Economically and Environmentally Friendly: Fabric Mentrual Pads

When I first began seeing the reusable, cotton menstrual pads in a few stores around town I was a little grossed out. But, once I got past the "idea" of it, I began to see that there were a lot of benefits to switching to handmade, washable menstrual pads rather than the normal disposable ones that most stores carry and that we are all very familiar with.

1. They are economically and environmentally friendly. I read somewhere that it's estimated that most women use somewhere around 10 disposable pads per month. That's 120 per year ... an estimated 6,000 per lifetime. That's a lot of menstrual products to dispose of over the years. The price per package is anywhere from an estimate of $3.00 to 9.00. That's a lot of money to spend on something you use once and throw away. Making / buying and using the reusable ones will save you a lot of money and will keep a lot of trash out of the landfills.

2. They are more healthy for some people. From what I've read, there are chemicals (often used to help absorption or to reduce/cover odors) in the filling of a lot of disposable menstrual products that could result in reactions in individuals who are sensitive to fragrances and chemicals. Some also include latex which can also pose allergy risks. These chemicals are even said to sometimes cause a woman's period to last longer or be a heavier flow than if natural fabrics were used.

3. They are prettier. Disposable pads come in white. I have occasionally seen a light lavender color as well in some, but most are just plain white. If you make your own or buy the premade ones on the market the sky is the limit for colors and designs.

I am in no way the expert on these, but if you google cloth or reusable menstrual pads you will find many sites with extensive information about the pros and cons of changing from disposable to reusable. I encourage you to check it out before simply going, "Gross!" and flipping to the next page.

I just made my first few reusable menstrual pads and wanted to share pictures and critiques on them.

The first one that I made was a three part pad that includes an outer, waterproof layer with wings. This is the base layer that snaps around the undergarment like the disposable pads with wings. On top of this layer is a removable, winged layer padded with cotton batting. This would work fine for light days. There is a third, hourglass pad that can be added on top of this for heavier days as well. The great thing about these pads is that you can make each layer as thick or thin as you want.  The basic pattern is based on Adahy's Faux Luna Multi-Layer Pad .  Total for a personal sense of security and comfort I upsided mine from the pattern that she gives because at least to start I wanted a larger surface in case of leaks (there shouldn't be any, but until I have tried them for a while I'm erring on the side of safety). Here are some pictures of the set I made.

Winged Base Layer Top Side

Winged Base Layer Bottom Side

Middle Winged Layer Side 1

Winged Middle Layer Side 2

Hour Glass Insert

Three Layers Put Together

One a few other sites that I was looking at it showed several designs that have pockets to place the inserts in rather than the strips that hold the inserts in place above. I couldn't find one with a shape that I liked in the pocket pad patterns that I found so I took the basic shape of the first one and made it a little bigger and a little more square. 

It consists of a solid flannel bottom layer, a PUL waterproof layer, another solid flannel piece, and two flannel overlapping pieces on top to form the pocket flap. I made the inserts for it the same way I did for those on top. I made one small, thinner insert, and one wider, thicker insert. Snaps were installed on the wings to secure the pad around the undergarment.  Here are some pictures of it.

Top Winged Pocket Pad- You can see the pocket if you look closely.

Bottom Winged Pocket Pad

Small Insert

Large Insert

Bottom: Here is how it looks when it is snapped.

Top: Here is how it looks when it is snapped.

These are just two design ideas. There are many many out there to choose from depending on what sort of coverage and style that you want. I have a few others in mind that I'd like to try, so I'll post them as I make them. I'll also post what I think of each one as I try them for a while and list pros and cons of each.

Monster Stockings: The Dragon Foot

I've been making different monster themed stockings for a while now, and this past Christmas one of the new ones that I made was a dragon foot monster stocking.

I found this awesome, metallic silver snakeskin fabric at Hancock Fabrics and was inspired to make something with it. It ended up looking great, but the fabric was really problematic because it frayed quite a bit as I worked with it. The hang tab and claws are made out of black felt. I also made a lining of black felt as well to give it shape because the silver fabric was very limp and didn't hang very well on its own. I stuffed the claws and the toes with recycled cotton batting that came out of some old pillows that I keep around for just that purpose. Here is how it turned out when it was finished.

