Rise of the mama pad...

As I mentioned earlier I am doing mama pads. Yes, I am being brave and love the odd looks from my friends. I know they all think I am nuts. It's OK, at least I entertain them. But, after buying two and trying them out. I decided I had to make some to save money on buying disposables or paying someone $9+ for each mama pad. So the searching started...

I was utterly clueless when I started with the mama pads. I did tons of searches for days on materials I needed to use. I found a free mama pad tutorial at tinybirdsorganics.com, but it did not include the pattern. I noticed the materials needed are not readily available in the local fabric stores. I was sad for a minute, but many more searches made me realize I could use 100% cotton terry and make my own cut out pattern. So I went on a hunt...

Since I *knew* that I would be messing it up the first time, I decided to buy some cheap fabrics. I ran over to Hobby Lobby and bought a yard of red 100% cotton flannel. I looked at their terry, but it was incredibly thin and would take many layers before it was absorbent enough. Even though I will annihilate my first or second pad, I still wanted something more absorbent since I plan on using the same material to make backup soakers for my daughters cloth diapers. Walmart had a crap selection, too. I then went to Joann's and they had a decent selection of 100% cotton terry. So I got a yard of medium thickness terry and it was around $5 for the yard. Cheap enough for me!

So last week I started out on my sewing adventures with the mama pads. Let me tell you how excited I was to start out. I had the material, I had the sewing machine that I purchased from craiglists for $50 from a woman who was moving out of state (If only I had my Husqvarna Lily!). I found a small pantyliner pattern (http://sites.google.com/site/shewhorunsintheforest/008) and decided to lengthen it. And I thought I was ready...

So exciting! Once I had my paper cut outs I took my flannel and cut two pieces, and then rolled my terry three times to create a thick enough layer. I was jazzed at this point and couldn't stop. I wanted to do more (addicting as some would say). So I went over to the serger and serged around my terry. Great! Doesn't look bad, serger is OK and doesn't seem too frazzled by the fluffy material. Then I sewed on the layer of terry onto one of the flannel pieces. Criss cross stitch down the middle...OK, this is crooked. No worries, it is my first one after all! My next stitching was a straight stitch around the layer of terry to the flannel. Yes, definitely doesn't look swell now. Oh well, I thought. I can absolutely do this again, it isn't that bad! I took my other piece of flannel and pinned it against the other piece and sewed around the edges to leaving an open space. Haha, yes I did leave the open space :P I flipped the materials inside out so I could assess what I have done. Don't laugh...

Voila! Inside out and completely narrow...too narrow to place any snaps on the wings. Oy vey...I need MORE practice:

Go ahead and laugh, but it isn't too bad! Yes, I left it unfinished until I know how to fix it or rework it into another pad. I just realized that I can't believe people when they say it is an easy pattern. For someone like me who doesn't know how to work the gadgets on a sewing machine, just knows how to sew a straight line, it isn't that easy! I plan on taking sewing classes when I actually have some money. But, until then, I am learning all of this on my own with google as my friend. :)