Tips and ideas for making your own heat pack. Post your ideas.
Buy some lavender buds, you can find them and flea markets, or herb fairs. You only need a few, then go to a bulk store and buy flaxseed. I do this because you want the lavender for the smell and the flaxseed to fill the space up at a reasonable price. Lavender is expensive. Use about 1/4 to 1/2 cup lavender and the rest flaxseed. You can also add a few drops of lavender essential oil. (10/04/2004)
By Kathie
Heat hot packs or foot warmers in the microwave! These can also be made cheaply by using some fabric and dry beans or rice. (12/20/2004)
By Robin
I've used a combination of the feedback you've already gotten. Use whatever fabric conatiner works for your ultimate purpose: something long, flexible and cylindrical for a neck warmer, or more of a pillow if that's what you need. A "dogbone" shape is good for neck support and warmth while sleeping. Use lavender flowers, not seeds. They have the essential oil with the scent. You can also use some essential oil as well, or a less expensive fragrance oil. Use rice as a filler. Flaxseed has its own properties that can add to a special pillow, but if you want something economical and that works, just use rice. (12/20/2004)
By Judi in Orlando
You need:
Microwave for about 5 minutes--times vary remove.
Then wrap inside a towel or pillow case (05/23/2005)
By Lucie Mclaud
I use a sock. I fill it with a mixture of rice and lavender buds. Then tie it off with a rubber band and a pretty piece of ribbon. You can place this in the microwave for a couple of minutes, or the freezer for a few hours for a cold compress. This feels really good on sore joints or mussels. (05/23/2005)
By Susie
You can go to this web site to tell you how and what to use to make homemade heating pads. http://www.diamondthreadworks.com/microwave-heating-bags.htm (05/24/2005)
By Pat Wilson
I have Fibromyalgia and I wouldn't be without my rice packs. When my muscles start to tighten-up. I pop them into the microwave for no more than 2 minutes and then apply them to the offending muscle.
I've made my own. If you can sew a straight stitch on the sewing machine, you can too. Measure the area where you will want to apply the pack. If for example the area is 12 inches by 13 inches, you will need a piece of material 25 inches by 27 inches. You will have about a 1 inch seam. take your material over to your ironing board. With the wrong/inside of the material facing you, fold the 'top' edge of the material down about an inch & iron it flat. Do the same with the 'bottom' edge of the material. Now with the 'right'/outside of the material together, fold the maaterial in half. Pin the short side together, so you will have an envelope effect. Straight stitch the pinned ends. Turn the 'envelope' inside-out. Press the envelope flat. (All this ironing makes the sewing easier as it makes your project lie flat & easier to sew.) Fold the envelope in half & iron it,then fold the half in half again & iron that.
Now you can fill them with rice. I use Jasmine rice as it doesn't have an old musty smell after a few uses (my rice packs have been in the microwave about 500 times. I've tried adding lavender to them but haven't been able to get the right preportions.) I use the top I've cut off a plastic coke bottle for the funnel. Fill the 'pockets' about half-way full. Carefully lay the pack down so that you won't spill all the rice out. Push the rice down to the bottom of the pack & pin along the top edge of the rice NOT the top of the pack. Use as many pins as necessary so the the rice does not escape & get in the way of you're sewing the final seam across the top. I always make one row of stitching across the top & then make another row of stitching just to make sure. I have wrapped them in a towel on occasion to keep them from getting dirty. But I finally make 'covers' for them. Now stick them in the Microwave & ENJOY. (06/05/2005)
By
I've recently woken up with a n incredibly sore neck and have since been looking for an easy way to make a heat pack. I've tried the rice idea. Unfortunately, I used poly sock, so that was quite disastrous! I now know that cotton is the way to go. (07/27/2005)
By Sarah
I've had several relatives who have used homemade microwave heat packs, but they were filled with either rice or corn -- and I thought they were extremely uncomfortable. One day I was in the mall and asked one of the vendors who sells these what made hers so soft. Ever since, I've been making them for friends and family, and I fill mine with a combination of oatmeal and flax-seed.
I also use about a half-bag of that scented ground potpourri (for sachets) you can buy at WalMart in the crafts section, per heat-pack. (It comes in lavender and other scents like Gardenia and Cinnamon.) Mix up about 2 cups of the oatmeal with 1-2 cups of the flax, and the sachet-potpourri, and fill about 3/4 full in a long sewn-together tube of fabric (about 30" x 6 or 7" folded in half), then sew ends together.
Microwave for one minute on high at first -- then just 30 seconds to warm it up each time after it starts cooling down within that same hour. I wouldn't live without these in the winter -- and I LOVE how they smell so great too! (11/08/2005)
I use regular cracked wheat seeds - the kind you use for growing 'wheat-grass'. Add a little bit of cloves, lavender, etc. (12/31/2005)
By Catherine
I am probably older than most of the posters (67), and have suffered front pinched nerves and back problems since I was 20. Finally wound up with cervical spine surgery.
BUT, a zillion years ago, an old Italian Grandma helped me out by heating "kosher" salt in a pot and filling a white cotton sock with it. She sewed the top and that was it. Of course now you can heat the sock with the salt in it in the microwave. I never used any scents, just plain old "kosher" salt.
(12/31/2005)
By Kathie Carr
Do not use instant rice! (03/01/2006)
By Anonymous
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
