friday DIY: homemade hot/cold pack

winter is on its way....which, for me, means achy joints and cold toes (yes im in my twenties and my joints hurt real bad when it gets cold).  heat packs also feel really wonderful on sore muscles and, for my ladies, cramps.  this was the case last night when i got home from work.....i was feeling achy and decided to have a poke around through my craft closet and managed to find everything i needed to make a heat pack.  so i thought i would share it with you.....

DIY: Homemade Heating/Cooling pack

Supplies:
-fabric
-scissors/rotary cutter
-sewing machine, thread
-iron
-uncooked rice/beans/buckwheat/split peas

1. Cut out your fabric to desired size.  I doubled the size I wanted so i could just fold my fabric in half and only stitch around the edges. 

2.  With wrong side of fabric up (right sides together on the inside) stitch around your edges leaving about 1.5in opening on one side.  Trim your corners off, careful not to snip the stitches, so that when you turn it right-side out the corners will lay nicely.

3. Once you've turned your pack right-side out give it a good iron.....making sure that your seams, corners and material is nice and smooth

4.  Now your are going to topstitch "compartments" in your un-filled pack.  I stitched 4 lines evenly spaced leaving about 1.5in from either side of the pack (that way the rice move freely from compartment to compartment)....if you cant picture what im talking about here scroll down and look at the finished picture to see how i did the compartments.

5. Fill your pack with uncooked rice/beans/split peas/buckwheat (a funnel would be handy here...but i dont have one so i used a rolled up piece of paper).  Whatever you use to fill your bag be sure that it can hold up to being put in the microwave.  I used rice because that's what i had in my pantry (I have also heard you can use cornmeal).  This step took the longest because you have to maneuver the rice into the compartments....which can be tricky depending on how big your pack is and how you've oriented your compartments. DONT overfill your pack...you want a little wiggle room in the pack/compartments.

6. Once you've filled your pack to your liking stitch up your opening.  I just topstitched it a couple times....you can do a invisible stitch but im not good at it and i didnt want to chance my rice escaping.....plus who's going to see it and really care that much? no one.

Your done! I had enough rice left over (from a 5lb. bag) to make a second smaller one with no compartments. 

How to use:

-place your pack in the microwave (be sure your turn-table is clean!) and heat for about 1-2min....and enjoy

-to use as a cold pack....place in the freezer for a few hours....enjoy.

-depending on how often you use your pack you may want to occasionally empty the rice and replace with new

I hope this tutorial was helpful. 

Happy Halloween friends

xoxo

-e