Originally Posted by kimscruzer
The corn rice bags peak my interest . Can you tell me how to do those. My aunt has Rheumatoid Arthritis. I think she would love them.
http://www.microwavecornbags.com/pattern.htm
Most of mine are made in long rectangles, so they end up approximately 9x22 inches. I have a serger, so I serge both long ends and one short end together, fill with 3-4 cups deer/livestock corn (very cheap - I get 50 lb bags at Farm&Fleet for about $5), then serge the other end shut. I usually heat these about 2 minutes in the microwave, though especially the first few times, I stand there and make sure no corn starts popping.
I have also more recently made a few that were basically 10-12 inch squares - serged together on 3 sides again, then stitched three evenly-spaced lines to create 4 channels, filled with as much livestock corn as possible, then serged the final end shut. These I think can also go two minutes, but I haven't used them more than once - I made them to use up scraps and try something different, thinking they might be nicer for post-surgical pain, as the bag was more full.
I use muslin or thrifted sheets for the filled bags, then make envelope style covers for them out of flannel or quality cotton. These make great gifts, especially for people at work or at children's schools, where you don't want to spend a ton, but you want something useful. They're also great as part of a gift for family and friends. Tailoring the cover to the recipient can be fun! My mom requested a new cover last Christmas - she'd had the corn bag over a year. She got the new cover *and* the square-style corn bag. Everyone at work last year raved about the corn bags for several months afterward. ;)
And my sons can't stand to have their hands cold for walks, so after a second teary walk (they keep losing the really warm mittens, so have to make due with the not-so-warm, plus insist on carrying snow around, which melts and makes their hands cold!), I made small squares - probably 2.5-3 inch finished sides - and filled them as full as I could while still managing to stitch them shut. These were made out of flannel, and I used them in their pockets as handwarmers. They were only heated about 30 seconds. Worked great!
Hope that gives you some ideas!