We have a great big firewood basket, but once it is filled with wood, it is a heavy bugger to carry from the wood store outside to the fireplace inside. So I have had my eye on a few designs I’ve seen on Pinterest and with a dull, showery Winter’s day, what better way to prepare for more of the same, but in front of the trusty old sewing machine. I LOVE upcycling what normally would end up in landfill!
This log carrier is an ingenious design, so easy to make, and it took me about an hour from start to finish. We have tried it out and it works like a charm, no stress or strain on the back. I had a 1/3 of a hessian coffee sack left over from making my potato seed storage sacks. Perfect for this project. The design I saw used old car seat belts which would be perfect for the handles, but alas, who keeps old car seatbelts around the house? So next plan…..what else could I use?
A quick fossick and I found one of Mike’s old garden shirts (stained and well-worn) and decided that would do nicely for the handles. My 3 years of making Boomerang Bags has prepared me well for handle making! I wanted to keep the old shirt memory alive, so included the buttons and buttonholes for the handles and reinforcing sections on the carrier.
I sewed both of the sides of the hessian sack, turning it inside out and reinforcing those sides with another row of stitching. Once the strips were cut, then folded and ironed into handles and reinforcing strips, it was an easy job to pin them onto the hessian bag.
The picture above shows the outside of the carrier. On the inside of the hessian I needed to reinforce it as there were little rips from previous use (as a coffee sack), so I simply sewed two extra strips on the inside of the carrier to protect the hessian from the rough wood catching on the rips, as well as hide the previous ripped areas.
Voila, the wood carrier finished, I put it to the test. It takes 4 – 5 chunky pieces of wood easily, and is not a strain to carry. And the best thing is, that I discovered it all rolls up and the handle can be looped around to keep it neat and tidy till it is needed to top up the wood supply again.
I can see collecting firewood won’t be a challenge again, and we won’t need to toss a coin to see who will go out to collect firewood in the heavy basket again! Mike’s old garden shirt gets an extended life. Cost of the project: one hour of my time, and a bit of sewing thread. The one on Pinterest would cost NZ$52 (the equivalent in euros).
As I placed the rolled up log tote into the wood basket for future use, it struck me that coffee plays a big part in our keeping warm with the log fire! The wood basket is lined with coffee pouches that I sewed some 5 years ago, and is still going strong!
So if you have to carry heavy firewood during winter, consider making your very own rustic log carrier. Simple and easy, and upcycling at it’s best.
Keep warm guys,
Arohanui
Jizzy G
Living the Green Life 