Saturday, December 28, 2013

Rice bags are so nice in the winter.......or anytime! :)

Rice bags are a favorite thing in my house. Years ago, after having a baby, I was given a rice bag for pain. It really helped...........and I found that I loved using it....at least until a year or so later when it was "cooked" and yes, I do mean "cooked" in the microwave. One of the kids put it in and set it for too long and it smelled too strong/burnt to ever use again, so I was sad to lose it. Eventually, though, I made some of my own and keep having to make more - I made some for Christmas presents for some of the family and remembered to take some pictures, so will share those with you..............
This picture shows what will become 4 rice bags. The picture shows one casing right side out and one needing to be turned with the 2 different sized rice bags. I usually line my rice bags, just in case....:)  It is no fun to have rice on the floor or in the bed. I make one bag - usually out of muslin which I sew and turn it right side out, just like the outer casings.
This picture show the smaller rice bags with the inner bags already full of rice. After filling with rice, I sew the bag shut - very simple and no fancy stitches. After the outer casing is sewn and turned right side out, I place the muslin bags of rice inside.....and again sew it shut. These bags were actually too big for these casings, sooooo.......I made new outer casings (for the girls :) for these bags and then made new muslin rice bags to fit inside these cases.
I just use regular white rice to fill the bags.
These are all of the bags I made on Christmas Eve this year - the 2 pink ones are the ones added because of the wrong sizes - the girls loved it because they also received rice bags.
The bags looked very full in the other picture, but they are only about 3/4 of the way full or so.....this allows them to fold as shown here. The nice thing about that is that these long rice bags fit around the neck and warm on a cold day....or are a help for sore muscles and can lay around the back muscles or wherever needed. The smaller bags are also very useful.

Like I said, I have a long rice bag for my feet. Well, I also have a few other smaller ones (without lining) that I use most nights. My precious children have made it a ministry to me to heat my rice bags each night - I keep them in a denim bag and they just put the whole thing in the microwave at once and we have learned how much time is needed for all of them.

The smaller ones are so nice for things like swollen glands or earaches or sore spots or just to warm up and I love having them available if I want them.
This is just a closer picture....you can see how I have left the long bags open on one end - I do this so that I can take the outer casing off to wash if necessary; however, we rarely do that. The smaller bags, I sew shut.


I make the longer bags and those are a favorite - they are about 28"-30" long and about 3 1/2"-4"" wide. It takes about 3 pounds of rice to fill one of these enough. This is the bag that goes at the foot of my bed each night to warm up the bed for my feet. :)

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I remember going to Grandma's when I was a girl and sleeping upstairs in an unheated old farmhouse. We always had to remember to get the old antique metal irons off of the old oil stove(assuming we remembered to put them there earlier to warm up! :), wrap them in newspaper and put them in the bed about 30-60 min before bed and then it was so nice to crawl in under all of those heavy old quilts and sleep. I don't think I have ever slept as soundly as I did on those nights - of course, the heavy quilts made it hard to move around, so that probably helped us to settle down and sleep! :)
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Besides the long bags, I also make other sizes - and have made square ones, rectangular ones, big ones and little ones. One year when it was terribly cold out and there was lots of snow, my guys were shoveling drives........I got the sewing machine out and made LOTS of little bags that were about 2" x 3" or 2" x 4" or other. I did not line any of these - just sewed them up quickly. These were used in pockets for warming up hands and body....some were small enough to rest in the palm of the hands, inside gloves, which helped much. Some were used in the boots - not in the foot part, but as far down as we could get them. We even found that putting one inside a coat up near the upper back - anchoring it w/ a pin or cloth - really helped to hold the heat in. The nice thing is that they could be used over and over again.

Yes, we have a microwave, but the funny thing is that the main thing we use it for is to heat rice bags. :) I know microwaves are not good for food, so we do not cook in it. It only takes about 2 minutes or so to heat the large bag - maybe less if you have a more powerful microwave. It is a good idea to start with 30 seconds and see if it is warm enough, then do 30 more seconds until the right temperature is reached. Remember how long it took and that is the time for that rice bag.

Rice bags do hold the heat a long time and can help when the house is cooler at night.You may enjoy making one rice bag as a test to see if you like it or not......chances are that you will really like it and will make more of them. :)
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"The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace."
Psalm 29:11



Other sites you may enjoy...........


