Saturday, November 6, 2010

A Comfy Time Of The Month


I made these a few weekends ago for my sister in law who just had surgery and needed something a bit more comfortable than the normal (or not so normal) papery/plasticy pads. I was happy to do what I could to make her feel a little better! I have thought about making some for myself in the past, but seeing as how I haven't had a regular period in 5 1/2 years (I've been pregnant or nursing and then pregnant with no period in between :o)), I haven't really seen the point. The reasons for choosing cloth pads over disposable pads are the same reasons for choosing cloth diapers. You can see my post on that HERE. After making these and feeling how soft they are makes me think that maybe I should have some of my own, even if I don't need them very much, so when I do it will be a much nicer time of the month :o).
The pattern I used as a guide was in this very fun book that I always drool over at the library.  I should have known if anyone would have had it it would be my sister in law, and she did :o). I should have asked a long time ago!!!


So the finished product is 10 inches long and 6 inches wide from wing to wing.
I used old t-shirts and made 3 different thicknesses (obviously for light, regular and heavy days). The light had the 2 outside layers with wings and 4 layers inside without wings to cut down on the bulkiness, for a total of 6 layers. That sounds like more than it really is since I used very thin shirts. If you were using a flannel like I do with my diapers I would cut back on the layers by a few on each. The regular were a total of 8 layers and the heavy were a total of 12. Even the 12 layers didn't feel that bulky. 
The book had great directions on washing.  It's really no big deal if you use cloth diapers already. You just put them in your diaper pail.
For the pattern I just measured 6 x 10 on a piece of paper and tried to get the shape close to what it looked like in the book instead of scanning it and having to enlarge it by whatever percent. That would take way too much time for me!! :o)
So this is what I came up with.


And this is what I finished with!
I was out of snaps, so I used velcro. I was told that when moving a lot it can scratch a bit, but then I remembered that they did say if using velcro to round the corners and maybe that would fix the problem. Or a button and button hole would work if you don't have a snap press.


I found that it worked much better sewing through the thick layers of knit fabric to set the pressure on the presser foot to the lowest and the stitch length to a 4.0 for most of it. And of course I used my ball point needle.
I think after I finish ALL my Christmas sewing I'll have to make some for myself.