Happy pads

I'm a cloth-diapering mama. I diligently swathe my boy in his hemp prefolds and Thirsties diaper covers at every changing, use cloth wipes, and launder it all myself. Yay for the savings over disposable! Yay for not contributing to landfills!

Since I've been doing that I've had this nagging guilt following me though— I don't use cloth pads myself. I have been a faithful user of disposables my entire adult life. When I think about it, I realize it's for the same reasons that people don't want to use cloth diapers: convenience and less mess. I started thinking, "If it's good enough for my boy (and it's working well), it should be good enough for me too, right?"

I started by looking around online to see what was available. I saw some great looking pads, but the cost just seemed prohibitive—particularly when investing in something that I wasn't even so sure about. So a few weeks ago, I attempted to make my own pads. They turned out not-so-hot, and only moderately functional (it didn't occur to me that if I quilted through the waterproof barrier that it would no longer be waterproof... oops!). It's taken me a few weeks (admittedly, I've not been thinking too hard about this... only once a month or so...) to come up with a better plan, but finally, I think I have.

The result:


Not only do I think they are going to be functional, but they turned out much prettier than the first attempts. And they are all stash! The flannel (left over from a quilt project), scraps of batting, snaps, and even the waterproof layer (some of that rubberized flannel stuff bought long ago for a bib pattern I never got around to making) were all sitting about just waiting to be used. For the pattern, I just traced around my favorite brand of disposable pad and then adjusted the shape to be a little more sew-friendly.

Of course, now the real test is how they perform. I'll find out soon enough. If they work out well, I may try and post a tutorial.