Making a Firewood Carrier

Father's day is coming up again this year, and unlike past years, I'm still debating a little bit on what to get John. I know that the stereotype is to get your dad or husband a tie every year, but I haven't actually bought him one in the 7 years we've been married, so... maybe this will be the year! Haha!

Usually I'm more on top of what to do for John for Father's Day. In fact, today's post is actually about something I gave John a few years ago and then made another one for my dad last year. It's how to make a firewood carrier!

I originally found the idea when I was trying to find a use for the extra fabric from the jean blankets I was making. Although most directions I read online said to use a canvas type of fabric, I figured jean fabric would work just fine... and it has!

First, I sewed panels of jean fabric together to make one longer stretch of fabric. 

I laid the red fabric (which I would be using on the back) on the front of the jean so the front of the fabrics were touching and sewed along the two long sides. Then, I flipped it right side out to get ready for the next step.

(Here it is from both sides)

I then took a needle and thread to sew the top layer of fabric to the bottom layer. By doing this before the shorter ends are sewed shut, you can poke the needle through on the inside first so the knot in the thread is hidden inside the carrier when it's done.

For the tops, I took a rectangle of jean fabric and folded it in half inside out. I then sewed along one of the open edges and flipped it right side out. The edges that would make the opening for the poles were the sides of the jeans that had already been more reinforced, but folding over the edges and sewing them to reinforce them would also work.

Once the 4 sleeves for the poles were made, I folded the top edges of the large middle piece of the carrier into itself (for a neater and stronger edge) and pinned the sleeves into the corners. Next, I pinned the long sides of the middle part flat as well and sewed around the edges of the entire middle piece.

For the pole on John's carrier, I actually used an old wooden pole we had in the garage. For my dad's I just bought a pole from Home Depot. After cutting the pole in half, I took one half of the pole and slid each end into the sleeves across from each other and repeated that with the second half of the pole on the other side.

(As a side note, I didn't take any pictures when I was making John's carrier and then I forgot to take pictures after my dad's carrier was done... Which explains why the pictures show different fabrics.)

Honestly, although this can be used to carry firewood, John usually just drags the bigger pieces of wood all the way back to our campsite before cutting it up anyway. So, this firewood carrier gets used more for smaller branches and pieces that are awkward or scratchy to carry. Either way, at least it gets used. Haha!

And with those carriers being done, ironically, I still have jean fabric left... To be honest, I'm not sure if I'll ever be out of jean fabric now that David is growing out of his clothes every year and leaving holes in all his jeans' knees before he's done with them! I guess I'll just have to start on another blanket soon! Lol.