Tuesday, January 24, 2012

How to Make Homemade Pantyliners


Have you noticed that there are more buzz words being used in the media like: sustainability, minimizing our carbon footprint, and going green? As we get closer to the year when the Agenda 21 environmentalists create a new world for us, we will all have to make adjustments to the way we live. Many of the cleaning supplies, paper products, grocery bags, and sanitary napkins will become harder to come by, or they will no longer be sold. If products aren't Earth/eco friendly and biodegradable - you can kiss them goodbye.

I have begun to do little things to prepare for the unwanted changes that will come. This week I made my first set of homemade cloth pantyliners. When I started to do my research, I found that they come in different shapes and sizes. Women make them with different types of fabrics, and some are lined with waterproof fabric. Since they are pricey, I decided to blow the dust off of my sewing machine and make my own. I had waterproof liner left over from those crazy-looking menstrual pads I made a few years ago, so I made a couple with the liner. I made a seven in all, just in case they weren't able to get through the laundry in time. This is how I did it.
  • Preshrink and iron your fabric.
  • Print off this pattern and cut it out on the line.
  • You will need enough fabric of your choice for two wing bases, and two pad pieces. If you were going to make several, you will be working with one yard of fabric from each color fabric. Fold it over, with right sides together, until you have enough to lay out the pattern plus 1/4 inch extra.
 Pad and wings were contrasting flannel colors.
  •  Trace around the pattern, using a regular pen or fine marker. You are marking on the wrong side, so it will not not show. If you are using very dark fabric, white Milky brand gel pens work great. Make sure you can see the line. This will be the line you put your sewing stitches on. 
  • Pin, and roughly cut out the fabric, Then sew directly on the line you made, all the way around. Do not leave a gap in your sewing for turning inside out. Yes, there is correct, I'll get to that in a minute.
The wings

The pad
  • Trim the edge down to 1/8th inch. This will allow the curves to ease nicely, but will give you just enough seam so your stitches don't tear out.
  • Once you have a wing base, and a pad part sewn, cut a one inch slit, and then turn inside out. Finger press until the whole thing is turned completely and smooth. Press both pieces, making your edges sharp.
Both pieces have slits placed in them, so you can turn them right side out. If you want them lined, insert the fabric through the hole in the pad. The liner is made from reusable quilted baby bed pads for baby cribs.
  • Top stitch the wing edge first, then the inside line of the pad.  Now lay the two pieces together, with the slits facing each other (neither slit should be visible) and pin. You will now sew along the outside edge of the pad, which is the only stitching you'll do to keep the two pieces together.
  • That was the easy part. The next thing you'll need to do is attach either a velcro button, a snap, or place a button and button hole onto the edge of your wing. I used a snap. They need to be going in the right correction in order for them to snap. It's tricky, but you'll get the hang of it.
 

Aren't they some sweet looking pads?


And they'll save me money in the long run. I've laundered them since finishing them up and they did great in the wash. I'll never have to buy a pantyliner again!

~Pattern and instruction help was provided by shewhorunsintheforest.

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