DIY Rice Bag Heating Pad

Digging around in my stash I found this awesome rice bag fabric I forgot that I bought from Hawaii nearly five years ago.

I got really excited (like finding money in your coat pockets?), and thought it'd make a perfect heating pad.  Filled with rice, muahahaha, get it?

Anyway, I used this tutorial (minus the serging parts, I don't have a serger).  Also minus any essential oils because if it's going to look like a bag of rice, it's certainly going to smell like one too. Ha!

And I thought I'd get extra fancy and add belt loops.  I remember the heating pad my mom had a while back had a belt so you could move around with your heat pad still on.  Mobility!

Only problem was that I used stupid-ribbon.  Don't use satin ribbon for belt loops that need to hold up a ton of rice.  Use something sturdy.

Anyway, I double stitched it down with two small rows of zigzag, and though it looks nice, it's not going to last. A thick canvas would have been better, and sewn on as a circle for maximum "grip".  Ah well. Live and learn and remember you have a physics minor for a reason! :P

Continuing on - the tutorial mentioned that I should cut the corners before flipping the bag inside out.  A great idea for nice crisp corners!

mmm...topstitching

With the bag complete, it was rice time! Though it would have been funny to use the exact same brand as on the fabric, I used what we had on hand.

I wonder what has a better heat retention - jasmine or calrose?  I'm guessing calrose since it's fatty?

Sewing the little partitions every three inches with the rice in the bag was definitely the hard part. Little rice bits kept moving around!

The result of running over a couple rice grains with the sewing machine :P

But eventually I made it to the end, and closed up the top.  I tried to use a stitch that resembled the top of an actual rice bag, hehe. Just don't pull the string and open it all up, eh?

Yay! Rice bag!

And with the intended belt:

If you get really hungry, it doubles as an emergency meal too!

I made two since it's a pretty quick project and doesn't need much fabric.  A couple minutes in the microwave and they are good to heal all your aches and pains. Now to hope my giftees appreciate the silliness of a rice-filled heating pad inside rice bag fabric. Hu Huu.

Do you have a heating pad? If not, you should make one..or five!