Aromatherapy Heat Wrap

In trying to come up with a replacement for bath time in Connor's nighttime routine, I was given advice to use a neck wrap that gets heated in the microwave and put it on his belly to simulate the warm water in the bath and it would help sooth his belly. Well he wasn't too happy with the neck wrap that I have (I think it's too heavy for his belly) so I set out to find one that was more of a rectangular shape that I could place on his belly/torso. I didn't see anything I liked on Amazon, as they were mostly neck wraps, so I tried a basic Google search. This led me to an Etsy seller who makes aromatherapy wraps, one of which was the exact size and shape I wanted. I almost considered buying one until I stopped and realized that I could totally make one myself for much cheaper and have it sooner than if I ordered it (there's a 3 week wait due to them being made when ordered).

So I checked my fabric stash and found some plain, soft material I had left over from a project I did with my kindergarteners years ago that would be perfect for the heat wrap. All I needed was rice, flax seed, and lavender to fill it and I cold get started. I ordered some rice and flax seed in bulk from Soap.com (great site... sister site of Diapers.com which I also love) and dried food-grade lavender from Amazon.com.

Here's how I did it...

Materials


36 oz white rice
16 oz flax seeds
dried lavender
soft, thin fabric (I used one long piece approximately 10 x 28 inches)

Directions

1. Sew two pieces of fabric together, right-side in, leaving one end un-sewn (I folded my piece in half and sewed just the sides together, leaving the top open). Turn right-side out.
2. Sew 3 straight lines, equally spaced long ways, creating 4 pockets with openings at the top. Make sure to leave about a 1/2 inch space from the top so you can fold it under when you sew it closed. 
3. Mix rice, flax seeds, and lavender (I used about a handful but you can vary the amount depending on how strong you want it to smell). This will give you extra for making more wraps, I mixed and stored mine in a gallon ziploc bag. If you only plan on making one wrap, you can reduce the amounts. 
4. Next, I poured about a cup of the mixture into each pocket. You want to make sure not to fill the pockets all the way to leave room for the mix to spread out and have flexibility. Ideally you want the pockets 2/3-3/4 full. If you have a clean funnel, it would make this part easier (I did not have one and it was a bit of a pain). 
5. Now, fold the extra fabric at the top in (secure with pins if you need to) and sew closed.

That's it! Actual time it took me was probably 10-15 minutes. I'm definitely going to make more and make cute covers for them. I'm also going to make some scent packs with the lavender to put throughout the house since I have so much of it.

 

My finished piece is approximately 10 x 14 inches. You could really make this into any size or shape you desire. The key is to create the pockets for the stuffing so it doesn't all pool into one end of the wrap. Then make a cover to hide the pockets and make it look nice :). Hopefully I'll be able to make a nice cover for Connor's wrap soon. For that I'd like to go buy some cute fabric for though, so it may be a little while.

Happy Sewing!