Rice heating pads..anyone make them?

I would not microwave fleece. It's a synthetic material that could melt. However, those pads do get dirty and fur covered, so an extra removable fleece cover that you can wash is a great idea.

Ideally for projects like that you need to stick with nice durable 100% cotton.

I like to use whole kernel corn, too, since it holds heat longer and is safer to microwave. Its also cheaper if you have a store that sell animal feed. I think the last bag I got was 40lbs for $6.50. They make great gifts for people.

Maybe if you microwaved it for 10+ minutes. But no, you need to use whole corn and only microwave it for a couple of minutes.

I use old socks and just tie off the tops.

Rice can get a little pricy if you need to make a bunch. Just make sure the corn isn't too dusty - it should be a prewashed feed anyways. You need to microwave them a couple times (with cooling in between) before they're really ready for use. That just makes sure any moisture left is gone. You will however notice that your house smells a bit like fritos from microwaving the corn. (now I'm craving fritos just thinking about it)

The downside: Grain pests are always a potential problem in any grain, corn is no exception. Keep extra corn and unused corn bags in the freezer to help prevent that. I had a bag with about 8lbs left in it that I hadn't put back in the freezer and ended up with a weevil surprise - would you believe that you can't kill those things with microwaving? (or at least not easily, repeated heatings would eventually do it).

Around here old socks get turned into rags. The reason they're not longer useable in the first place is because of holes.

Have fun sewing. The fleece will still make a great removable cover as the heated corn can get quite hot, so your work so far hasn't gone to waste. Have fun sewing and play around with the corn a bit if you decide to use it, it can get quite heavy and you may not need but a couple of cups per pad/bag. You can also go back with with some embroidery floss and stitch sections into it (with wide stitches in a contrasting color, it looks quite nice) so as to keep everything from shifting all to one side. That's what I did.

The reason the whole kernel corn made for feed doesnt explode is because they use specific breeds of corn that have very little amounts of moisture in them, mostly because the corn gets stored for a long time in big bags before it is eaten by animals. Popping corn is the exact opposite, it has so much oil and moisture in it that it pops in a couple minutes.

Here's the website of a friend of mine who makes them for sale.

http://betsyrosslinens.com/hotcold.html

She also makes great purses and other stuff!

She makes the really long ones I call "heat pack scarves" I make mine closer to a foot in length and people really seem to like that better for putting on the back of their necks as it isn't too heavy to do so. Ultimately it depends on where and how you plan use them.

farleyv - Have you made any up, yet?