Rice bag for baby

Today I made a rice bag for baby, the first week at home with Lincoln was tricky not only getting the hang of what he liked but also what worked best for all of us. I quickly discovered that he liked sleeping with us better than alone in his bassinet so before he was born I made a long skinny rice bag to lay next to him to make him feel more secure, so I gave this a try and it really seemed to work. This is a very simple project and is very inexpensive as well. The list of supplies you need is as follows..

-A piece of fabric the size you want the rice bag ( you can make these any shape or size you want- I made this one long and skinny so that it could lay beside baby and not be taking up the whole bed.)
-Rice
-Thread

The first thing you need to do is cut your fabric into the size and shape you want it to be remember your going to sew it inside so make it slightly bigger than you think its going to be. You also need 2 pieces of your shape or you can cut it along a seam and make it slightly easier so you only have to sew 3 sides instead of 4 (that's what I did with this one.) I made mine 5 1/2 x 25 inches.

After you have your piece cut out the size you want you want to sew it right sides together along all sides but don't forget to leave about a 3 inch space to turn your bag right side out. This is what it will look like after you turn it right side out and before you put your rice in. 

Next you are going to put your rice in, you want it about 2/3 the way full or a little less you don't want it stuffed because you want it to be comfortable and somewhat mold-able. 

Then your going to fold your open end in so that it gives it a finished look and sew your seam, if you want the whole thing to have a really finished look you can sew a 1/4 inch seam around the whole outside of the bag (I didn't because I didn't feel like spending the extra time even though its really only about 2 more minutes.)


This is your finished product. These make great gifts for a baby shower and if you make them shorter they make great gifts for anyone, pop them in the microwave for a few minutes and they make a great heating pad, or store them in the freezer and they make great ice packs that won't leak. You also can add lavender or scented oils to the rice to give it a nice scent when you warm it up.

FYI- make sure to test the warmed bag on yourself before putting anywhere on baby because they can get very hot!!