You may recall a while ago I made a camera bag for ds3, after which I was left with a piece of ripstop nylon. I also have quite a lot of cotton flannelette that I was given by a friend who has been decluttering for some time now in anticipation of a house move. And another friend moved recently and gave me a bag of sewing notions which included a small amount of Velcro-type hook and loop fastening.

I made a prototype panty liner with a layer of ripstop nylon for water repellency, a layer of flannelette for absorbency, and a crosswise strip of the nylon with little squares of hook and loop to hold it in place. I tested it. It was okay, but not perfect.

I usually keep a supply of small thin pads around as I have used a menstrual cup (a Keeper or a Diva cup) for about 12 years now, but some days the flow is heavy enough to need a bit of insurance.

I felt it was time to once again have a go at making my own. Tonight I ran up eight of them. It didn’t take long.

For each pad, you start with two rectangles of flannelette cut 6 x 2.5″, one rectangle of ripstop nylon cut to the same size, and another rectangle of the nylon cut 5 x 1″. Plus about half an inch of hook and loop.

Pin the two layers of flannelette together with the layer of nylon, hold a commercial pad over the top (this is optional, you could just wing it), round the corners and curve the sides in. Once that’s done, pin the small rectangle of nylon across the back of the pad. Zigzag around the whole pad. Use a straight stitch to sew the hook and loop onto the ends of the ‘wings’ so it will wrap around your underwear.

I was VERY slapdash about my stitching, but you of course can make yours look much nicer!  (You can click on the small pics to see them full size.)

Let me know in the comments what you like to do to reduce the waste that’s going into the landfill!