Goods 4 Girls-- sanitary supplies....

[bunnyjadwiga]

After having spent a goodly amount of time thinking about sanitary supplies for menstruation in pre-modern cultures, I feel obliged to talk about the movement to donate new, unused, reusable sanitary pads for young women in developing countries. Crunchy Chicken came up with this idea:
http://www.goods4girls.org/

Great idea. However, I've never tried to make/use something of this sort, so the instructions she points to are driving me batty. I want something that tells me what kind of fabric and where I can likely get it, as well as patterns. I think this is a great idea, but I really am not in a position to research the entire reusable hygiene supplies movement before doing this.

If someone who is familar with these has clearer instructions or comments on a particular pattern that make them easier to figure out, maybe we can get a group together to make a bunch of these and ship 'em out. (P.S. what keeps them from twisting around, by the way?)

Comments

[madrun.livejournal.com]

Those websites are unnecessarily complicated. I wore washable pads that I sewed myself for five years, and as soon as we are settled I'm going back to it.

You don't need all the "envelopes" and complicated pockets, you really don't.

Take an old towel (or two) and an old waterproof baby pad, the kind that looks like felt. Take your favorite menstrual pad and use that as a pattern. Cut as many of that shape as you can out of the towels and pad, about 3 towel pieces for every waterproof pad piece. Sandwich three towel pieces with a waterproof piece on the bottom, and blanket stitch around the edges. If you're any size over about a 6, the pressure of your inner thighs will keep the pad in place in your panties with no fasteners. If you want to get really really fancy, cut the waterproof layer with "wings" large enough to overlap on the underside and add a snap.

Easy as pie.

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

That sounds simpler. I just couldn't figure out how it could stay, because all my life I've had difficulty where shifting appears to cause the stick-in pads to rotate in the horizontal (more or less) plane if they are not firmly anchored. Obviously that may be a personal shape peculiarity. Perhaps I will try your pattern and see how it works for me...