As you may know, I have totally become a wimp since moving to Australia. I use to be able to weather extremely cold Canadian temps but now if it dips to 12 degrees I am chilled to the bone.

So my DYI project that I am going to show you today is a heat bag to warm your bod, heat up your bed, relieve muscle aches/pains and relax you (with the help of my dōTERRA essential oils…OF COURSE!)

Just a couple minutes in the microwave is enough to do the trick.  As you can probably guess, I don’t use our microwave….Ever….But in winter I do make one exception. Most of my concerns about microwaves (what it does to your food) doesn’t matter for something we aren’t eating, so I don’t mind using it for this purpose.

With some basic sewing skills, you can make your own warmth in a bag. They are super easy to put together with materials you already have at home or can pick up fairly inexpensively.

Materials

• Flannel or Cotton (you can use anything-a tea towel, old clothing..)
• Barley Kernels  (you can also use rice ,dried beans, flax or buckwheat)
• Sewing Machine/Needle and Thread
• Scissors
• dōTERRA essential oil

Instructions

1. Fold the material in half with patterned sides facing each other (the great thing about making your own heating pack is that you can customize it to be any shape or size you want)

2.  Sew three sides closed and leave one smaller end open.

3.  Turn the material inside out so that the rough ends are hidden.

4.  Fill the sack with barley until it is about ⅔ full

5.  Fold the remaining side in so that the rough ends are hidden and sew closed.

6.  Sew in 3-4 sections to keep filling evenly distributed.

7.  Add 8 drops of essential oil on the outer fabric.

(I have used my sleep time fav- Lavender Peace; aka Serenity in North America)

Ready to go

Heat for 1-2 minutes in the microwave with a small glass of water to prevent the barley from drying out (smells amazing!)

Notes

If sewing is not your forte, you can simply fill a sock with your choice of filler and knot the end for a super-lazy and effective microwavable heat pack.

Giving you warmth;

Erin x