Wonder Box

Yesterday I made a Wonder Box. A wonder box is not a telephone-booth-type-box that has a variety of super hero costumes in it so that you can change at a moment's notice to dash off to do an heroic act. It is a thermal cooker that can double as a small bean bag for a little girl named Sharon. If you don't have a little girl named Sharon, you could probably substitute a small child by another name. At our most recent Relief Society activity we had a woman teach us about emergency preparedness and 72-hour kits. She showed off her wonder box and told us what it can do. I was definitely interested and asked her if I would be able to borrow her pattern. Well, as you may know, I tend to get a little crazy when I have a project I want to try. Rather than just call to see if I could pick up the pattern, I found one online. This website has great information, including a tutorial and recipes for the

Wonder Box. I've saved the instructions that I used in a PDF file, which you can access via Google Docs at this link. I drew the pattern out using a compass and ruler, since I couldn't really print it with my printer. I also only drew half of the pattern (long ways), and then placed it on the fold of the fabric. This is a fairly quick project to do, especially since I like to go crazy and finish projects the same day I start them. First, I made the Wonder Box out of a duvet cover I bought at Goodwill awhile ago. Then, I made another Wonder Box out of jeans that I got at the thrift store for 50 cents each, and inserted a zipper so

that I can use it as a cover for the one made out of sheets. This way, if it gets dirty, I can just take off the cover and wash it, rather than having a big, dirty bean bag. I bought a 100 liter bag of styrofoam bean bag refill beans from Kmart for $12.99 and it filled the entire Wonder Box, plus I made another bottom half of the box to use as a bean bag chair for Sharon. I had a bit of trouble with the zipper, because the first time it was too small to fit the bean filled box inside.

A 14 inch zipper is ok, but a 20 inch zipper would be a whole lot simpler. I'm not going to go into huge detail because you can go here and read all about it. You basically get your food up to boiling, put the lid on it, insert into the Wonder Box, put on the Box lid, and your food is piping hot hours later. I'm so excited to try it! I might just have to cook something here at home and try it, rather than wait until we're camping. Hope this was helpful! Good luck! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.