Cloth rice bags - several different creative uses!

Ta Da...

Last week I mentioned that I had several of these cloth rice bags:

And had decided it was time to stop hoarding them and find uses for them!

Here's what I came up with..

A Rice Bag for aching muscles, joints or just for keeping us warm in winter!

I just snipped off the bottom portion of one of the bags, filled it with rice and sewed up the top!

Then I made...

A Mug Rug

Using the front and bag of one of the bags, with a layer of scrap fleece sandwiched between and plan scrap fabric sewn together to make a strip long enough for the binding!

(Please don't look too closely at my binding - it's shockingly bad, and one day I'll knuckle down to practice till perfect!)

Notice the cute mug which I was given for my 40th birthday last week!! :)

I also made a set of...

Pot Holders 

(using my own tutorial and a pair of back jeans pockets)

And finally these bags are great for...well...just plain bags 

- with an added touch of a handi-pocket

 (see my tutorial for the Christmas Handibag as to how this pocket works) 

so they can be slipped in bags or the car glove-box for emergency use!

I also used a couple of the bags to store various left over plastic party plates, cups and napkins we have..

Much neater and easier to put away in the cupboard now!

AND I sent my daughter off with one of these bags to her school camp!  On her list of things to take was a 'dilly bag'

A dillybag or dilly bag is a traditional Australian Aboriginal bag, generally woven from the fibres of plant species of the Pandanus genus.^{[verification needed]}. It is used for a variety of food transportation and preparation purposes. 

She needed one of these 'dilly bags' to keep her camp plate, mug, bowl and cutlery in when not in use - and one of these bags fit the bill perfectly!!

So now I have three solid zips, from the bags I used the fabric from, and a two and a half bags left over!

Not a bad attempt at using up these bags!

Thanks to those of you who commented last week with suggestions of what I could do with these bags.

Megan from Meggipeg said:

"I use these rice bags for my picnic set. Plates in one, cups and plastic wine glasses in another and cutlery in a bag that I cut to size and restitched. It keeps the sand out and it's easy to find everything in my big picnic basket. I look forward to seeing what you do with them."

and Sassss said:

I love doing things like this! A few ideas of the top of my head would be cloth napkins, herb filled eye bags (to keep in the freezer for a cool compress for fevers, burning, aching, puffy eyes), hot compresses, filled with dried kidney beans (to warm in microwave or oven), sprouting bags for growing your own wheat grass, alfalfa sprouts, broccoli sprouts, etc. All things to save money & theplanet, lol. 

You can melt 1 part beeswax & 4 parts thin, food safe oil (peanut oil would be good for this)together & 'paint the bags with it. Allow them to dry & use in place of plastic sandwich bags.

Although I did come up with a few different uses for these bags - I realised that I just thought of uses that involved things I've done before - ie  pot holders, handi-bags and mug rugs, and a rice bag.  I don't feel that I was overly creative - perhaps I'm getting a bit stuck in a creative rut......

I definitely do feel like I need a 

fresh outlook 

and a

burst of creativity. 

Time to explore a little more and see what can help me with that!

Any suggestions very welcome!