DIY Flannel Foot Warmer with Free Cut File – plus a GIVEAWAY!

I’ve been busy putting the finishing touches on my handmade Christmas gifts lately! (I originally had the goal of getting them all finished and wrapped by Thanksgiving, ha! That didn’t happen, but I’m still on my way to getting them all done soon.) The most frustrating thing about being a blogger and hand making your gifts is that you can’t share them until AFTER Christmas, and then, what good does it do anyone? This project is SUCH a great gift idea, though, that I decided to let the surprise out of the bag and share it with you anyway. (Sorry Mom. Just act surprised when you open it, okay?)

Have you seen these microwavable warming pillows before? A good friend of ours gave us a rice warming pillow like this after we got married, and we loved it – a handmade gift that we actually used!  You can use either rice, feed corn, or flaxseed to fill them up – then you microwave it until it’s warm and put it in bed with you to keep your toes warm. It’s so simple, really inexpensive, and super practical for those of us that live in places with cold winter climates.  My mom is from Florida and ALWAYS cold, so I knew this flannel foot warmer would be a great gift for her.

SUPPLIES:

• Muslin or any kind of plain scrap fabric you have laying around
• Flannel (or other cozy material of your choice)
• flax seed, rice, or feed corn
• optional: heat transfer vinyl and a Silhouette machine to personalize your warming pillow

I decided to fill my bags with flax seed after reading this post that compared flax seed, rice, and corn, and I used this tutorial to make my bags. It includes instructions to make an inner bag for your filler material and an outer cover.  If you can sew in a straight line, I promise you can make these! You can see in the photo below that there are no zippers or buttons or anything on the cover…just an overlapping flap on the back so you can tuck the pouch inside.

I used plain muslin for the flax seed pouch, and Buffalo Check flannel for the cover. Of course, just plain flannel wasn’t enough…I had to dress it up a little bit! So I added a “Baby it’s cold outside” design to my cover with some plain white heat transfer vinyl, cut by my Silhouette Portrait.

I think it turned out perfectly!

Of course, I couldn’t stop there…I had some scraps of flannel leftover from another project, so I sewed them up into little squares to make flax seed hand warmers.

Perfect to toss in the microwave and then tuck in your pockets before a trip outside to walk the dog or take the kids to the bus stop. Or, in my mom’s case, to ride her horse! These are so inexpensive and easy, I think I might make some more for stocking stuffers or even neighbor gifts.

Now, if you don’t have a Silhouette or run out of time you certainly don’t need to add the HTV design to the warmers, but it is a fun and personal touch. You could even use a monogram or last name instead – they’d make great wedding or bridal shower gifts for winter brides!

THE SILHOUETTE CHALLENGE

If you’d like to grab my “Baby it’s cold outside” design for FREE, sign up for my Silhouette Library via the form below. You’ll get instant access to this cut file, as well as dozens more!

I don’t know about you, but I get bit HARD by the crafting bug around the holidays. There are just so many amazing ideas out there! And you can never have enough fabulous holiday crafting inspiration. So take a few minutes and browse around these holiday Silhouette projects – I know you’ll be blown away by these wonderful ideas!

1. Small Stuff Counts // 2. My Paper Craze // 3. HaberdasheryFun // 4. Create & Babble // 5. Creative Ramblings // 6. Cutesy Crafts // 7. GiveMeAPaintbrush // 8. Architecture of a Mom // 9. The Crafting Nook // 10. Get Silvered // 11. Where The Smiles Have Been // 12. Curly Crafty Mom // 13. unOriginal Mom // 14. Ginger Snap Crafts // 15. Practically Functional // 16. Sisters, What! // 17. The Thinking Closet // 18. Dream a Little Bigger
…and a GIVEAWAY!!!

And last but certainly not least, here’s an extra-special Christmas gift for YOU, friend…an epic Silhouette giveaway! Whether you already have a cutting machine or you have one on your wish list, make sure you enter for a chance to win one of these terrific prizes – even if you have one, wouldn’t it be great to gift one of these babies to your BFF? (Can anyone say fun winter crafternoons?) My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I in partnership with Silhouette America are hosting a mega-huge giveaway for TWO lucky winners! Here are the prizes up for grabs:

• First prize: Silhouette Cameo 3 Bluetooth Machine Bundle. $250.00 value.
• Second prize: Silhouette Mint Custom Stamp Maker. $129.99 value.

To enter: just complete the entries in the Rafflecopter widget below. Because of my many blog friends who helped make this giveaway possible, you have 33 potential entries, which means a lot of winning power. So, hurry up and enter!

{This giveaway runs from today through Monday, December 19th at 11:59 p.m. eastern and is open to anyone 18 years of age or older with a U.S. or Canada mailing address. You can read the rest of the terms and conditions in the widget below.}

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Merry Christmas!!!