Making Rice Pack Tips ----

Over the course of several rice pack projects I've learned a number of tips and tricks.  Just passing the info on to any interested parties here.  :)

Use real rice.  Do NOT use freeze dried/dehydrated rice like Minute Rice.  For the rice pack to work it has to have moisture in it to heat while in the microwave. Dehydrated/freeze dried rice has has all the moisture extracted from it.Filling the rice packs will make a mess on the table, pieces fall everywhere no matter how careful you are.  I used a large mixing bowl to hold the loose rice, and a 1/3 measuring cup to pour it into my bags, that worked a lot better than trying to pour it directly from the bag or to do it any other way.  

Get the 2 lb bags of rice from the grocery store, they're the cheapest. If you are making a lot of bags then the 20 lb sacks from an Asian grocery store are the lowest cost.Be very careful with sewing the sections on the packs once you put the rice in, if the machine needle hits a rice piece the wrong way you'll break a needle.* Rice is the most cost effective.

* I've tried popcorn kernels (unpopped popcorn), they hold the heat longer but SMELL like popcorn so I didn't use that.

* I tried buckwheet also, which is mentioned on some sites - don't use it, it smells like horse feed!

* I've tried flax, which works nice and holds the heat a long time but the price of even the bulk flax seed at the health food store went up too high to make it worthwhile.

* Everyone swears by cherry pits, but at $10 a pound, sorry. It's only available online in bulk.

FYI - to avoid insects chewing into them after you have them made and stored, put the finished items in zip lock baggies!  I had an unpleasant surprise with the neck warmers I made one year for an event, finding moth caterpillars had chewed into the fabric on two of them.  Rice is organic and something will eat it.  They were stored in a box up in a closet upstairs for a year, so something got into the box.  The larger neck warmer I'd made that I was using regularly never had an issue.

Microwaving it should not be done long - it can start the fabric on fire and scorch the rice.  Test each size pack first with 30 second groupings and put the 'warming time' on the label.  My wrist ones only needed 30 seconds. My large neck warmer with 2 cups of rice in it took 1 minute 20 seconds.  That one was GREAT to heat up right before bed, put in the bed under the covers about waist high and let it be there for 5 minutes.  Made a toasty bed to get into.  It's good as a foot warmer under the covers too.

Don't use 100% nylon or polyester for the coverings - cotton or cotton blends are best, they won't deteriorate or burn in the microwave. 

Don't use polar fleece either, it gets 'wet' with the heated rice, making it feel weird. I was afraid of mold on those.  Keep with cotton from the quilting section of the fabric store.

Flannel also gets 'wet' when microwaved, same as polar fleece. Plus the fabric isn't as strong as cotton.

Sizes -- I did wrist ones with 3 sections.  I've done 15" long ones 4" wide for around the neck that work GREAT when you want to warm up on the couch (they fit in the lap too or under the quilt at bedtime, or for your feet to set on).  The neck ones can be made in  a straight or a curved shape.  If you're making an animal form for it, do NOT put button or bead eyes on it, you don't want microwaved beads burning in and branding someone's skin. I've even seen a rice stuffed gardening glove and fake 'arm' done up as zombie parts heating pads. 

The little hand warmer squares don't hold heat very long, they go cold in about 10 minutes.

While they CAN be used as cold packs (in any size) they really don't hold the cold very long.  And you have to keep them in a zip lock baggie in the freezer so they don't get damp.

Don't use essential oils - it'll stain the fabric and anything that part of the pack is touching on your clothes.If you want to add in lavender buds, or any other scent like cinnamon sticks, be aware that the smell may be overpowering once the pack is heated.  Too many people are allergic so I never used any herbs in mine.

They don't have to be stuffed really bulging tight with rice, leave some room so you can machine sew the opening closed. It lets the item be more form fitting if it can have the rice move around where needed.

Tiny Ermine For The Royal Kitty

Yes, it’s time again to try coming up with new cat toys for this year’s Renaissance Festival.  When I first started selling at those I tried to have between 6 and 9 NEW items each year, whether in cat toys or in stuffed toys.  And I actually kept up with that each and every year.  True, some only were offered one or two years, others were good enough to be regulars for every season after that.  But come on, after 15 straight years of doing the event a person does start to run out of ideas for new items.

The past four years I’ve stuck generally with the best sellers and haven’t come up with much in the way of ‘new’ cat toys, though I did add dragonflies and Cthulhu sushi to the mix.  Yesterday I was at JoAnn Fabrics with an eye towards examining the new designs in the cotton quilting section and seeing what was on sale in the other portions of the store.  Nothing much jumped out at me though.  Ture, I did still spend $60 there which was more than I’d planned, but that was mostly a restocking of prints that I was low on.  One fabric did give me a new idea.

On the wall racks was a white, fluffy fabric sort of like terry cloth (with the nap) but super soft. The bolt calls it Soft & Comfy.  Normally it’s $14.99 a yard.  The whole selection was marked on sale for $8.99 a yard.  It came in maybe 8 different  colors but when I looked at the white I thought ‘ermine’.  What better thing for a Medieval tie in? 

Unfortunately the store didn’t have any long black fake fur so the tail tips will have to be done with something else, but the ermine is nothing other than a long tube with a pointy end at each extreme.  Black bead eyes, white felt ears, it doesn’t even need feet. 

Sketches on paper let me come up with a super simple pattern.  7 inches long, 1 inch black tail tip, 2 ½ inches wide.  Fold it over, round the tail end, point the head end, leave a side opening.  Turn, leave the tail unstuffed, wind white thread around the base of the tail to seal that off and stuff the body with fiberfill and catnip.  Close the side opening.  Pinch the face and sew on the eyes and ears.  6mm black beads for the eyes, or 8mm faceted beads if you want some ‘flash’ and gleam to them.  Two tiny rounded white felt ears folded in half and added on.  Done!

I got a full yard of the white fabric and will use the entire thing making ermine for the event in August.  Should be easy since the item only requires ONE pass through the sewing machine.

Writing A Craft Book

Yep, I did decide to go ahead and do a craft book on making cat toys (from ¼ yard or less of material).  I figure that if I’ve been doing this many toys per year, I can take the easier designs and do up patterns and instructions for others to be able to duplicate them.

It’ll be divided into beginner, intermediate and advanced. And each section divided by simple to the more complex.  Many don’t even require a sewing machine, or can be sewn by hand if someone doesn’t have a machine to help. 

So as research I’ve been checking the crafting books at the library to see how the introduction is written, how much space is given to each explanation at the start of the sections, and how they describe HOW to make an item.  It all seems pretty straightforward. 

I’ve got patterns for 38 different types of cat toys. I’m not going to put all of them in, just the basic ones with info on how to add extra to the appearances and such. 

Since I don’t intend on self publishing it I’ll have to do research into how to approach publishers in the craft industry as well.  Lucky me.  This will take a while.

Finding Nemo?

JoAnn Fabrics has this great cotton print fabric in their quilting section of tiny realistic clown fish about 1" long on a blue background.  It's not cheap, not at $12 a yard.  

I got half a yard of it to make another Books For Cats selection.  Rather than waste so much of the print I'm only using it for the cover, and will do the inside and the back out of solid blue cotton fabric.  The title will be Where's Nemo?  Inside is 'Found Him!' and on the second page will be a sushi rice piece with black seaweed and orange polar fleece cut into a fish shape, all sewn down flat.  It's minimal fuss and yeah, I know it's a dorky nasty thing to have any kid read, but come on, this is for the cats as a toy and it'll be the owners who buy it.  

Funny "sells".