Make Your Own Rice Pack Heating Pad
Hi, friends! Today I have a fun and simple tutorial for you.
I am always freezing this time of year. I love our penguin rice bags but needed something a little bigger I can use while sewing that’ll help keep me toasty warm and stay in place. The problem with your plain rice neck warmer is that if you put it around your neck, the rice falls down the ends and there’s nothing on your neck!
I came up with a simple design that solves this problem. This cozy, patchy rice pack heating pad goes around your neck (or feet!) and the rice stays spread out so that you get warmth all the way around. It’ll make a great quick gift as well.
You can get four rice neck warmers from the supplies listed below.
Supplies needed:
Flannel: charm pack plus 7/8 yard of backing fabric
Rice (approximately 4.5 cups per bag)
Funnel
Scissors
¼” seam allowance unless otherwise stated.
Pick out nine 5” squares from your charm pack. Take those squares and cut them in half so now you have twelve 2.5”x5” rectangles.
Lay the rectangles out 3 across by 6 down.
Take to your sewing machine and sew the rectangles together using a ¼” seam allowance. Cut out backing fabric to 6.5”x27.5”. I recommend measuring your sewn top to verify the correct measurements — mine grew a bit since the charm packs are sometimes a bit larger.
Lay the backing fabric and your main patchwork front with right sides together. Pin along both long ends and one of the short ends leaving the last short end open.
Sew along the three sides remembering to backstitch at the beginning and end. Take to your ironing board and flip the fabrics right sides out and press.
On the open end turn the fabrics under ¼” and press.
Take to your sewing machine and top stitch two rows down the length of your project making sure to keep the open end turned under.
Next grab your rice and funnel. Using the funnel, place a scant ½ cup of rice into all three channels. Make sure all the rice falls down to the bottom. We will be breaking the bag into three sections.
After you’ve filled the first section (the ½ cup of rice should leave some wiggle room) stitch across the patchwork top at the seam two 2.5”x5” rectangles up.
This is what it will look like at this point. I stitched right in the ditch of the seam.
Repeat those steps for the middle section filling all three channels with your ½ cup of rice then top stitch. Finish by filling the top section. On the last section top stitch the end closed after it has been filled.
And that’s it. Pop your neck rice bag heating pad into the microwave for 2 minutes (depends on how warm you like it — I prefer it nice and toasty!) and wrap it around your neck to relieve sore or tense muscles or just to keep you warm.