To kick of my spring break I am headed to Columbus, Ohio tomorrow to meet up with my incredible roommates from college. I could not be more excited to see these ladies!
One of these fine women is Milo- you may remember I briefly mentioned her as the soon-to-be recipient of this TARDIS. This lady and I go way back. We were both deejays at our college station, and she shares my obsessive affection for James Taylor. Milo is also a very adept craft-ster herself! She even made a spectacular slip cover for a stolen ottoman in our apartment that was seriously perfect. She is a marvel.
One year at our Christmas present exchange she gave me this homemade heat pack and it is one of my favorite things. It's filled with I-don't-know-what (barley, maybe?) but it's nice and heavy and totally soothing. I almost always study laying down on my stomach, so I can just let it rest in the small of back and it is oh so very nice. And all you have to do to heat it up is toss it in the microwave! Super easy. Joe leaves his in the freezer and it works well as a cold pack too.
Inspired by Milo's lovely hot pack I decided to make one as a gift for a friend of mine who I owed a hefty thank you too. Katie has been giving me rides to and from our clinical throughout the quarter, and usually with very little warning on my part. This clinical is on one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in Chicago, so I was very very pleased when I could avoid the bus and train combo. So along came this project to pass along the love.
You will need:
- 2 bags of lentils (or beans, barley, etc.)
- heavy fabric
- heavy fabric
- needle and thread or sewing machine
For my fabric I used a pant leg from an old pair of slacks that Joe had torn a hole through. This gave it the triple positive of being a nice heavy fabric, being soft, and requiring less work.
Because the pant leg wasn't totally square I cut and re-stitched up the side with the fabric. At this point I have a tube of fabric with both the ugly seams facing out.
So turn the thing right-side out and you get a nice tube of fabric.
Next, I made a seam one end. As you can see, I folded the ragged edged into my tube.
And then pin it there. I made the vertical seams that are already in place not at the far ends so that there would be less layers of fabric to go over at the corners.
Then sew across. I used a sewing machine, but this would be pretty simple to do by hand.
I used a zig zag stitch because I like it and why not.
I also really like pink and grey. So cute!
These are what I used to fill mine up. You can use other things, just google it if you're curious. These are pretty small so they mold well to whatever you're heating or cooling, and they don't have a weird smell so I like them. You can also add scented oils to your filled if you're into chamomile or something.
Don't you just want to sink your hand in it Amelie style?
Okay, so for seam number two I folded more under. This is where you can vary it a lot depending on how filled your little bag is. The smaller you make it, the stiffer the end result.
And pin as you did before.
And stitch it up! Do your best not to spill- I had a minor lentil spill and Oy went crazy trying to hunt them all down.
Ta Da!
Easy Peazy! My aunt likes to make little hand held ones with fleece as hand warmers in the winter- they are super cozy. You can also stitch ribbons into the sides so it could be tied around some body part to keep it in place. Get creative!
1 comment:
These are great. My mother used to make these to give away and always has several on hand to throw in the microwave and toss into the bed to warm it up before getting in on a cold winter night! She always used rice in hers.
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