The mother of invention

When is a shirt not a shirt?

When it's a cozy new cover for a microwavable heating pad!

My dad had this "aromatherapy" neck warmer that you heat in the microwave, and then wrap around your neck to enjoy some heat therapy.

It had a nice, plush cover, but the directions said to remove the cover before putting it in the microwave. (The cover material was made of polyester and nylon so I'm guessing they were afraid it would melt.)

Inside, was this heat absorbing core:

The plush covering had a very small and awkward velcro opening that was tough to remove and even tougher to put back on after heating.  My mom asked me if I could do something with it to make it easier.

I fiddled around a bit with the original cover, but couldn't enlarge the opening without making a mess of it, so I decided to start over from scratch.

I took one of my dad's old chamois shirts, and came up with a new approach.  I used one half of the shirt front, and the bottom of the shirttail, and sewed up a new cover.

Now to use it, you take the heated core and tuck it into the bottom pockets:

Close it up with the recycled shirt buttons:

and then tuck in the sides:

Ta-Da!  Ready for my dad to put around his neck for some well deserved heat therapy.