For the entire month of September we will be baking, sewing & crafting up a storm, preparing handmade gifts for this holiday season. I will be sharing 30 wonderful sewn gifts from 30 amazing bloggers! You will also want to head on over to According to Kelly for 30 fabulous crafty gifts. A Southern Fairytale will be spotlighting 30 edible yummies & holiday-inspired recipes.You definitely don’t want to miss a day! Check out ALL of our creative projects HERE.
Hello Skip to My Lou readers! I’m Cheri from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar. I am excited to be here today as part of the sewing gift series. I think handmade gifts are awesome. They are fun to give and receive and I have one that will work to give anyone on your list.
I gave this warming wrap to my mother-in-law and she loved it. (However she doesn’t have facial hair, so that picture below isn’t one of her. Ha! I begged my husband to model it, but I had to promise not to show his face since it was kind of a girly wrap I had made 🙂 Okay, let’s get started.
First off, I searched my house looking for good large circles to use as a pattern. (If you can’t find objects the right size you can always use a string, holding it down in the middle and spinning it around to give you the circle. Think protractor. Remember those?)
Here’s a quick picture. I started by drawing and cutting two layers of fabric until I had this. The full diameter (black line) is 22 inches. The inner circle diameter (pink) is 6 inches. The green dotted line indicates where you should cut the circle. You see, if you use the entire circle it ends up being way too much fabric to go around your shoulders and it’s way too floppy. No one wants a floppy warmer, so cut about 1/5 of the circle out. (I learned that one through trial and error.)
Next I put the right sides together and sewed around the circles (where the blue lines are.) Remember that your warmer isn’t quite this big because you’ve cut out that chunk like I explained above. You’ll also want to cut slits along the inner edge of the inner circle so it will lay flat when you invert it. Leave the ends open. Invert and press.
(Now I’m going to use the finished picture to show you what I’m talking about because that’s all I’ve got. Don’t worry I think it’ll make sense. We’ll color code it all.)
After inverting and pressing, sew all the lines that are orange. Don’t worry too much about them being perfect because you won’t notice much once it’s stuffed. After sewing the orange lines, fill section #1 with rice. You don’t want it to be super full or it will be too stiff. After filling it to your likeness, sew the green line. Then fill #2 and sew the pink line. Then fill #3 and sew the blue line.
When filling the warmer with rice, use a funnel. If you don’t have one take 10 seconds to make one with paper and tape. You’ll thank yourself later. It’s a little tricky to hold back the rice and sew the lines, but you’ll get used to it after the first one. Lastly, fold the ends into the inside and sew both ends shut (on the yellow lines). Add a button and a button hole. If you’re not comfortable with button holes you could use a loop or just sew on velcro.
Use it again and again for comfortable warmth. Don’t you want to get out a good book and put it on? Mmmmm! Now I just need to make one for my icy feet. Brrrrrrr! I feel like they are never warm in the winter.
If you’re still on the hunt for sewing gifts you can also find this Upcycled Scarflette HERE on my blog….
or I’m releasing this bag pattern to the public tomorrow HERE on my blog.
Thanks for having me Cindy!
Thank you so much for this tutorial, Cindy! I made one with a 28″ circle/ 10″ inner circle, for my husband. I made the actual rice bag out of muslin, and made a cover out of a thrifted red plaid flannel sheet. I used ribbons to tie shut the end of the cover and also to tie it together when wearing it.
At this time I am ready to do my breakfast, later than having my breakfast coming over again to read further news.
I love this idea too, but I have questions. If you are supposed to heat this up before using it, what happens to the buttons or velcro when you microwave them? Wouldn’t they melt or start to burn? If this is the case, ties inserted into the seams before you sew the ends together might solve the problem. Also, please remind your readers that polyester fabrics and poly thread will melt in the microwave, so be sure to use only cottons so that your project is not ruined. The instructions are so easy to follow, that even the most inexperienced sewer or crafter can successfully create a wonderful and unique gift. Thank you for sharing this great idea. I can hardly wait to see the rest of the month’s offerings!
What a great idea to make it circular for the shoulders. Thanks!
Can you put this in the microwave to warm it? I have one that does that (and smells like lavender!) but it falls off if I try to move around and do things.. it would be great to have one that stays on. 😀
Do plastic buttons microwave? Or maybe I could just make it with velcro…
WOW your warmer is really neat. I have made them in the past as just one long “tube” not the three rows. We put them in the microwave for a few seconds to really warm the rice and then it is like a heat pad.
As for your feet…rectangle version of this warmer on the bottom with a “top fabric” like slip on house shoes….can’t wait until you show us the one for feet!
I love this idea! I use rice bags to keep warm in cool weather and have always wished to be draped in one. My big rectangular one does not fit well around my neck. I will definitely be giving this a try. Thanks so much for sharing your tutorial!
What a sweet gift!