No two of my monster stockings are exactly the same, but I do have a basic pattern that I began with.  I used the Bare Foot Christmas Stocking pattern from the Disney Family Fun website and made some adjustments to it. Instead of cutting out all four toes, I used the edge of the toes as a guideline to make more of a webbed-toe look. I then took away the cuff and added on the claws for a rawrrr look. I think it turned out pretty well.

I posted a picture of this one on my Facebook page after it was completed and one of my high school friends said he wanted one too. I swear there was a whole bolt of this fabric two weeks before that, but when I went back for more there was none at all and no one remembered seeing it ever. I checked around at all of the fabric stores in the area, and no one had anything even similar. 

That was in December. While I was traveling in Iowa just a couple of weeks ago for a renaissance festival I found some even better snakeskin / dragon scale fabric. It was at Hancock Fabrics in Ankeny, Iowa. The fabric is a black, stretch knit with red metallic snakeskin print on it. Since it's a knit, I didn't have the awful fraying issue that I had with the silver fabric before. Also, what really adds a nice pop to this fabric is that the surface is scaled with tiny clear squares of a plasticy material that creates an awesome scaled look and feel.  I will give a heads up if you find any of this fabric and decide to use it. Sewing through the plastic scale material gummed up my sewing machine needle after a while, and every now and then the needle would just slide across a scale rather than through it, which caused a few skipped stitches that had to be fixed later.

Rather than do the webbed toes on this one like the silver one, I took the original pattern and connected toes two-three and toes four-five together to form three big toes. I made the claws more conical in shape. The claws, the pull tab, and the cuff were made from black pvc material purchased from Joann Fabrics. I lined it the same way as the first one with black felt and stuffed the claws and toes to fill them out more. Here is a picture of the red one.

I'll be posting up more of my stockings probably closer to the holiday time to share how I made those. So far I have in my repertoire a ballerina, monster ballerina, high heeled boot, victorian boot, pirate boot, ice skate, furred monster,  wolf, fox, mouse with cheese (for my kitty Buster), and elf stocking. 

What I'm Hoping to do Here

My friends and I do a ton of crafting and crafty things. Knitting, crochet, quilting, costuming, corsetry, canning, cooking, gardening) ... you name it, one of us or all of us does it. We each might share a project here or there on sites like Ravelry, Facebook, and LiveJournal, but I thought it would be fun to have a place to share and document my crafty endeavors all in one place. 

Most recently I've been absorbed with wedding items like wedding favors, handfasting cords, and designing wedding attire. If you stick around for long on here as a reader, I'm sure you'll see and here about more of these than you want to. I'll try not to inundate you with too much wedding stuff though.

Around the holidays, you're likely to see a lot of birthday and Christmas/Yule gifts that I've made for people as well as holiday themed home decorations, clothing, and purses. Some of my favorite items that I've made during the holidays recently were the aprons that I made for my aunts, cousins, and grandmother for Christmas and the monster themed stockings that I was quite enamored with this past year.

During the summer you're likely to see more projects centered around Renaissance Festival costuming. We go to several different faires in the Midwest and enjoy quite a few costuming themes. I've made wench, pirate, nun, and woodsmen costumes so far, and I have several more in different levels of development. You'll quickly discover that we pounce on any reason to dress up and go out and about with friends. When we aren't doing that we enjoy gardening and subsequently canning what we grow. I consider preserving to be a home craft or art, so I'm likely to include recipes and processes for this as well here.

Inbetween those key times of year, I satisfy my crafting urge with all sorts of small projects either sewing, crocheting, knitting, or whatever else catches my attention. I hope you enjoy browsing through my projects as I post them. I'd love to hear what you think and hear about what your own crafting experiences are. When available I'll post tutorials and/or patterns for how to make what I've written about.