This summer I found a copy of the book Home Spa Recipes and Techniques to Restore and Refresh at the thrift. I snatched it up with the intention of making all kinds of spa gifts. However, after reading the recipes, I found that they just weren't practical with our pesky shipping issues.
My sister in law is a huge home spa girl and I decided to gift the book to her along with a Rice Heat Therapy Bag and a Cooling Eye Pillow. I found this tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew!
This is a most satisfying craft!
I bought ten pounds of rice at Smart and Final for just under $10 and some lemon grass essential oil at Whole Foods for about $5. Then using my stash I made 6 heat therapy bags! A little over $2 of bulk flax seed produced 4 soothing eye pillows. And, the tutorial includes a pdf with beautiful tags!
I did modify the tutorial a bit...
- I didn't bother with the measurements. I made all my bags by tracing a piece of legal sized notepaper.
-Lemon grass is one of my favorite scents. It's fresh and light...only if used sparingly! About 6-10 drops of the oil scented all ten pounds of rice!
-I found that making channels for the rice made the pillows easier to sew and more even too. The best formula I found was to divide the pillow into three equal channels.
-I didn't use velcro for a closure. Instead I made an additional overlapping flap on the back .
Cliff liked them so much I made one for him.
I made some of these last year for gifts but mine weren't nearly as cute! LOL I love the idea of sewing channels--that is brilliant, wish I'd done it! I heat mine up right before I go to bed at night and put it in the sheets where my feet go. My feet are always cold and I hate getting into cold sheets so it makes a huge difference! It reminds me of pioneers or Little House on the Prairie where they used a hot brick wrapped in flannel to do the same thing. :)
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