Submit Your Article!
Want to write an article related to the Long Trail? We accept all manner of articles! If it is related to the Long Trail, or your experiences on the trail, we want to hear from you. If you want to write about gear, safety, Leave No Trace, food or whatever else you can dream up about the Long Trail, please end an email to "trailangel@longtrailhiking.info" - All submissions will be edited for clarity and brevity.
| Next > |
|---|
Why Make this Project?
Rehydrating your food in the backcountry can be done several ways. You could:
- Use a Freezer Bag Cozy made from fabric
- Use a Freezer bag Cozy made from Reflectix
- Use a Pot Cozy made from Reflectix
Bear in mind, you don't have to have your own dehydrator to rehydrate food. As an example, you could make your Ramen in a Freezer Bag. You could repackage commercial meals from BackPackers Pantry and others in a Freezer Bag. You could make instant Mashed Potatoes in a Freezer bag, and the list goes on. We like using Freezer bags over pot cozies due to the ease of cleanup and less impact on the back country and wildlife. Freezer Bag Cooking is a great way to enjoy the outdoors and allows you more variety in your foods.
Making the cozies from fabric is fun, especially if you have kids. They can get whatever fabric best represents their attitude or interests and it will become a piece of personalized gear that will make them get excited about their trip.
A single yard of Insul Bright is enough to make approximately eight cozies. They are washable and long lasting if you construct them right the first time. We make new ones quite frequently just because it is fun We usually use leftover ripstop nylon from other projects but on occasion we get something personal to take with. Our friends tend to buy the cozies we make from us for their friends or family so we don't mind sewing some new ones for fun.
The project below was completed by my teen aged daughter and I documented it for the Long Trail Hiking website. If you have never tried Freezer Bag Cooking, we suggest you use this project as your starter. It will be a good excuse to get out and try it.
Materials needed:
- Sewing machine
- 1 Yard of your favorite fabric ( Light Cotton, Silk, Nylon, Ripstop) - Remember this is meant to be a lightweight item
- 1 Yard of Insul Bright insulating material
- Polyester Thread (We use only Gutermann)
- Velcro
- Rotary Cutter and Mat preferred, good fabric scissors will do fine if you don't have the cutter.
- Straight Edge
These materials can be purchased at any JoAnn fabric store. They are very regular about their sale coupons. If you take someone else with you, you can always get both sets of fabric for usually 40-50 % off retail price. I believe the Insul Bright runs $6.99 a yard. Any other fabric is your choice. A small spool of Gutermann is 2 bucks. I have yet to purchase any Velcro, I had yards and yards of it in the garage left over from when I used to do trade shows in the Broadcast Industry. So if you have a family, or friends, it is reasonable to say that you could easily sew about 8 cozies for approximately 15 dollars for the batch. Less if you use their regular weekly coupons. If you are familiar with your sewing machine, you could get those done within a couple of hours.
Step One
As depicted in the photo above, you'll want to cut a piece of Insul Bright 8.5 inches wide by 21.5 inches long. You'll want to cut your fabric 8.5 inches wide, by 22 inches long. Make a template from pattern material or with two sheets of printer paper as depicted to the right of the fabric.
Make the template 8.5 inches wide. Draw a straight line 18.75 inches from the bottom of the template. This is the start of where the flap will fold over.
The top of the template should measure at 21.5 inches from the bottom. At the top of the template, make a mark .75 inches from each corner. Draw a straight line from the 18.75 inch mark to the mark at the top to cut the angled section from the template to allow for a proper flap.
TIP: When cutting your fabric, the straighter your cuts, the more professional your Freezer Bag cozy will look. Consider layering your fabric and cutting with a rotary tool and cutting mat.
Step Two
Sandwich your fabric with the print side DOWN on top of the Insul Bright. (We depicted it wrongly in the photo) with the template placed on top. Using a straight edge and your rotary tool, cut the angles from the top flap. And pin together as shown below.
After you have pinned the layers together as shown above, then sew only the angled pieces and the top as shown in the next photo below. Make sure to double stitch the ends to keep the stitches intact.
Step Three
Reach up inside between the Insul Bright and the fabric. Grab ahold of the top and pull inside out. Your print pattern should now be facing out and you'll notice the nice finished edge on the top flap.
As depicted in the photo below take the extra half inch of material, fold it over and pin. Run two top stitches. One near the top of fold, one at the bottom near the Insul Bright.
Step Four
Once you have run the two top stitches, remove the pins and fold over the fabric as shown in the photo below. You'll fold that newly top stitched piece to line up where the angles on the flap start to turn upward. Pin together and stitch each edge from bottom to top about a 1/4 inch inward.
Step Five
After stitching the two edges, Reach between the layers towards the bottom, grab ahold of the bottom and pull inside out similar to what you did in step one.
Step Six
The last step is to place one or two pieces of velcro as shown and bar tack them in place. Congratulations, you're done!