Traffic Jam Weekend
Foodie Friday and Everything Else
Home Sweet Home
Wise Woman
Counting Our Blessings
Cooking and Crafting w/ J & J
Modest Monday
Art of Homemaking Monday
Traffic Jam Weekend Party



36 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. You're welcome! It has gotten cold here again in the last day.....and we are sure appreciating our warm rice bags. :)

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  2. These look great and it would be nice to have a warm neck at night! Thanks for sharing at TTF!

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  3. Such a great idea! I'll have to try these!
    Stephanie
    Positively Stephanie

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    1. They are nice...and they last a long time... we have some we have used for many years... Thank you for visiting. :)

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  4. Rice bags are THE best! My roommate shared hers with me in college and I haven't gotten around to making some of my own and now I can, thank you! :)

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    1. Good, I hope you do.... they are WONDERFUL, especially on a cold day like today. :) Thank you for visiting.

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  5. We had one of these growing up and they're awesome! I've been wanting one for a long time now. I'll have to make some. ..I just didn't know how. We also put them in the fridge and used them as cooling pads for headaches too ;)

    Thanks for linking up with us for Tuesday Talk! -Jess
    www.sweetlittleonesblog.com / sweetlittleonesblog@gmail.com

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    1. They are nice for lots of things... I don't do the cool part too often, but we have done that... may need to do that more. I take mine to bed each night, but we also use them if we are chilled during the day... the long ones are great to just drape around the shoulders/neck and enjoy the heat. :) Thank you for visiting.

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  6. These are great! Thanks for sharing this post.
    Best wishes for New Year!
    Hugs and love from Portugal,
    Ana Love Craft
    www.lovecraft2012.blogspot.com

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  7. Great idea, thanks for sharing. I'll have to make one for me and my hubby

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    1. They are nice! I hope you and your husband enjoy yours. :)

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  8. I've been making these for years and use them daily! They are the best!!

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    1. They are.... it is a bit funny to me to see that this year they are being sold commercially a bit more and other people are seeing how nice they are. :)

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  9. These see amazing! They saved me when I was pregnant! Thanks for sharing in Tues Talk

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    1. They are... and they are wonderful w/ pregnancy.... by the way.... I am really enjoying Tuesday Talk. :)

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  10. What a great tutorial, thanks for linking up at Good Morning Mondays. Blessings

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    1. Thank you.... I was so glad to find Good Morning Mondays. :)

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  11. I would love to whip some of these up! Thanks so much for linking these up at On Display Thursday, see you this week!

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    1. They are pretty nice to have... hope you are able to make some and enjoy them. :) Thank you for the link up party.... I will plan to come back. :)

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  12. I am so blessed and excited to find this! My dear Mom used to use one of these. It was store-bought, and it was called a "Bed Buddy". I was just thinking how much I wished I had one, and the Lord led me here tonight...so thankful for you, for all of your sweet comments on my blog, and all of your faithful prayers and support. Much love and thanks to you, and to God for bringing you across my path!

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    1. What a lovely comment! Thank you... these rice bags really are such a blessing... I have 1 long one and a few smaller ones that I use most nights. :) I hope you made some and enjoy them. It was so nice to hear from you today... thank you for visiting.

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  13. Thanks for sharing this wonderful idea at Cooking and Crafting with J&J.

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    1. You're welcome... we sure do enjoy and use our rice bags often. :)

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  14. I make these with oatmeal! :)

    I would love for you to share this with my Facebook Group for recipes, crafts, tips, and tricks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pluckyrecipescraftstips/

    Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!

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    Replies
    1. Great idea to use oatmeal... I will have to try that. Thank you... and thank you for the invite... I will make a note of it and stop by. Thank you for visiting. :)

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  15. Hello, I also love my little bags my sister made them years ago and I still use them!
    Blessings, Roxy

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    1. They are so wonderful to have... and we use ours daily in the winter and other times also. :) Thank you for visiting.

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  16. A friend of ours made us similar ones with corn. She did like you and made a plain bag with a 'pillow case' that had velcro so we could wash if needed. Very handy at mom's house that is always drafty. I need to try the smaller ones for carrying when the weather is in negative numbers! thanks for sharing :-)
    PS - found you at The Art of Homemaking

    DavetteB

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    1. Another reader shared that she used oatmeal and your friend uses corn.... I haven't tried those! I did try barley once, but we didn't care for the smell when they were hot. I will have to try some of these other things also, though. I'm glad you visited... I enjoyed your comment. :)

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