My friends birthday is coming up. She has a tough job which includes lugging around heavy equipment in a music venue, her spare time is spent walking her precious pooches here there and everywhere. She isn't a stranger to muscular aches and I thought a heat pack would be an ideal gift!!
Heat packs are fantastic for muscle aches, period pains, or just keeping you cosy. You can fill them with a lot of dried grains like rice, oats, flax seed or barley and even add dried lavender to give them a pleasant scent.
The packs are heated in the microwave so you must only use 100% natural fibres, cotton is ideal. Always test your thread and fabric in the microwave beforehand. We don't want any fires thank you!!
I have selected fabric remnants left over from my lavender hearts project. I decided to give appliqué a go, I'm an absolute novice so this project was a learning curve. I wanted to decorate my pack without adding anything that would explode or catch fire in the microwave.
Given that my friend loves dogs I chose a terrier silhouette to appliqué onto the front. You can choose anything you like, birds, butterflies, or cats maybe?
Here are the supplies you will need
- 100% cotton fabric for the outside and appliqué decoration
- 100% cotton lining
- 100% cotton thread
- Grain of choice
- A funnel
- A sewing machine
- Scissors and pins
- Paper stencil for appliqué shape
Here we go........
First decide what size pack you would like. You can make small square packs that will fit into your gloves for a freezing winters walk. Or a larger one that will sit nicely on your shoulders and neck. Any shape and any size will do.
Cut 2 pieces of fabric to your preferred size and cut 2 pieces of lining to match.
Next cut your paper appliqué shape.
I find that using double sided tape to hold your paper stencil onto your fabric for cutting works much better than pins.
Cut out your appliqué pattern, lay it onto one piece of your main fabric and pin into place.
Sew a running stitch all around the silhouette to hold it in place.
Sew a short narrow zig-zag stitch along the edge of the fabric ensuring that you catch the fabric of the silhouette the whole way around. Slow and steady is your motto here, turn the wheel of the sewing machine by hand to work the tight and tricky bits.
Add any extra embellishments at this point. I chose a sweet red collar for our little dog.
To make the pack lay the front and back pieces wrong sides together. Place the lining on top of each side as seen in the picture. Press with an iron and pin the whole way around.
Sew neatly around 3 of the sides, sew 3 quarters of the fourth side leaving an opening.
Turn your pack the right way around.
Now place the funnel in the hole and fill the pouch with rice. You want it to be over half full so that it will mould to your body when you are using it.
Now place any extra smelly delights such as lavender into the pouch.
Neatly sew the hole up and you are done.
Test your pack in the microwave for 1 minute then 2 then 3 to find out the optimum heating time.
Now you should have a beautiful cosy heat pack for aches pains or little chilly toes!!
Have fun,
Nic xxx
