DIY Heated Slippers

Where I live it has started snowing in September so I figured I might be needing an extra bit of warmth this fall. That's why in this intructable I will show you how to remake your old slippers so that they can be microwaved for extra warmth!

What you need:

Thread

Sewing needle

Seam ripper

Old slippers

Dried rice

Step 1: Open Up the Seam of Your Slippers

In this step you will need to use your seam ripper to give your slippers an opening to put the rice in. On top of the opening on most slippers there is a seam. That is the one that you will want to open. To do this you can either rip the seam just enough so that you can get rice in, or you can rip it the whole way. Remember you will need to sew it back up after. At this point you will want to check for any holes present on the inside of outside of your slippers. If there are holes, the rice will fall out. I had filled my slippers most the way with rice before I discovered the hole that was on the inside toe of my slipper. To repair these holes just use a simple overcast stitch.

Step 2: Add the Rice

Now you are ready to put rice in! Since I only opened my seam part of the way, I found that the best way to put the rice in was by taking roughly a teaspoon of rice in my fingertips and then dropping that into my slippers. Initially I had attempted to use a funnel to get my rice in, but I found that the funnel was getting clogged. However, if you have a funnel with a large enough opening that rice could pass through, that would be an excellent method for putting rice in.

Step 3: Close Your Slippers Up.

The final step is sewing the seam that you ripped out to begin with, back together. To do this, use a simple stitch or running stitch. It just has to be strong enough that no rice can get through. Now your slippers are done! I found that for my slippers if you microwave them for about 45 seconds to a minute there is a nice amount of heat. This should keep them warm for about 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Comments

[tamra.shumanski]

If you put it in for a longer time will it stay heated longer?

[LionelTheElephant]

Yes! If you put the slippers in the microwave for longer, they will retain their heat for longer. The temperature of the slippers will just be hotter though, so really your just making it so that there will be more heat to lose. Just make sure you don't make them too hot! Enjoy!

[tamra.shumanski]

@LionlElephant if you put it in longer we'll it stay warm longer?

[breumer]

genius!

[HagridsMom]

what a good idea! I hate having cold feet.Thanks for sharing this idea.

[Miniminn]

will the rice get burnt or something? sorry, dont know a thing about cooking rice :D

[SonOfThunder]

It would burn, but it never gets hot enough. Try putting the slippers in for about five minutes that should do the trick. ;-)

[TaskMaster]

I understand where you're coming from, but dry rice won't burn if you put it in for about 45 seconds. I don't think you are really getting at the concept that the idea behind using rice is that it retains the heat better than most other mediums. Think of it like how the color black retains heat significantly better than white, meaning it's not a matter of heating it excessively.

[LionelTheElephant]

In my experience 1-2 minutes has been plenty depending on the size of the object being heated, so I think that 5 minutes might be a bit too much. Thanks so much for the suggestion though! :)

[LionelTheElephant]

I have never experienced that problem, and as long as the rice is dry it should be fine :)

[TaskMaster]

This looks really neat. Dry rice works really well, as it retains the heat quite effectively, which is why it is often used in commercial reheat-able items. I would recommend using slippers one size or so up from what you would normally wear so that after you have packed it with rice it isn't too tight. Great instructable.

[kaeldra]

You aren't cooking the rice, you are just heating the dry rice. Many homemade, and even some commercial, reusable heat packs use dry uncooked rice in them. Just pop them in the microwave for 30-60 seconds as needed. They will stay warm for a fair amount of time.

I have a heat pack I made by folding and sewing a washcloth then filling with rice. Because of the larger size and amount of rice it needs a little longer to get warm (90-120 seconds) but it's so lovely to lay around the back of my neck when it's sore.

You want your rice to stay dry or mold could develop. You also want to be careful what kind of material you use, many synthetics tend to melt quickly when microwaved, so make sure it is microwave friendly first. I usually use 100% cotton for my heat packs.

I'm planning on making some small hand warmers for gifts this winter using rice...you just microwave them as you're getting ready to go out then stick them in your coat pockets for a nice warm up when your fingers get cold. :)

[hbg1968]

maybe put 1/2 a cup of water in at the same time.

[LionelTheElephant]

Thank you so much for the suggestion, but it's very important that the rice stays dry. Just make sure that you don't microwave the slippers for much more than a minute.

[MsSweetSatisfaction]

This is brilliant! Definitely doing to all my slippers for winter. Thanks for sharing!