How to recover your heating pad

Ok, this seems like a weird one, and I almost didn’t bother sharing because no one really talks about needing to recover their heating pad, but I’m willing to bet most people own and use a heating pad and just never bother mentioning it. I, for one, use my heating pad on a monthly basis, if you know what I mean, and now I have two teen daughters using it occasionally too. I have always hated the crappy cover that it came with! It was ugly, didn’t feel nice and most annoyingly, it didn’t stay on. Grrr.

After years of use with that awful cover, I finally bought a half yard of pretty flannel and spent 15 minutes recovering the darn thing. My new cover is way better than the old design (or lack thereof), so I’m going to tell you how I did it. It’s a little thing that may not seem worth the trouble, but I will tell you, I used my newly covered heating pad a few days ago and it felt so good to have a cover that functioned properly, rather than just adding more annoyance to the already annoying reason I was using it, ha!

P.S. If you’re like, “What the heck is a heating pad and why would I need one”, AND you are also a woman who gets period cramps, OR you have a teenage daughter who gets cramps, you definitely need to order one right now. When I bought mine, most of what was out there was this kind with the junk cover, but now it appears there are very nice, fancy ones! Go with one of those and you won’t need this tutorial, lol.

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Let me just show you what the cover looked like before. So ugly.

Before

You Will Need:

• Cotton flannel, or other cotton fabric. I chose flannel because it’s soft. Do not choose anything with metallic threads running through it, or glitter, or anything like that. Prewash and dry your fabric!

• Sew-in Vel-Cro or a plastic snaps and pliers set for the closure. Here is what I use. More on them when we get to that part.

How to do it:

My heating pad was purchased circa 2001 and I have no idea if these come standard and have never changed, so I’m not including measurements here. Measure the heating pad and add 1” to the width and 2” to the height, then cut 2 rectangles that size from your flannel. The extra inch in height is so you can make a wide hem for your closure.

Sew your cover on the sides and bottom, right sides together, using a 1/4” seam allowance. I just serged mine, since that’s how my old cover was made. If you don’t have a serger, go back and zig zag along those raw edges after you sew them so that they don’t fray.

Before you turn it right side out, on the top edge, press under 1/4”, then another 1”. Sew that hem in place. Then turn it right side out and press flat, using a chopstick or other poking device to gently get the corners crisp.

Now for the closure. I have a set of snap pliars and plastics snaps that I use very often in my sewing room. They are super useful for closures on baby bibs, doll clothes, wallets and card holders, gift card pouches, etc … you will not regret purchasing a set of these and you’ll be surprised how often you reach for them. But, if you don’t have them, Vel-Cro is a suitable alternative. I would cut 1” squares to sew on in a few places, rather than sewing a strip all the way across, since a long strip isn’t very pliable and might also scratch the skin and be generally irritating. Make sure you use sew on Vel-Cro, NOT stick on, it will gum up your needle and just make you mad, haha.

Definitely avoid using metal snaps or any other metal closure! These things get pretty hot and a metal snap could get hot enough to burn your skin.

I decided to place four snaps, so I measured them out with my expandable ruler. Attach the snaps using the instructions with your pliers (it’s so easy!) and you’re done! If you’re using Vel-Cro, sew around all four sides of every piece.

I know this is such a simple thing and it feels almost silly to write a tutorial for it, but it really is a small thing that made me happy this week, so it was worth it! It’s the little things, right? Especially right now with all that’s going on, let’s take some comfort where we can get it!

Cheers :)

Nikki