I've got a refashion up my sleeve....|| DIY cherry pit pillow with rice

Hey guys, how are things going? As for me, I'm..

well, kind of. See those bruises on my hand? that's from taking a tumble in the middle of Utrecht central station yesterday. Not sure what was hurt more in that action: my hand, my pride, or the cup of yoghurt that I was carrying at the moment. And it following only a few days after a I got a concussion from a garage door that fell on my head ( yeah really...)  I think it's safe to say that Murphy is my new roommate. But apart from that, I'm fine, and I really hope you are as well! 

Of course, I didn't post that picture just to show off my thumbs up and bruises, I posted it because I did a refashion with that fabric today (cheerings crowds..) and not just any kind of refashion: one that will probably be the most important refashion of the upcoming cold season.. a cherry pit pillow!

This refashion began it's life as a blouse in a thrift shop. I picked it up because I loved the print, the fabric was nice, and because it was quite cheap, about 2 euros or so.  I even managed to forget that I usually don't really look good in blouses, and happily skipped to the check-put, imagining a much thinner, leggier version of myself in foresaid blouse, running through a field of flowers.  

But.. I'm not that leggy, thin version of myself with a perfect tan that can pull of anything, and when I put it on at home, I realized that the amount of print in the blouse made me look like an enveloppe somehow.

The only thing to make it work was by chopping of the sleeves and turning the blouse into a top, a refashion that I began with months ago, and still isn't finished. And the poor, chopped up sleeves ended up in my fabric-stash, where I found them this morning, where I thought: " Hey, I can work with that!

If you want to make your own heat pillow/ cherry pit pillow, here's what you'll need:

 

• a few squares of cotton fabric ( any size will do, just make sure it is cotton or linen, and not some kind of polyester)
• rice. preferably brown rice, or some kind of long-cooking rice. 
• sewing equipment

I know: in the shops these things are usually filled wth cherry pits. But nobody in their right mind has a stash of spare cherry pits laying around, so I used rice. And since this is not the first time I make such things, I can confirm after intensive testing that rice works absolutely fine! 

I began by cutting the sleeve open.

lot's of fabric!

Just when I wanted to cut two squares of fabric from it, I saw another piece of fabric from the corner of my eye, ( one that I used here to make cushions covers) and I thought they would match beautifully. 

beautiful prints!!

So, I cut two matching squares from the fabric. Of course, no need to be boring like me: you can go freestyle and make circles, triangles, hearts, dinosaur-shapes or whatever you want!

Then, I placed them on top of each other, right side facing inwards, and sewed around the edges, leaving a small hole to turn it around again, and fill it with rice. 

maybe I should have trimmed the edges a bit nicer, but well.. nobody's going to see them anyway...

When I was finished, I turned the pouch right side out again, and grabbed my rice, much to the amusement of Inky, who suddenly decided that chewing of uncooked rice was just her kind of thing ( "purrr... rice, mice, what's the difference?") 

Because I couldn't find a funnel with a big enough hole, I simply poked a hole in a coffee filter, and applied the rice through there. ( no Inky, get away from that!)

When the pillow was full enough, I stitched up the hole, and added a little label for extra professionallness ( is that a word? Well, now it is ;) )

Now the only thng left to do, was warming it up in the microwave ( about two minutes should do the trick) and relax!!!

ahhh! best feeling in the world!!

Actually, I loved it so much, that I made a mini-version: ideal for putting in your pocket or mittens on a cold day, or, like I did: just against the back of my neck. 

it's a mini warmer! ps: that label is a remnant from the time we had a refashioned clothing line for a shop, quite cool, no? I'll tell you more about it some day.

stacked up!

The bigger ones stay warm for about 25 minutes, the smaller ones cool down after 15 minuted or so. 

Ah, just the thing I need after a week of misfortune.. take that, Murphy!

makes a pretty neat gift as well, don't you think? 

hope you enjoyed it! And love to hear your Halloween-stories, We don't really celebrate it over here, and I'm quite sad about that!!