Oatmeal cookies, oatmeal bars, oatmeal squares, oatmeal muffins, instant oatmeal and heating pads.
The best use for oatmeal might in fact be relieving the body’s aches and pains. The two-pocket bag pictured above, which is packed with spice-infused oatmeal, does just that. Stick it in the microwave for two minutes and you have a warm, relaxing, delicious-smelling heating pad to rest on your stomach or around your neck.
These heating pads also make convenient Christmas gifts. Mer-Mer made four last Christmas and went through four tw0-pound tubs of oatmeal in the process.
This stuff tasted boring, until Mer-Mer added some spice to it.
For each heating pad she made, Mer-Mer used an entire box of oatmeal, half for each of the heating pad’s two pockets. Before adding the oatmeal to the heating pads, she let it marinate in a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and cloves, using one teaspoon of each except for cinnamon, which was represented twice as much with two teaspoons.
To make the heating pad itself, Mer-Mer cut one rectangle, folded it in half putting the wrong sides together, pinned the sides together and sewed. Before sewing it shut, she filled the heating pad halfway with the scented oatmeal and then sewed a partition in the middle of the bag.
Stiches in the middle of the heating pad
Then she filled the other half with oatmeal and sewed the end shut.
A completed heating bag. This one went to Mer-Mer's friend Krista.
Sarah's heating pad, featuring kangaroos and strange blue birds.
George modeling the heating pad on his stomach. He had a stomach ache from reading too much Microbiology.
Mer-Mer tried to nom my neck.
In case you were wondering how Mer-Mer makes measurements for her sewing projects, here’s your answer:
…with Fruit by the Foot.
Sewing With Mer-Mer 