Friday, March 10, 2006

Homemade cloth menstrual pads...

Months ago, when I was obsessing about menstruation, I considered buying a bunch of cloth pads to use instead of the paper kind. I stopped using tampons altogether after reading some pretty scary stuff about their manufacturing procedures and ingredients, and after a couple of months I noticed a huge decline in clotting and a much shorter cycle. So why not go all the way and reduce paper consumption by using cloth pads?

Well, mostly because they cost about $10 each. Sure, you save money in the long run, but you have to have the money in the first place, and I just didn't.

But now, I have a sewing machine, and a bunch of leftover fabric scraps to make my own. I found a pattern to make your own cloth pads, printed it out, and made a couple. The pattern makes it sound so easy, but it was a big pain in the butt. Most of the thing didn't come together the way it was supposed to. The first one I made was too small. Four layers of batting is way too much to turn inside out. The whole project was a disaster.

I'm thinking of trying to design my own, but the rectangular pad I made caught on my underwear and looked ridiculous under my jeans, so I'm not really sure what size or shape to try. If anyone has any ideas about this, please let me know.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi!!
Cloth pads are sooo wonderful!
OK here is what I did I used a store bough pad and just traced it and used that as my pattern :) I also use safety pins the small oned to attach the pads to my painties to hold them inplace lots of people make wings for this and will add velcro or snaps :) I am not that talented :) soo I just use a tiny safety pin there is also a wonderful thing called a menstrual cup you can get them in natural rubber or a medical based cilicone its called the Diva :) and they sell them new on e bay for about 30.00 I bought one and love it :)
I hope this helps :)

Missy

Anonymous said...

ohh too about the fabric choice I found a way arround that too :)
I was a cloth diapering mommy soo I just used the thick prefolds for my main fabric and covered them with a pretty flannel fabric this worked great :) some people make covers for theres but I just put mine all together and had no seperate pieces or you could just use the cloth diapers :) I seriously found them to be the best alternitive :)

One Ordinary Woman said...

I had to buy ONE gladrag and then used it as a pattern to make my own. I have it on my blog, but I haven't finished making my stash yet so the post doesn't have any instructions.

Kim said...

I made a stash of my own, using the the 'recommended" fabrics- PUL and micro fiber and to be honest- I think I like my very cheap, first one I ever made. It was made from an old all cotton tshirt. I cut 4 layers in a basic hour glass shape and had a small cross piece that I attached snaps to. I used the ones that you clamp on with the special snap tool or hammer, but they make sew on snaps too. Very cheap. There are a MILLION tutorial out there. It really depends on you and your body and what makes you comfortable though. So I highly suggest to only make a few of any given kind or type rather than what I did, so that you too won't have TWENTY of one single design, your not even all that fond of lol.! Good luck!