Heating Pad From Shirt Sleeve

After completing previous instructables projects using a button up shirt I had just a shirt sleeve left. I wanted to find something to make out of this lonely shirt sleeve.

The idea came to me the other night after my wrist started acting up and I found myself really wishing for a heating pad, and the idea was born.

This project was quick and easy, giving a great new heating pad for fractions of the cost.

Here is what I needed to create my shirt sleeve heating pad.

Old shirt sleeve

Long rice

Scissors

Sewing Machine

I started by trimming down the shirt sleeve for a little bit.

Due to how the shirt is made is that it tapers out as the sleeve meets the shoulder. I wanted a more straight lined heating pad so I took some of the tapering off of the sleeve leaving a straight sleeve to work with

After trimming the sleeve I flipped the sleeve inside out and sewed together the raw edge I just cut completely enclosing the long ended of the sleeve.

Then if flipped the sleeve right side out again.

The next step was to sew together the cuff closed as well as sewing the piece in half, giving the heating pad a little extra flexibility. To do this I sewed along the cuff and then followed it all the way down to the end of the piece

After sewing all the other pieces together I decided to sew up the far end of the sleeve to have 3 of the 4 sides sewn together.

To sew up the end I rolled the bottom up and then sewed along the line. Rolling and sewing is a quick and easy way to sew the ends without having any raw edges exposed. Its not the prettiest seam, but is a great option if you want a quick and clean end product.

After working on the heating pad I decided to remove the buttons and sew up the button holes to keep all the stuffing from coming out.

I first used a seam ripper to remove the buttons.

Then I used a needle and thread to do a quick whip stitch along the button hole. This was able to close the button hole quickly and easily.

When the sewing is finished it is time to stuff the heating pad.

I used some rice to stuff my heating pad. Rice is good to use because it is flexible and can hold heat, but is also quite cheap to use.

NOTE: Be careful stuffing with rice. If you spill it the rice goes everywhere! (I learned this from experience)

Once all the rice stuffing is done its time to sew up the last end of the heating pad. This was very easy since I just followed the stitch at the end of the cuff, hiding the second stitch line, giving a super easy final stitch to the heating pad.

With that last stitch i was done with my awesome new heating pad.

I also found the the heating pad is also a great cooling pad. Just throw it in the fridge for a few hours and it is nice and cool for anything you need.

Enjoy!