Cloth Pads: Free Pattern

In recent months I also sewed up a bunch of cloth pads. This is of course before I got pregnant! Although I plan on sewing some more for my postpartum period. After reading about all the chemicals and stuff in disposable pads I decided that I would try them. Society is so mainstreamed into thinking that we need to buy disposables that I never thought about it until after our son was born. I was surprised to read that disposable products (diapers & feminine products) could take up to 500 years to decompose and actually have toxins known to cause cancer and endometriosis. I actually didn't mind using cloth diapers so I thought what the heck. I decided to try and make them myself to save some money (just in case I didn't like them) as cloth pads can cost $7.00 each. Although the price seems high over the course of years that you own them it's actually quite minimal compared to disposables. Say you buy 12 cloth pads for roughly $7.00 each, that totals about $84.00. So if you divide that by approximately 5 years you would be spending about $1.40 per month. Now keep in mind that you could have them longer if you take care of them properly. Now if you compare that to your current disposable pads at say $6.00 per package multiplied by 5 years that's $360.00. I did notice that once I switched to cloth, I didn't have as long of periods, I had less cramping and didn't feel like I had sand paper between my legs by the 5th day!:) I used this pattern for my panty liners. For my larger pads I used another pattern that I found on the net for free. I just can't seem to find where I found it. The only thing that I would advise you to do differently is to is to NOT sewn the middle part of the pad through the pul as if you have a really heavy period than it can leak through the holes (from the needle). What I would do next time is sew the middle part to the front before sewing the pieces together then layering as follows: pul, bottom and front facing each other. Sew all the way around leaving enough of a gap to turn the pad right side out. Then top-stitch all the way around the pad thus closing the turning point. This method will take a lot more practice to master as this pattern is rounded in a lot of spots, but it makes for a much better, leakfree pad! I will make a tutorial in the future to show you what I mean.