Matching Microwave Heating bags to your Sheet Set - Recycling Heating Bags

Over the past 20 years, I have made many, many grain microwavable heating bags. I used to make them and sell them for boutiques when I ran holiday boutiques. I have gone through many bags over the years and gave them to family and friends for years as well.

It seems that in the past few years, they haven't been around as much as they used to be. I haven't seen them for sale anywhere. I used them nightly for years to get my feet warm so I could fall asleep.

In the past few years, I have used a heated mattress pad to heat my bed before I get in so I haven't been using the bags like I used to. Mostly, the girls will use them when they are home sometimes but I didn't realize how many heating bags I had until I cleaned out the closet the other day.

I shared how I am trying to clean out my house doing one cupboard or drawer at a time and I usually take a picture of the items I don't want and then send it to my girls to see if they want any of them.


With this item, there were so many different sizes and fabrics on the old bags that I figured I didn't want to offer them as they were. Over the years, the girls friends had given them some they made in socks. The girls had also made some for a young women church activity in gym socks so we had lots of different sizes and shapes and many of them were worn looking or dirty.

I have found these on the floor at the bottom of the girls beds as I was changing the sheets, as they would use them on their feet to fall asleep, and then they would get kicked to the bottom and fall out as they were sleeping. I think that is part of the reason we had so many different bags.

While the girls were here over the holidays, I asked them if they wanted any of the bags and what sizes they would like if I were to make new cases for the bags. Every girl wanted at least one or two of the bags so I pulled out some scrap flannel and either covered the larger bags or combined several of the smaller bags or gym sock bags, putting them into newly sewed bags out of scrap material.

The two bags at the top of the page were actually made out of a cover for a sheet set I purchased for Princess Five for Christmas and I never know what to do with those fabric covers for the sheet sets as you can never fit the washed sheets back into those bags so I pulled it apart and used the cute fabric to make matching heating bags for the sheet set!

If your sheets didn't come with a fabric case, I then figured you could always purchase a matching fabric or extra pillowcase and make the microwave heating bags out of that fabric. I usually used upholstery fabric to make these but have seen cotton, flannel, socks, footies and basically any cotton fabric. 

Be careful not to use any fleece or man made fabrics containing any plastics as they will melt in the microwave. We have had towels that weren't 100 % cotton melt in the microwave as well as a blend fabric someone made them out of melt in the microwave. Always make sure it is cotton as it can take the heat better. 

You can make these in any shape and size as I showed in this post about them. I also show in this post how you can make a removable cotton pillowcase for the bags so that you can remove the case and wash it so the bag itself doesn't get dirty. 

Just make the new fabric case the same size or just a tad larger than the old bag and you won't have to dump the grain into the new bag, you can just have the bag be two thicknesses of cotton fabric by inserting the old bag into the new bag and sewing the new bag closed. Make sure that the old bag isn't going to show through to the new bag if it is a lighter color fabric. 

If you are combining bags, you will need to dump the old grain into the new bag. I did this with the several smaller bags we had as the girls would rather have the middle to larger size bags. Be careful when doing this as you can see by one of my pictures, I dropped the bag and had a rice party on my carpet. I learned that snipping a small corner of the bag is best and only leaving a small opening on the new bag is best. You can then put the old bag opening inside the new bag opening and pour without much mess. 

I left the new bag opening large and then it was harder to sew as the grain made the bag heavy and awkward to hold while sewing and I dropped it. I suggest that before trying to sew the bag closed that you pin it well so that there isn't that problem. I was just finger holding the opening closed as I sewed and the weight of the rice pulled the entire bag on the ground. 

The things you learn when doing something for the first time is invaluable for the next time. Thus, you all get to learn from my mistakes! It was funny that while the bags were in the dirty or worn form, the girls weren't all keen on taking them but when I shared that I was going to recover them, the girls were excited to take them. It reminded me of what I have told them for years about food, it is all in the presentation. Here is a link to a post about that with freshening up grapes. I think it is something we all need to remember. Presentation is key!

Have a Blessed and Warm Day!