The Pad Project
Area Rotarians are making washable, reusable, cloth menstrual pads for girls in the poorest areas of Uganda, Kenya and Haiti. The pads will make it possible for the girls to attend school more consistently. These girls and their families don’t have the means to purchase disposable pads. Without pads, the girls often stay home from school one week each month. Help us “Eliminate Period Poverty.”
Materials Needed
A lot of what we use is donated!
- Flannel: Print and solid colors work (we especially like dark solid colors).
- Plastic, flannel-backed tablecloths: The kind you might use for a picnic, but not the very thin plastic tablecloths you might use for a party.
- Mattress pads: Each menstrual pad includes a layer of mattress pad. If you have a mattress pad that is worn out, we can probably use parts of it.
- 100% cotton quilt batting: 100% cotton is more absorbent than polyester. Joann’s and Hobby Lobby both sell a brand called “Warm and Natural” that works well.
- Snaps: We use Babyville Boutique Snaps. Amazon sells them in bags of 60 for about $8.
- Thread: Spools of all-purpose sewing machine thread. We use mostly black, white or dark blue.
If you have any questions, would like to donate, or would like to sew with us, contact Peggy Hardy at hardy.peggy@gmail.com.
Menstrual Pad Sewing Instructions
Watch this instructional video: https://youtu.be/wJxOB89aDwM
- Cut 2 outside pattern from flannel — one plain fabric and one printed fabric.
- Cut 3 or 4 inside pattern from cotton batting, one from mattress pad, and one from plastic fabric. (5 or 6 layers total). On the pads with 5 layers, write the number 5 with a sharpie on the print part of one wing. On the pads with 6 total layers, write a 6.
- Place inside pieces on the wrong side of the printed fabric with plastic side touching the wrong side of the print flannel, then mattress pad, then 3-4 cotton batting pieces.
- Use zigzag stitch or straight stitch to attach these pieces to wrong side of the printed flannel.
- On the pads with 5 layers, write the number 5 with a sharpie on the right side of the print part of one wing. On the pads with 6 total layers, write a 6.
- After the inner pads are attached, place right sides together of outside pieces. Sewing around outer edge ¼ inch (0.635 mm) seam. Leave open a section to turn. (This opening should be about 2 ½-3 inches because the plastic makes the pads a little harder to turn right-side out.)
- Turn to right side. Pin, using your pin to pull the seams so that the pad is its full shape. Topstitch 1/8 “ (0.32 mm) around entire pad.
- Zig zag over the top stitching where the opening was.
- Zig zag the inside where pad was attached, so the insides are attached to both pieces of flannel.
- Using the cam attachment tool, attach the cam snaps on each side of pad.
