I finally did it! I finally set up my sewing machine for the first time since freshman year of college! Of course, this is the first time since then that I’ve had room enough to do it. Now that I’m a fledgling homeowner with a proper basement (a whole room in which is just for my artistic inclinations!) I have space to spread out.
As we speak, my poor neglected machine is sitting prettily on top of my drafting table (previously wedged into a not-quite-deep enough corner of my old apartment bedroom) breathing noncloseted air. Happy in the notion (ha! Get it?) That it has just gotten its teeth into another one of my projects.
Nothing fancy, nothing but raw edges, in fact, but important and (even more important) easy! Yay for the nursing pad!
I didn’t think far enough ahead to take my camera with me down into the basement, so there are no step-by-step pictures but it was so simple that there wasn’t a lot to document.
Needed:
- Old flannel sheets and/or old cloth diaper.
- Mug or cup that has a mouth wide enough to comfortably cover nipple area
- Something to trace the shape of the mug/cup on the fabric. (I went ahead and just used a regular marker. Since nobody but me would see the finished product, why buy a special washable pencil?)
- Sewing machine, thread, etc…
What I did first… I took an old cloth diaper that I’m pretty sure used to belong to me when I was a baby but has since been gathering dust (literally!) as one of my many rags. The center is made up of the cushiest of materials, layer upon layer. I picked a mug that would fit four times down the center of the diaper and traced around the lip with my marker.
I didn’t even have to cut out the circles before sewing as I’m accustomed to doing. It was recommended to me just to go ahead and sew along the lines while the fabric (and its shapes) are still whole. So I ended up with an old diaper with four, nearly perfect, circles sewn down the center. Then I cut them out with my brand new quilting cutter.
I used the cutter instead of scissors because I’ve been told the cutter is miraculous with multiple layered cuts and guess what… it is! I cut the circles out and voila! Reusable nursing pads!
Math Quiz! If you can buy the disposable variety for about $9. Per 60 count box and you use (being conservative here) one pair a day. Assuming you breastfeed for a year how much money will you spend on disposable nursing pads?
Answer: too much. Sew your own reusables!
Or if you don’t consider yourself handy (and, believe me, I’m not) you can buy a pack of 6 of the washable variety for about 6 dollars.
I already had more free material however in the form of a million-year-old blue flannel pillowcase my mother gave me, full of happy little snowmen in scarves. I never thought, when I was snuggling up to the snowy tableau, that I’d ever be using it for this!
If you have such a pillowcase, fold it over until each potential circle is eight layers thick. Then go ahead and sew each marked circle while it’s still a part of the whole pillow case.
Once you have all your circles sewn, cut them out and voila again! More nursing pads!
It was simple, even for a sewing moron like me!
Try it out!