Hand Warmers

Now for those of you that don't know, I suffer from an autoimmune disease called Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, it causes a variety of problems including arthritis, malaise (ill feeling), muscle and joint problems, and one of the hallmark symptoms is Raynaud's Phenomenon.  Raynaud's is where your fingers and toes discolor (white, purple, blue, red), this is caused by a vasoconstriction (where your blood vessels in your hands and feet get small and don't let blood circulate through causing discoloration) which is brought on by temperature changes, mostly cold.  

In the winter it gets very bad for me, I now have to take blood pressure medication to keep my blood vessels open despite the cold.  So I have to take all measures to ensure that my hands and feet stay warm, I usually get the HandWarmers from Wal-Mart but that can be costly, I found this project and made some and they worked fantastically!  But I would suggest to get some oil to add to the rice, because plain rice can smell not too pleasant.  This was also my first sewing project (with a machine) and I was quite pleased with the end results.

And I HIGHLY suggest to invest in a funnel, my friend that I made these with did not have one and we had the hardest time filling them up.

Directions:

materials needed for one set of hand warmers:
*grab some rice (i used white long grain, because that's what we eat)

*scrap of fabric (it just needs to be enough to fold over to cut out 1 strip (double fold) at 3 1/2" x 6" 
*those strips of fabric cut again in half at 3 1/2" x 3"

to assemble hand warmers:

1. place right sides together for both sets of squares.

 2. using a 1/4" seam allowance sew along one side of your squares.

 **instead of doing each hand warmer separately, *chain* your squares.
to chain your squares sew your first seam and then instead of cutting the threads, place your next square to be sewn. you will end up with a couple of stitches that will not sew onto any fabric, hence making a chain.

this will be helpful is you are doing a lot of hand warmers.

 3. after you have sewn one side on all your squares, you can cut your *chain* like the picture above.

 *here is a picture of all the squares having one side sewn and then had the chain cut.
4. sew three sides of your squares (using the chain method for each side)
5. the fourth side sew your seam and leave a 1 1/2"  opening in the middle of your seam. (back stitch at the opening so it does not rip open for the following steps. 

 6. once all four sides are sewn, cut at an angle your corners making sure you do not cut through the "X" your seams make.
7. turn inside out, and using a pin pull out your corners as much as you can.

 8. for filling we are using rice, so you will want to get your rice and if you have a funnel use it to get the rice inside the opening. (i made my own out of paper shaped into a funnel)

 8. fill up your hand warmer at least 3/4 full.

 9. and hand stitch closed.

WARMING INSTRUCTIONS:
*warm in the microwave for 15 seconds.
*hold in your hands and warm up your digits.
*can also be used as eye packs (freeze them for cool packs, or warm them for warm packs)
*i do not recommend heating them up for longer amounts than 15 seconds as it may cause burns on skin.

Directions from http://www.vanessachristenson.com/2011/12/v-and-co-how-to-homemade-hand-warmers.html and by no means credit myself to creating the tutorial. Just passing along directions to a wonderful craft.