Anne B - avert your eyes! I know how much you hate opening your Christmas gifts before Christmas. Turn away now.
She gone? Let's proceed.
These rice bag things are great for easing aches and pains (if heated in the microwave), and for boo boos (if put in the freezer). You can turn them in to therapeutic aids by adding aromatics like herbs or essential oils. They're also simple to make. A monkey could make these. I know, because one of them had to teach me how to use the sewing machine. If you think I'm joking, I don't want to tell you how long I spent trying to make my sister's sewing machine work before I realized it wasn't turned on. Ahem.
Start with some cute fabric that is double size of what you want the end product to be.
Figure out what part of the fabric will be the "top" and then fold a little edge over on to the ugly part of the fabric; you're basically just hemming it on one side.
Then fold it in half. Turn it inside out, and make a basic stitch around the sides. You'll want to leave the top open.
Next, turn it inside out so that the pretty part of the fabric is showing. Then, sew a straight line from the long end to the top. You'll want to make a few of these lines. This is creating "segments" so that the rice doesn't just flop around.
Fill the different "divides" of the bag with rice. White rice is the cheapest. You're using this as a heating pad - not eating it.
The next part is the most complicated because you need to figure out how to sew the open end without spilling rice all over. Not that I did that or anything... I found that the best thing was to use simple binder clips on the various openings until you were ready to sew it. You're connecting the edges that you hemmed earlier.
Finished product.
A few of what I churned out.
To date, they've been shipped to people around the country, but mostly they're being used as sandbags for epic battles for Star Wars Christmas tree ornaments. They are also the key part of a game called "Bad Guys" in which Jack throws them at Troy and yells "bad guys".
Happy sewing!Labels: Homemade holidays
