A rice bag is probably one of the smartest things one can have lying around your house (in their designated area). It is also super-easy to make! You can even make any size or shape you want. You can make hand warmers, like A Bee In My Bonnet or a foot warmer like V and Co. Today I am going to show you how I create a shoulder bag. The great thing about this design is that it sits comfortably around your shoulders. You can of course use it for other body parts such as backs, stomaches, feet, etc. It is 40 x 15 cm and is divided into four sections. This prevents the rice from going to one side only
1. Cut out two pieces of fabric (40×15 cm)
2. Place the right sides together
3. Pin the fabric together.
4.Sew and zigzag together, leave two openings
5. Turn fabric right side out, make sure you get the corners out (I use a thick plastic knitting needle)
6. Sew three seams, creating four equal big sections
7. Fill with rice, about 1/2 – 3/4 full.
8. Hand stitch or sew the openings shut
9. Finished product!
You can leave the rice bags in the freezer for a couple of hours to make it cold, or put in microwave (1-2 min) to get it hot. You can also make a lot of different sizes, use different patterns and essential oils, etc. The best part is that you do not even need to buy fabric, just use some scraps.
Also check out my fleece heart hand warmer.
How long until you have to change the rice? do you have to change the rice?
I do not use it a lot, so I never changed the rice. To be honest I never thought I would have to..
Just don’t over heat the rice! It can burn. I know from experience!
I never knew! But then again I only heat them max 30 seconds at a time, turn them over, do it again until its hot!
About how much rice do you use? 2 pounds?
Depending on how full you want it, Im thinking maybe 3-4 cups
Yay! Great tutorial. My fiancé has been struggling with an ear infection all week, and I have been heating up half of a potato for him, but this would be even better. Thanks!
Hope it helped 🙂
That is really cool! looks great, thanks for the tutorial.
Found you at throwback Thursday
Awesome 🙂
Coming to you from Wake Up Wednesday where I’m one of the cohosts. What a wonderful article. I’ve seen these before but have never made one personally. They are even great for car rides and travel. I will be recommending your article for featured article of the week. Please swing by my blog and say hello while there.
Awesome 🙂 Thanks
Congratulations on being featured on WUW. Check it out here- http://tanyaanurag.blogspot.com/2014/11/wake-up-wednesday-linky-party-44.html
Happy Thanksgiving,
Tanya
Thanks!!! 😀
If you sew 3 seams to make 4 sections and only have 2 openings how do you fill the other 2 sections that dont have the opening
I leave the opening so that half the opening is in one of the section and the other half is in the other. Therefore one opening covers two sections. If you look at the second photo after number 6, I have kept the two openings between the two pins on each side. I hope this makes sense for you. If not let me know!
I make these warmers all the time, I use the cheapest rice can find. I always kept wet paper towels in plastic bags and left them in the freezer. I wasn’t sure about rice so I just thought what if I used rocks. They can take heat and cold. So, I got a bag of those tiny decorative ones from Home Depot or Lowe’s and tried those. Make sure to get those that are some what smooth. They also cost less then rice too. When I’m on a trip, I use the rocks cause a lot of hotels have no microwave. I heat water in the coffee pot for hot and for cold I stick it in ice water. It worked for me. I also make smaller ones with rice and put it the jacket pockets during the winter time.
Do you use a certain kind of rice? Not minute rice?😁
It says hot and cold, but I only see hot. I am supposed to ice my neck, how do you do that?