Day 16--Bed Warmers

We have a lovely pillow thing that I call "The Beans".  Kevin & I disagree on where it came from. Regardless, it's fabulous! 

(I call it the beans because I didn't know what it was filled with...)

My little sister requested that I make one for her. I pinned a couple of tutorials on Pinterest and they looked easy enough to make. This tutorial seems to be the best. 

I bought this fabric at Wal-mart. It was a remnant and it's some sort of cotton blend. It's a little heavier weight, which is what you need to hold the filler.

It was creased in just the right spots :) so I cut along the creases. I used pinking shears to avoid fraying.

I cut long strips and folded in half so that I only had to stitch 3 sides. Fold right sides together to get ready to sew. 

They ended up being about 10x14 inch rectangles.

I stitched the edges with a zigzag stitch leaving about a 3 inch hole to turn them right side out & fill.

Turn it right side out and fill up!!

I found this Feeder Corn at Tractor Supply for $4!!

(It's an 11 pound bag of wild bird feed.)

I tried using a funnel, but the corn was really too big to fit through it. So I rolled up a piece of paper to use as a funnel.

I filled each bag with 7-8 cups of corn.

I ended up making 4 warmers with this bag of corn. You don't want them super full.  Standing up, like in this picture, the corn fills about half the bag. When laying flat, the corn will fill the whole bag in a nice even layer.

I stitched up the hole and they are done!!

There are only 3 in this picture, because I heated one to make sure it worked :)  And it does!!  I typically heat in the microwave for 2 1/2 minutes.  Definitely don't heat for any longer than 3 minutes.

The tutorial linked above calls these bed warmers. I use ours to help with back/neck pain.  If I have a sinus or migraine headache, I heat it up & put it on my head.  Now that we have a few extras, we can all use one & not fight over "the beans".

Our "beans" have a pillow case type covering. You can certainly make one for your bed warmer too. I'm trying to decide whether the ones I made need a case or not.

The tutorial shows how to make a much fancier version. Not difficult, just prettier. These are easy to make and would make great gifts. Make them as fancy or as simple as you want!!

Productive day--4 bed warmers made & Day 17 project started :)