Adventures In Natural Relaxation
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A million years ago, my aunt gifted me a roll of fabric, which was filled with small round things. The fabric was soft flannel and the roll was intended to be nuked in the microwave for a couple minutes and then draped around the neck. I used this for many years; it was incredibly relaxing to have this weighted warmth over the neck and shoulders. Eventually, it wore out and I never got another.
But it occurred to me recently that I could make something similar. I did a little research (on YouTube) and decided to use dried beans as the filling for my fabric roll. For the fabric itself, I didn’t bother with flannel but instead used some pretty fabric left over from my cushion-making adventures. The fabric is cotton upholstery fabric, but it’s still relatively light and soft, as well as being reasonably sturdy.
I cut and ironed a piece that was 25” by 12”. Since this project doesn’t really require precision, I didn’t bother to clean up the ragged edges left over from previous cuts. Instead, I just drew a stitching line with my heat-erasable pen along the long edge and one end, and stitched a 1/2” seam with right sides together.
Then I trimmed the corners and used my pinking shears to take some bulk out of the seams. I was careful not to trim too closely…I needed to leave enough seam allowance to handle the weight I was going to be putting inside and to stand up to lots of handling.
Then I turned the tube right side out. I did not bother pressing. I wanted to have three separate sections inside the tube to keep the filling from piling up in one end, so I did a little math (very little, actually, but again, precision wasn’t really required) and drew two lines to divide the tube into three (roughly) equal sections. Then I turned the raw edges at the open end to the interior by about 1/2” and pressed.
And now, the fun part…the filling! Since I’d decided to fill my neck roll with dried beans, I bought about six pounds of the cheapest beans I could find in the bulk section of a local grocery store. It took me a little experimenting to figure out that I had some drinking glasses that would fit into my tube, but once I did, the filling went quickly and easily. I filled the first section until I had to stop to leave room to sew the seam. Then I put in a lot of pins to hold the beans away from the seam line, and stitched across the roll. I confess, the weight of the beans pulled the fabric constantly while it was in the sewing machine, and I was unable to sew straight along the line I’d drawn. Honestly, it looked like a drunk had done the sewing. I reminded myself that precision was not required, and moved on.
I filled the second section, and stitched it like the first. And on the final section, I pinned closed the end I’d pressed under and top-stitched that final section closed. And, done!
This really was quick and very easy. I spent most of the time figuring out how to make things work. The actual assembly was very fast indeed. And after two minutes in the microwave at full power, the neck roll is toasty warm and so comforting over the shoulders. It’s perfect! I’ve used it every day since I made it, and my mother has already requested one for herself. Coming right up, mom!
