I want to share with you a few tips and advice on how to wax your own canvas fabric. We recently began waxing our own 100% HEMP Canvas Fabric. We encountered a few hiccups along the way, but have (finally) mastered our process. I want to share our process and a few tips with you as you embark on your own waxing canvas adventure!
The first step to waxing your canvas fabric is to gather your supplies. We like to use our 100% Organic Hemp Canvas fabric. It is a durable fabric and comes in an 18.5 oz weight. The waxing process makes it a little thicker (and sturdy), but it softens as it's used (like all waxed canvas).
After you choose your fabric, you will need additional supplies. We use Organic Beeswax pellets, a small pan used only for our beeswax melting process, a wide brush (2") for larger surfaces, a towel dedicated to only waxing, and a heat gun.
Keep in mind there are many tutorials available online with recipes, proportions, etc regarding waxing canvas fabric. This is the process that works best for us. Feel free to tweak our process and come up with your own.
We generally sew our project prior to waxing. We found this works best for us.
Once our project is complete and ready to be waxed we begin the waxing process.
First we lay out our large towel to protect our workspace.
We use the double boiler method to melt our wax. We gather 2 stainless steel pans (a small and large one). The larger pan we add enough water to cover the bottom third of our smaller pan.
At this point we turn on the burner and allow our larger pan of water to heat while we prepare the beeswax pan. While our water is heating, we place our 100% Organic Beeswax pellets into the smaller pan.
Then we gently and carefully place the smaller pan into the larger one. We stir constantly as our beeswax pellets melt. Once it is melted we begin to apply it to our project.
We gently "paint" the beeswax onto our project while it is still melted. Be sure to pay attention to the seams and nooks + crannies of your project. Also be sure you do both sides of your project.
Once the beeswax is applied to our project we grab the heat gun and slowly (and carefully) heat our beeswax and spread it out onto our project. This process takes a little practice - for me it looked easier watching him do it! Be sure you don't get your heat gun too close to your fabric. Keep it a safe distance away from your fabric.
Now it's time to wait. It doesn't take long for the beeswax to dry, but I would give it a little time to "cure" before I used it.
The process of waxing your canvas fabric is fun once you get the hang of it. You'll find a lot of tutorials and advice online. I wanted to share our process with you and what we do to make it work.
You can find our 100% Organic Hemp Canvas Fabric HERE - we have several colors available.
If you have more questions, we created a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) regarding our process. You can find that HERE.
