Sewing hand warmers - an instruction for warm hands in winter

Today, you’ll learn how to sew a pair of practical hand warmers with little effort. These small hand warmers are a perfect gift for the Christmas season and you can sew them for all your favorite people in no time.

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Christmas is approaching and winter is just around the corner. Hopefully they will be accompanied by cold temperatures and snow and not, as in recent years in the north, drizzle and spring-like temperatures of around 15 °C. There is nothing better than enjoying fresh air outside on freezing cold, sunny winter days or fetching fresh bread from the bakery in the crunching snow. It is a good idea to have a pair of small sewn hand warmers with you in your coat pockets to warm even the coldest hands.

Sewing hand warmers – the materials

For 2 hand warmers measuring 10 x 10 cm, you will need:

4 pieces of woven cotton fabric measuring 12 x 12 cm each
Grape seeds (55 g – 60 g per hand warmer)
Matching sewing thread (e.g. Silk Finish Cotton from Mettler)
A heart stamp
An ink pad with stamping ink for the fabric

What if you don’t have a heart stamp? Then you can use another design or use fabric paint or textile pens to decorate your hand warmers. Alternatively, you can of course also use patterned fabrics.

Sewing hand warmers – instructions

Stamping the fabric

First, your 4 pieces of fabric are stamped or otherwise embellished. This is something that is great to do with children, although my two-year-old only had the patience for one heart. Can you spot it?

Depending on the type of stamping ink, you may need to iron the pieces of fabric once you’ve stamped them in order to fix the dye. But please do not use steam, as this may cause the colors to run.

Sewing

Then place 2 pieces of fabric with the right sides together and sew around the edge with a seam allowance of 1 cm. Remember to leave a turning opening of 2-3 cm on one side and secure the seam before and after the turning opening.

Turning and filling

Now it’s time to turn your sewing the right way out. Shape your corners nicely with an edge or corner shaper. I did not trim off the corners, as my fabric is relatively loosely woven and I didn’t want the corners to disintegrate when turned and during use.

You can now fill your hand warmers with the aid of a funnel. Based on a size of 10 x 10 cm, 55-60 g of filling per hand warmer turned out to be about right. That way, the hand warmers are not overfilled and the seeds have enough room to move around and are able to store the heat well.

Closing the turning opening

Finally, the turning opening is closed using a mattress stitch. Alternatively, you can close the turning opening by sewing close to the edge on your sewing machine.

Enjoy!

Your hand warmers are now finished – ready to give away or keep for yourself!

After 30 seconds in the microwave at 600 watts, they will keep you warm for 20-30 minutes. Enough for a morning walk to the bakery in the crunching snow. 😉