How to Wax Canvas Fabric

You’ve probably seen common menswear or outdoor items made from “waxed canvas” in your favorite Etsy shops or outfitter sites. It’s a traditional means of making fabric weather-resistant, allowing your goods to repel water rather than just soak things in, and dates to hundreds of years before the advent of Gore-Tex and other DWR materials.  

But you don’t just head to the fabric store and pick up a bolt of waxed canvas. Instead,  you take an existing canvas product like a hat or a bag, or sew your own from scratch using new canvas (commonly called “duck cloth” in fabric shops), and then you wax it. 

Sara from Radiant Home Studio has the full breakdown of the process. She sewed her husband a new bag from scratch (read all about that effort here), and then treated it with a product called Otter Wax for a durable, water-resistant coating. 

Check out the technique from Sara here: How to Wax Canvas Fabric [RadiantHomeStudio.com]