Portugal is warm much of the time, but when it’s cold, it is cold, and suddenly aches and pains creep back in. Thanks to the mini smallholder blog who brings us a great tutorial on how to make a super simple wheat pack! They are a perfect way to use up any small, unwanted scraps of material & the bags work out to be only a few euros each in cost, plus they are much better than a single use heat pack that heads straight to landfill! These should last you for years and years!

You will need:
A needle and thread
A tape measure
A pack of pins for securing the material
1 bag of wheat
Some scraps of recycled material

How to:

Start by measuring the material to around 15cm by 30cm, if the scrap of material is under this, just pop less wheat in! This is an ideal beginners project as it does not need to be exact in any way. Once the material is cut fold it in half so that the pattern is facing inwards and the lighter side is therefore outwards. You are ready to start to pin your material in place to hold it ready for sewing. I am choosing to hand sew, as a beginner I do not want to use a machine.

Sew the two open sides together but ensure that the final side has a gap big enough for a finger to fit through easily, you now need to turn the fabric inside out so the pattern is facing the outside.

I made a funnel from a piece of card recycled from the outside of a food pack (free & reusable!) Fill the bag with wheat, make sure you leave enough space to sew up the hole afterwards.

You can then move on to sewing up the finger hole in the side.  And you are finished! Really it is that simple!

And remember if you want a cool pack instead of a heat pack it can be placed in the freezer (pop it inside a plastic bag to avoid freezer burn damage.)

How to video: