitting needle/crochet hook case. Or sketching pencils. When you start to think about it, there are all sorts of uses.
You should compile an Eco book with all your tips – obviously, it would have to be an Ebook though.
You may consider putting some reusable chopsticks in it as well, apparently the disposable wooden ones are causing major problems too. Also thank you for the starter you so generously gave me, it is going great much better than what I had. It was your blog that got me started with sourdough. Again thank you.
Yes, I have chopsticks in there as well, and also a teaspoon. So happy to hear your starter is going well! :)
Instead of a rubber band try the small hair tiers a lot stronger and should last longer, love the ideas you present Thankyou for sharing
Thank you for reading! I’ve just made “bands” out of stripey socks and they’re working great! 😉 I’ll post about them soon!
Good job with the cutlery wrap thingie! I have one in my bag all the time (I had it made by someone on Etsy – pricey but I really can’t sew!) I use bandanas as napkins/face wipes/hand wipes/picking up dirty or wet things etc – I had a stack from collecting them to make a quilt (remember I can’t sew!!) so now they are useful for napkins!! Love your blog & your enthusiasm for reducing your waste!
[…] Celia was inspired by a friend to take her own cutlery to her favorite cafe. Buying something relatively inexpensive to carry the cutlery was the issue but she came up with a clever solution. Follow her sewing tutorial using a teatowel. […]
Great tutorial :) I especially like your idea of using a teatowel. Have included it in our Crafty Like Granny weekly Craft roundup. I’m sure our readers will love it! https://craftylikegranny.com/crafting-happiness/ Cheers Jodie :)
Thank you!
Backtracking to the ladies’ items – not everyone wants the cups, but the https://www.daysforgirls.org/ will send patterns for reusable shields & pads. Excellent charity by the way – do a few extra and donate them! I’m a lousy sewer; I can do the liners. And if anyone has pretty cottons or flannelette in the stash that isn’t going to be used, they would love them.