So She Did Blog: heated pillows

Sebastian and I tackled a fun project this weekend and made ourselves some heated pillows! It was a pretty simple craft and perfect for the fall & winter months! We went to the craft store to pick out our fabrics and Sebastian picked a Santa print over everything else! I thought it was funny and kept asking him if he was sure. He replied, "Yes, mom, I love Santa".
These are fun to make and can make great gifts. I'm excited to use it when I get home from a long day at the salon, to ease back pain. If Sebastian and I could make these you can to!

Supplies needed:

fabric
ruler
sewing machine
rice

The actual construction of the heated pillows are really all up to you. You can create whatever size or shape you want. For Sebastian's pillow I ended up buying just about 1/2 of a yard of fabric knowing that I wanted to make a smaller sized pillow. For my pillow I bought a full yard.

Using a ruler measure out the size of pillow you'd like. Make sure that you measure out 1-2 inches larger than your planned sizes. You need to have some extra around the edges. When you have everything cut out place the two pieces of fabric up against each other with the patterned sides inside and the non patterns facing outward.

Sebastian's pillow: 10x10

My pillow: 15x10

When you are ready to sew make sure that you choose a stitch that is tight so that the filler doesn't fall out as well as so that it in general the pillows don't fall apart. Go around the whole premier of the fabric excpet the last bit. Leave at least 2 to 3 inches open. Turn the fabric right side in through that hole that you have left before you pour the filler.

We used long grain white rice. It was inexpensive and holds heat well. I bought 2 five pound bags. I ended up using most of the two bags except maybe 2 pounds. You can fill these up however you want. They don't need to be filled to the brim. It's nice to leave some room so that you can manipulate the pillow to mold around your body. Some other fillers you could use are flax seed or buckwheat.

Once the filler is in, fold in the left over seam and finish off the stitch! Once you are done you can pop it in the microwave for a couple minutes depending on the size and how much rice you have in your pillow. We found that with my pillow, that is a little bigger than Sebastian's, can be in the microwave for about three minutes to get it to the perfect temperature however Sebastian's we only do 1 1/2 to 2 minutes in the microwave.