‘Tis the season for socializing outdoors. Gatherings with friends and family often center around a meal.
Whether you plan a more formal meal with outdoor seating, spread a blanket on the lawn for a picnic or set some appetizers out to nibble, you don’t want bugs or unidentified debris landing in your food.
With a few supplies and a little crafting time, you can make food covers to keep everything from snacks to main dishes safe from accidental garnishes.
To make food covers, you will need:
- tulle fabric
- thread
- scissors
- wire and pliers and cutters
- decorative trim (optional)
First, determine roughly the size and shape cover to best suit your needs. To make a dome with a circular base, cut four to six wires long enough to reach the diameter you want with extra for the curve.
To make a food cover similar to the one shown in these photos, cut three wires about 29 inches long. Curve them so each one spans between 16-20 inches from end to end — they should all be roughly identical in their curves.
Bend the ends of the wire into curls, so the ends of the wire won’t scratch a table or snag a tablecloth.
Stand them up on a work surface, crisscrossing at their centers to make the dome frame of your food cover. Cut another wire about eight inches in length and intertwine it around the frame wires to hold them together. At this point, the frame will still be wobbly.
Cut the tulle into gussets to fit the spaces between the wireframe. Get ready to use some basic math skills.
If you are using three wires each with a length of 28 inches (29, minus half an inch on each end for the curled foot), and they curve to create a diameter of 17 inches, each of six gussets must be isosceles triangles with a base of nine inches and each leg should be 14 inches.
If you are doing a custom size, calculate the gusset size: Measure the distance between one of the wires’ curves — this is your diameter. Multiply by pi (3.14…) to get the circumference. Divide the circumference by the number of gussets you need. For example, if you use four wires, you will need eight gussets.
Measure the full length of a wire (minus the feet curve), and divide by two. This is the length of the long sides of the triangle.
Cut the gussets out of your chosen mesh. Finer mesh will keep smaller bugs off — you could even use a gauzy fabric. Chose a color to match your decor or serving dishes. You can use multiple colors and even multiple fabric types.
With a sewing machine or by hand, sew the long sides of the gussets together to form a dome. You don’t need any seam allowance for this. Zig-zagging over the edge works well.
Fit your fabric dome over your frame. By hand, attach the fabric to the frame by sewing loops around the wire along the seams in the fabric.
Once the fabric is secure, add ribbons or other decorative trim.
You can also make a rectangular food cover, by curving two longer wires across each other with a shorter wire going across in the middle for extra support.
If you want to skip the wires, you can make a food cover to span individual dishes or your whole table by cutting a square of tulle and edging it with a more solid fabric. To keep it from blowing away, add weights to the edging. Simply drape it over your spread.
Food covers can make your outdoor meals look extra special, and you will enjoy the company of dear ones even more without having to worry about bugs in the food.
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