DIY: Rice Sock
One of the gazillion items on the list of items I had to gather for our homebirth was a rice sock. I decided it wouldn’t be too hard to make, and a quick Google search turned up this tutorial.
Here’s how I did it:
- I found a pair of clean, sturdy socks at a second-hand shop. I picked a pair of long socks that would stretch nicely around my neck. I used one for the rice sock and one for a tennis ball (which was another item on my birthing list to help with back labor).
- I pushed the toe end of the sock in to make a straight line. I used a sturdy zig-zag stitch to stitch across the line several times.
- I filled the sock with two bags of rice. I kind of wish I would have added more, since the sock starts to stretch out after a while and the rice spreads farther apart.
- I folded the other end in and again used a zig-zag stitch to sew across the line several times.
- I microwaved the sock for two minutes at a time about 50 times in an attempt to get the moisture and the rice smell out of it.
And that’s it! When I want to heat it up, I usually put it in the microwave for 1.5 minutes. So nice!
5 Comments
Our Little Beehive
Hope you're doing ok and that your little coconut has arrived.
Carrie
Hope everything is OK and that you just realized that blogging for the rest of us is SO not important right now!
Megan B
Barley and oats work well too. I use half and half. The warm, comforting smell of oatmeal is great. (I've never tried this in a sock before though…)
Anonymous
Love the smell of warmed rice in the sock! I bought one of these while visiting Maine one year & have loved curling up on the couch with it on cold nights or putting it on my tummy during time-of-the-month-cramps. Nothing works better! This said, mine is made from fabric & has plain rice in it. I would be interested to know if anyone is familiar with what type of fabric might have been used for this (obviously it is something that does not burn up when being microwaved)? And is anyone familiar with including herbs with the rice? I'd like to make one of these for a friend of mine, but am afraid I'll pick the wrong fabric and/or the wrong herbs and start a fire in her microwave! I actually purchased a commercially-made one with herbs & did start a fire when the herbs inside burst into flame…
Caroline
any cotton should be fine, and I've had them with dried lavendar which is lovely.
I love them, but being without a microwave, they're useless. I sometimes contemplate getting a microwave for this sole purpose, but we would then end up using it to reheat food, which I don't want.
Carrie, I think she set up some posts to auto-post.