How to Make a Reusable Elastic Bowl Cover
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These reusable elastic bowl covers are a great alternative to plastic wrap and foil. Just slip one over any bowl that doesn’t have a lid, for an easy way to store leftovers. I designed these to be both easy to clean and food-safe. Make a few for yourself. Then, make a bunch more to gift. These covers solve a problem that everyone has.
Most tutorials instruct you to make your reusable bowl covers out of two layers of cotton, but cotton isn’t wipeable and it isn’t waterproof. Some tutorials attempt to solve these issues by recommending that you make your covers out of laminated cotton, oil cloth or PUL, but in most cases these materials aren’t food-safe. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be an either-or situation because I came up with a reusable bowl cover that is wipeable, machine-washable and food-safe.
On the outside, it looks just like any other cotton bowl cover, but when you flip it over, it has a food-safe liner that’s waterproof, wipeable and machine-washable. Genius!
The lining is made from ProSoft FoodSAFE® Waterproof PUL Fabric, and according to the manufacturer, it’s the only PUL to be CPSIA-certified as food-safe.
It comes in a bunch of colors, and is laminated on one side. I used it laminated-side out to create the liner for my reusable bowl covers, and I couldn’t be happier with the result. Let me show you how to make one.
Reusable Elastic Bowl Cover Tutorial
What You’ll Need:
- Cotton fabric for the outside of your bowl cover
- ProSoft FoodSAFE® waterproof PUL fabric for the lining
- 1/4″ elastic
- A ruler
- Scissors
- Sewing clips
- Thread
- A sewing machine (This is the machine that I have)
- A safety pin
Optional (but nice to have):
- An air or water-soluble marker
- A bodkin (makes it easier to install the elastic)
What You Do:
Lay your cotton fabric, right-side down on your work surface. Then, flip your bowl upside down on the fabric. Use a ruler and air-soluble marker to go around the outside of the bowl, making marks two inches out from the edge of the bowl. Continue doing this, until you make it all the way around the bowl. Then, connect your marks to form a circle.
If you’re making these for someone else, just select a small, medium and large bowl from your kitchen to trace. I built plenty of overhang into the design, to ensure the covers would fit a range of sizes.
Cut the circle out with a pair of scissors.
Then, trace the circle on your Prosoft PUL, and cut it out.
Clip the two circles together, right-sides facing. In this case, the laminated side of the PUL is the right side.
Pro Tip: Don’t use sewing pins on this project. They’ll leave permanent holes in the laminate.
Then, sew a 1/4-inch seam around the outside of the circle, leaving two inches open for turning.
Pink the sewn edges to prevent fraying. This is optional, but it’s something I like to do.
Then, flip the circle right-side out; finger-press the edges (do not iron them); and fold in the open seam.
Topstitch a half-inch seam around the outside of the circle to create a channel for your elastic.
Then, feed your elastic through the channel. A bodkin makes quick work of this, but you can also accomplish the task by attaching a safety pin to the end of your elastic and feeding it through the opening.
When you’ve successfully fed the elastic all the way through, hold both ends of the elastic firmly; then, carefully stretch the bowl cover over your bowl. Pull the elastic tight to eliminate any excess. Then, overlap the two ends of the elastic, and sew back and forth over them several times with a zig zag stitch.
Trim the excess elastic. Then, sew the open seam on your reusable bowl cover shut, and you’re done!
To clean, simply flip your reusable bowl cover inside out, and give them a quick wipe, or toss them in the washing machine on hot, and dry them on medium. Easy!
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Hello – wanted to let you know that I made a bunch of these as gifts for family this Christmas and it worked out great. I think people were especially pleased to have received a homemade gift. I also made some for myself, to use as covers for some glass storage bowls that came with plastic lids that are now starting to wear out. The glass part is fine, so with these covers I can easily keep using them. Many thanks for the great idea and instructions, including the tip about the food-grade plastic to use for a liner.
Best,
Jenny
PS-I’ve also used your recipe for the crockpot refried beans and loved it. We still had one can of refriend beans left in our pantry, and when I ate that after having the homemade, I thought it was terrible! I’ll never go back to the store bought – they tasted like the can, and had lard, which is totally unnecessary. Homemade is so much better, and so easy as well.
Yay! Glad to hear you’re finding ideas you can use on the website 🙂