My wife does not sew and has no interest in it but she did let me buy the little $60 Singer machine last year and I have taught myself how to sew (half assed anyway). I have tried to make cloth bags before but did not have very good luck with them as the meat stuck to the bags and the bags did not peel very good. Previously I used muslin cloth of poor quality and cheap and I think that was my problem. I had 1 bag left that NEPAS had sent me from several years ago that I found and took it to the fabric store. I was able to find a non bleached bolt of fabric that matched what he had sent and bought 2 yards. I cut the fabric to 8 1/2 X 12 inch strips and used a straight stitch to sew the edges and bottom to make a bag. I did this on Sunday as I wanted to smoke them Sunday. Then soaked the bags and started to stuff one and it ripped the seams out! Monster Failure! Throw the other 5 wet bags in the trash and back to the drawing board.
So I go back and cut more strips and then sew a zig zag stitch on the edge to keep the material from unraveling and then put a straight stitch down to make the bag. I had not really looked at how NEPAS bag was stitched. His bag had a fancy edge strip but my little machine doesn't have that type of stitch. Now it was too late in the day to stuff and smoke so decided to stuff and smoke Monday.
Soaked one bag and stuffed it. BINGO! It held and stuffed great. Soaked the other bags and stuffed them. This morning (Tuesday) I peeled the small chub and it peeled great!
For information on how I made the mix see this thread
http://www.letstalkbbq.com/index.php?topic=8698.0Bags with straight stitch and zig zag stitch. It ain't purdy but it holds meat!
3 Hours of Hickory and they came up to 152 IT in about 7 1/2 hrs. They just came to temp and are being pulled.
They went swimming in a cold water bath to bring the temp down to around 100%
Let them bloom for 2 hours and then into the fridge overnight.
Money shot