Good morning! Woo-Hoo! I’m finally doing a camping post again! Well, sort of- the canvas firewood carrier is a quick, frugal project to make camping easier. And at least I can think about camping while I make it, since we just got 6-8 inches of heavy, wet snow last night. Definitely not camping weather.
This is the second firewood carrier I’ve made. The first one was a Christmas present, 2 years ago, for the husband. It was not a surprise Christmas present though, he had seen the idea somewhere and asked if I would sew one for him.
Then, whenever he would bring logs to the campfire, he would ask ‘Is my firewood carrier done yet?’ So, definitely not a surprise present.
The firewood carrier is such an easy project. It is basically a hemmed rectangle of sturdy fabric (canvas, denim) with handles on the short ends. It makes hauling the wood much easier, though.
35-38 inches is a good length for the firewood carrier, not whatever random length the canvas is. Both of the fabrics I used were intended for other projects, years ago. So while it was frugal, the canvases were odd sizes. 45 inches, the width of my original canvas, and the length of the husband’s wood carrier, is too long. Making it tooo long, also makes the wood hauler tooo hard to use. Just because it is long enough to carry a wheelbarrow of wood, doesn’t mean you want too or can! Wood is heavy!
Or if you carry a reasonable amount of wood, the too long wood hauler can drag on the ground making it harder to haul wood.
Instructions
To prevent fraying, I fold the canvas edge twice. Then, do a 1/2 inch hem all around the rectangle of canvas. I did not hem the salvage edge, I wanted it to be as easy as possible.
I also did not miter the corners, I just folded them over and sewed through all the layers.
Once the rectangle is hemmed, there are different options for the handles. I really love options. For the husband’s wood hauler, I actually bought 1 inch wide webbing tape from the fabric store. Sometimes it is called belt fabric, but it was easy to find with the ribbons and notions, and it was inexpensive. It is supposed to be sewn the whole length of the wood hauler, for strength. I didn’t buy enough though, so I used it only for the handles. It is holding up fine, so far.
For the new one, I wasn’t going to town. I used denim to make handles, and it was easy also.
I cut the denim into strips 3 inches wide and 28 in inches long (yes, that is actually how long it already was).
Then I folded it three times the long way, to make a fake tube without actually turning it. Since I wanted it to be easy ( and my ironing board is buried in the sewing room) I did not press it, I only held it in place.
I folded it into overlapping thirds, the long way, and tucked under the top raw edge. Then I sewed close to the fold to catch all the layers. I thought this would be easier than making a tube and turning it, since denim is so stiff. It made a handle that is about 1 inch wide, just like the webbing tape.
I also made the handle straps the same length as the husband’s. There is 18 inches of free handle, above the fabric, to grab onto. The straps are sewn 8 inches apart, on the short end of the fabric. These amounts seemed easy to use, even with gloves on.
I did reinforce the handles when I sewed them onto the short ends of the canvas rectangle. I back stitched at every corner and across the top and bottom, about 3 times. It was probably too much and not needed, but that was ok- there was plenty of thread in the bobbin. It’s a good thing I’m not working in construction- every wall would be made with 4x4s for added strength.
Added strength is also what I am calling the husband’s firewood carrier fix. Since it was too long, I added a seam to the bottom, making sure the extra 4 inches of fabric was on the inside. Then, I sewed the extra fabric flat at the side seams-hopefully bark or bugs won’t hide in there.
The firewood carriers are different widths. The husband’s is about 23 inches wide and the new one is about 13 inches wide. Old fabric, odd sized, oh well. They both work fine, though the husband likes the wider one because it seemed more stable when he was carrying longer pieces of wood. If I make another, it will be a wider one.
I was surprised that we were able to use both firewood carriers this weekend! I didn’t even have to wait for camping season. Even though it snowed 6-8 inches, we had to boil sap for maple syrup. There were 14 gallons of sap in the refrigerator, no room for milk and more sap flowing. Since the wheelbarrow does not like 6-8 inches of snow, we used the firewood carriers all day to help boil sap, empty the refrigerator and make room for milk! So fun!
The firewood carrier are such an quick, frugal project that makes camping easier, that I hope you will make one for camping season. — Or if you don’t want to sew, you can check out the fun firewood carriers that I have added to my Etsy shop. They are soo fun to make!
Happy Camping (or hauling logs!)
Frugal Campasaurus