A Cozy Rice Bag Warmer!

I swear I should seriously start a linky party series called "Adventures with Drop Cloths" (or something like that) because I am finding all sorts of neat things that can be made out of them ... maybe I will, so keep your eyes peeled!

My favourite drop cloth creation so far has been the ruffle pillow I made.  I was completely taken aback by the sweet and thoughtful messages that so many of you left me!  You guys are awesome and I just wanted to let you know that, so thank you, thank you, thank you!  

So, while some of you bask in the new spring sun, some of us are still caught up knee deep in winter :o(  But no fear, in keeping with my new found love for drop cloths I decided to use it to monogram letters on a couple of rice warming bags.  This is a different take on the wheat heating bags that I had made a while back because I like the idea of a quick monogram to personalize it (and I wanted to try a rice warmer for myself as I hear great things about them).

The first step was to design the monogramed letter.  No fancy-shmancy tools for this gal ... I just traced my ruler which worked great!  Can't say as though that would work for the letter "S" though.

Since I don't have a Serger (which would be totally awesome since it sews and cuts at the same time), I cut out my letter with scissors

I eyed the placement of the letter on the right side of my striped fabric (cut to 14"x11".  I hate measuring if I don't have to, so I just lined it up with the stripes.  Very scientific, I know.

















I've never monogramed anything before so I might have gone about this all wrong, but it worked so it can't be so bad...  all I did was pin it in place then did a tight zigzag stitch all around the perimeter of the letter.  One trick I quickly learned was to leave my needle in the fabric and just lift the sewing foot when turning a corner - it makes it so much neater.

















This was the setting I used on my machine:

















Here is a very poorly lit picture of the finished monogramed "H" which didn't turn out half bad for a first try ...






















I decided to line the rice warming bag with some plain cotton fabric I had on hand; no particular reason why, I just like the idea of having a few layers.

I cut the cotton to the same dimensions (14" x 11"), then pined it to the wrong side of the striped fabric.   Folding it in half so the right-sides of the printed fabric met, I pined it all the way around.

See at the top where I have two sets of double pins?  That is because I always forget to leave an opening to turn my projects right-side out.  That is such a pain when that happens, but by marking the 3" opening with double pins, I don't forget anymore.  Ingenious, thanks M!

So after you have stitched around the fabric (1/2" seam allowance) I used pinking shears to trim the seams and clip the corners.  Don't worry about pressing these seems, it won't make any difference in the end.

















Turn the bag right-side out and fill it with ordinary rice.  I didn't measure how much rice I used ... I just put enough in that rice could be moved and shifted around.  You don't want it too full or it will take forever to warm up in the microwave.  You could also add a few drops of essential oil here too if you wanted as lavender is said to sooth and relax.

















Once you have added the rice, just hand stitch the opening closed.  You could run it through the sewing machine, but I hand stitched mine so that I could hide the stitches better.

















And there you have a personalized rice warmer!  I love seeing the boys line up at the microwave at night to have their rice warmers heated up.  Just pop it in for a couple of minutes and you are good to go.  Too hot though and it will burn, so shift the rice around after warming before placing it over your feet.

Have a wonderful day!

- Kristin -

PS: I'm linking at a few of these cool places this week:

myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com, madincraft.blogspot.com, craftskeepmesane.blogspot.com, thegirlcreative.blogspot.com, makingtheworldcuter.blogspot.com,sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com, craftomaniac.blogspot.com, skiptomylou.org, creatingawesomefreethings.blogspot.com, betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com, dittledattle.blogspot.com, Not JUST A Housewife, craftedition.blogspot.com, todayscreativeblog.net, bellabeforeandafter.blogspot.com, sewchatty.blogspot.com, somedaycrafts.blogspot.com, bluecricketdesign.net, somewhatsimple.blogspot.com, firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com, theshabbychiccottage.net, simplydesigning.blogspot.com, funtocraft.blogspot.com, justagirl.blogspot.com, lovelycraftyhome.com, tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com, iheartnaptime.blogspot.com, alittlelovelyblog.blogspot.com, www.whipperberry.com and http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com, thediyshowoff