Corn Bags?

You may be wondering what in the world those are so allow me to explain.

Corn bags are simply that.  A fabric bag filled with feed/deer corn.  They can be micro waved or frozen to use as heating or cooling pads.

Back in December there was a handmade sale going on near my work and there was a booth selling these corn bags.  I bought one for $5 and have used it religiously since. 

Because I’m such a DIY thinker, I got to thinking how easy these were to make if I could just find the right corn.

When hubby got into hunting about a month ago, I asked him to find me some feed/deer corn so I could make a few more corn bags.  He found a whopping 40 lb bag (enough to make about 20 corn bags) at Bass Pro Shop for $8. 

I had plenty of fabric in my stash to make a few so I picked out some fabric and tore the pieces I needed for the first bag.

Then I ripped the bag of corn open and immediately knew this wasn’t going to be the 15 min project I envisioned. 

Apparently not all feed corn is created equal.

The corn was covered in a white chalky dust and there were lots of little flecks of corn bits everywhere.

Not the best scenario for this project but I dove in anyway and spent the next 45 mins sifting the corn and picking out 4 cups of corn kernels to use for the first bag. 

Next I assembled the inner bag, added the corn, closed it up and finished the cover.  All that took less than 10 mins. 

TIP:  I used some cotton flannel baby receiving blankets I had for the outer covers.  Free, cozy and cute.  What more could you want?!

Rayna claimed the first bag as her own, so I did it all over again to make one for Xander.

And here are the fruits of my labor:

The top of Rayna’s bag.  It’s wrinkly from her sleeping with it last night The bottom of Xander’s bag.  If you look closely there is an overlap sewn into the cover.  That eliminates the need for a zipper or other closure.  It’s basically made like a pillow sham cover.

They’re roughly 8X10 and the outer cover is removable, therefore washable.  When micro waved for 2 mins they provide a nice warmth for about an hour (unless you move it around too much, causing the heat to escape faster) or longer if kept under a blanket.

These are so nice to have to warm up the bed at bedtime.  I keep it at my feet and they stay nice and warm.

Corn bags are very similar to rice socks (if you’ve heard of those).  I prefer the corn over the rice because it smells better and rice tends to dry out a lot faster as well as has a tendency to scorch in the microwave.

I found everything I needed to know about the benefits of corn bags (including why corn is better than other fillers, how to avoid a bug fiasco-see below, etc) and how to make them here.  If you’re interested in making your own I highly recommend checking out this site.

Edited to Add: My good bloggy friend Rebecca commented about the possibility of bugs.  The website does talk about that and encourages you to use up the entire bag of corn as soon as you open it or store in a plastic tub so in case something hatches it can’t get out.  Which is a good idea anyway to keep rodents or other animals from trying to get to the corn.  Also, I micro waved the finished bags at least 3 times each before using in order to kill any bugs/eggs and to get some of the moisture out of the corn.  If you do that, you should be safe from any bug threat.

What new thing did you do/try this week?