How to make…

Anyone who has attended a Woodland Ways course will probably be aware that most of the meals we prepare are cooked in Dutch Ovens as they are a fantastic cooking container for group meals and can be hung/supported over a fire.

As good as they are however, they do become rather sooty over time even after cleaning, and if you are using them when travelling, such as on a canoe trip, you do find that everything and anyone that touches them start to become rather grubby.

There are many companies who make Dutch oven carry bags, a very good example being Petromax. For more information you might want to visit the Woodland-Ways online shop to see the range.

For this blog however, hot on the heels of the waxed cotton side pouches and because I had some surplus waxed cotton I decided it would be a nice exercise to have a go at making my own Dutch Oven carry bag.

This was going to be a simple draw string bag but because my Dutch oven has feet I decided I would add a thick foam base to give the bag some shape and prevent the feet puncturing the canvas.

First job was to determine how much material I needed which meant a few measurements were required.

Maximum diameter and height including the synched bit at the top was a good start.

I then worked out the circumference added some material for an overlap and marked it out on my piece of waxed canvas. I also measured the circumference of the base of the Dutch oven so that I could cut out a disc of material and the foam base that came from some old foam packing I had kept.

Before I could assemble the pieces there were a couple of things I needed to do;

First I needed to add a paracord draw-string along the top edge.

The next task was to somehow taper the bag to allow for the smaller base. To do this I decided the simplest thing to do would be to add four pleats equally spaced around the bag. Here you can see two of the pleats before I attached the base.

Once the pleats were sewn up I attached the base and turned it the right side out for a first look.

The foam block was then positioned inside to make sure it fitted correctly.

To ensure the foam block stayed in place I decided to fit two brass eyelets in the base which allowed me to add a paracord loop and also act as drainage for any water that might get into the bag.

The final step was to open it up, slot in the feet of the Dutch oven and synch it shut.

Waxed canvas is a fantastic material to work with and may feature in further blogs but you do have to make sure when using a sewing machine that you use suitable needles. I found that by using denim needles I got a good result without breaking any.