How to Make a Bat Warmer

If you enjoy baseball enough to purchase a high quality bat, you probably want to protect your investment. A bat warmer helps keep cold weather from causing any damage to your hitting device as well as keep it temperate, making it more comfortable to hold. If you prefer to avoid commercial bat warmers, you can use fabric and a sewing machine to create your own bat warmer. Keep in mind that a cold baseball can affect your performance even more than a cold bat, so try to keep your baseballs somewhere warm.

Measure the dimensions of your bat. Mark the height of the bat as A and the circumference of your bat as B. Mark the length of the bat's handle as C. Most baseball bats are between 34 and 42 inches long and between 2 and 2.75 inches in circumference.

Draw a pattern on your fabric using fabric chalk. The pattern should be about 6 inches taller than A and about 1 inch wider than the bat's circumference. You may want to make the pattern a bit thinner on the end near the bat's handle. Mark C on your pattern and subtract about a half-inch from the width for the entire length of the handle. Draw another identical copy of this pattern.

Cut into the pattern of the fabric.

Turn the fabric inside out and use your sewing machine to sew one side of the fabric together. Turn the fabric right side out and wrap the fabric around your bat to test its size. If you feel your bat has too much room inside the warmer, cut one inch off on the side of the fabric and repeat the test.

Sew the zipper onto the bat warmer

Test your new warmer. Make sure your bat can't fall out of the warmer. If too much unsealed space remains, unzip the bat warmer and use your sewing machine to seal further.

Tips

You may wish to add a handle. You can sew an old guitar strap or the strap from an old messenger bag to your bat warmer. Other choices include a thick rope or the sleeve of an old sweatshirt. Use a thick fabric for best insulation.