Okay, so my story begins pretty much like every every blogger out there. I heard about reusable panty liners and maxi pads about a year and a half ago and my initial reaction was: Thaaat's Naaasty. But, given that we already do cloth diapers I got over my ick feeling pretty quickly and soon became curious about them.
It wasn't until I ran out of my mega pack of panty liners two months before my second child was born that I decided to grab a pattern online and make a couple to save me having to make a run to the store. Anyone who has never experienced the late stages of pregnancy should know that a pantyliner is worn pretty much every day just in case. Not just in case your mucus plug drops or your water breaks (like anything could contain that gush), no, it is for when you cough or sneeze and you realize you have peed a little. Pregnancy is very glamorous.
Anyway, I started using some homemade washable liners and found that though they were not as thin as disposables they were surprisingly comfortable. And I also found they were much more comfortable and absorbent to wear after sex. Cloth pads seem to absorb goopy body fluids a bit better than their paper/plastic counterparts. I realized I like the feel so much better than plastic and I also like that I'm not exposing my body to unneeded chemicals.
There were lots of questions I had. Will it smell? What does cleaning them look like? How many do I even need? Well, I did a little Google research through blogs and videos and decided when my period came back I would switch to reusable pads.
Fast Forward to a couple months ago. Yes it took nearly a year for me to begin menstruating again, exclusive breastfeeding has that effect on my body. I decided to do a combination of buying and making pads and I would love to share my experience with these products and patterns.
First let me start with the products I purchased:
These came in a back of 5 for $36 so they were around $7 each. There was no color/print option, but I think they are pretty. I love the charcoal layer on top. It is stain resistant AND soooo soft. We have some cloth diapers made of this stuff and love it so it's no surprise I like it for myself too. These are my nighttime and very heavy flow option. They are around 12" long and provide nice coverage. Once again though the pad is sewn clear through to the back of the pad and since I wear these all night long I have had blood leak through those stitches to my underwear but not onto my pants or sheets. They are actually a bit of a steal for this coverage at this price so even though I had light leaking through those stitches after 9 hours of wear I would still recommend them if you want a soft and very affordable night pad. Side note, it is better coverage than I ever had using my disposables.
There are many wonderful shops on Etsy that sell pads and they range anywhere from $5 each to $12 each depending on the size and shop you are using. These particular pads are regular absorbency and about 10" and each cost me around $7. These are backed with PUL which is a breathable water resistant fabric. The good thing about these is the pad part is not sewn to the backing which makes these great for leak protection. They are flannel topped which makes them very soft and cozy. My only problem with them is that flannel tends to wear rather quickly so they won't look 'new' for long. Flannel can also get a bit warm as well. But these are very nicely made and she has lots of cute pattern options.
This is a very popular brand which you can find many reviews on throughout the interwebs. They have a promotion where they will send you a free liner and all you have to do is pay shipping. So I ordered a liner. They have a lot of different options, this is their demi liner. It is normally priced at $7. These are very trim thin pads and are the most like disposable I have in terms of thinness. But it gets the job done just fine. My only problem is that it bunches which makes it my least comfortable pad despite it being so thin. I do like that the brand offers both flannel top or cotton top in a variety of prints. Using this pad made me aware of how much I like cotton topped pads: they don't pill like flannel, feel the most like my underwear, and they are an easy fabric to remove stains from. However, this brand is soooo expensive. One regular size pad is $13! So this just isn't in my price range.
I have also made some pads based on patterns I have found online. Some of them were free and the other was purchased. One thing I love about making my own pads is that the cost is much more reasonable. You also get to choose exactly what prints fit your personality the best. Raid your fabric stash, hit up the thrift store and cut up old shirts, or find some cute fabrics on sale at your local store for the tops. For the bottoms you can purchase PUL or other water resistant fabrics or you can use fleece which is very breathable and said to be moisture resistant. Then you just have to choose an absorbent core. I cut up old towels and flannel but you can also use ZORB, microfiber or even old cloth diapers.
This was my first pattern that I used. It was free and it came with a lovely tutorial. It is made with 2 components: the pad part and the wing part. I used PUL on the back of the wings and sewed the pad onto the wings. The tutorial has you cutting a hole in each part to turn it right side out which I think may effect the life of the pad. I did find these comfortable though and they were my very first experience with cloth. Since the pad is sewn to the wings there is leak potential as mentioned for some pads above. They also look really homemade. I made these with flannel and terrycloth which makes them very absorbent for liners. The pattern itself is nice, but I found sewing all those curves to be a bit of a pain. One thing I learned while making these is that though white and pale colors may be pretty, it is a bit of work to manage staining on them.
This was also a free pattern I found. I'm not sure why, but the overnight pattern wasn't very big. The pattern said it was 10" but when I measured it I found it to be much shorter. This was an okay pattern. I decided to sew the pad to top fabric then sew the tops and bottoms together to avoid having to sew into my backing. It is a very curvy pattern which, being a novice seamstress, I found tricky. I also feel it is a bit narrow for me. Maybe my pattern was off, and that is why it is short and narrow, but this just didn't take care of my needs for a heavy flow pad. All in all it is okay for being free but it left me looking for a pattern that would be more simple to sew (straighter lines) and give me a little more length for coverage.
I kind of adore this pattern. I purchased it off of Etsy for around $7 and it included 7 different sizes ranging from 6" panty liners to 12" overnight pads. I like how the wings are straight lines which makes for fast easy sewing but it also keeps the pad from bunching like more circular pad's wings do. It folds up neatly and the shape of the pad part is also adequate to my needs. I made both flannel and cotton topped 10" pads with terrycloth and flannel cores and found them to work great for regular/heavier days. I really like how they turned out and how comfortable they are to wear. I saw as I was writing this that the seller has shut down her shop but you can still find patterns like this on Etsy from other sellers. I also made some 8" liners for a friend (I meant to make 7" but messed up, surely two little boys had NOTHING to do with that.) Anyway, I like this pattern and will probably end up making and selling some more pads with this pattern.
My Own
Finally, I decided to make my own liners using the Party In my Pants liner as a template. I will probably end up selling some of these as well, I still find the liner bunches a bit but not nearly so much as PIMPs do. It does have a nice shape though and gives good coverage. I just couldn't justify spending more money last month on pads (aka my husband knows I could sew some just as good for less money).
If you have questions about cleaning and other logistical questions about reusable menstrual products I would encourage you do do your own Google research. There are some very interesting options out there (namely menstrual cups, sponges and reusable pads). Cleaning isn't nearly so big a deal as you would think; some of the pads in the pictures of this post have been used and you would never have known.
So there you have it folks, far more than you ever wanted to know about my menstrual pads. But hopefully this can give you a starting point if you are looking to start your own stash. Even if you don't switch to pads full time, I highly recommend at least trying cloth panty liners for non menstrual reasons. I really do find them so much more comfortable and no one can argue how much prettier they are than the disposables.
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