Up-cycled heat pack present

Now this was back in July but I thought the idea was worth sharing. My daughter's very wonderful Kindy teacher announced that she was retiring and it just happened to be at the completely wrong time for our families budget for me to be able to buy her a good-bye present, so I decided that I was going to have to make something.

Last Christmas I made wheat bags (microwaveable heat packs) for many of my colleagues, family and friends for Christmas, so i new how to make these bags and I had plenty of left over wheat - comes in really cheap 20kg bags from the pet/farm feed places. What I didn't have left over was suitable fabric. Fabric needs to be 100% cotton and fairly heavy weight. I ended up looking through my rag/throw-out pile and found two old pairs of hubby's shorts. He couldn't wear them any more but there was plenty of useable fabric. I gave them a wash and then cut out enough rectangles of fabric to make 4 heat packs.

Pair of old shorts

pair of rectangles cut out of the shorts (approx 23cm x 28cm or 9 inches x 11 inches)

place the right sides together and stitch all the way around, leaving an opening (approx 5 or 6cm)

It isn't completely necessary but i usually zigzag around the edge

turn the bag out the right way by pushing one corner through the opening and then pulling the rest behind it. In the other bags I made I actually clipped off the corners so that they sat nicely when turned out the right way.

I filled the bags with 4 cups of wheat so that they were about half full. I always use four cups because I know how long they need to be microwaved in my microwave.

I sewed the bag closed using the machne, as this bag (and two others) were staying in my own home, I didn't bother to finish it off nicely, on the ones I gave away I top stitched around the edge to finish them off

I gave Miss 4 the fabric for this heat bag before I sewed it together and a packet of fabric markers. She spent quite a lot of time decorating the fabric for her teacher. When she was done I fixed the ink by ironing it according to the packet's instructions. I also washed the fabric, dried it and ironed it again, so that no excess ink would rub off onto the user.

I was very pleased with the end result; I'd made a personalised gift that cost me nothing but time and it was very practical (especially as the weather was cool at that time). Miss 4 was grinning from ear to ear as her teacher opened the present that she had helped to make.