Nursing pad update

I have updated how I make my nursing pads. 

I found that the material I use works quite well for my needs, but the shape of the pads are a bit awkward. 

They would bunch up in my bra and leave weird lines...

So, I decided to make them contoured.

At first, I only cut one triangle in the nursing pad, to contour one side. This still ended up making my nursing pads look pretty weird in my bra...

So then, I would cut triangle shapes on opposite sides of the pad. (The pad is already sewn together).

I would then sew the triangles shut.

OOPS!

Apparently, the needle can sometimes get bent if you are not careful...

Sewing the nursing pads with the contours did take more steps to complete, but it was definitely worth it. I no longer have weird bulges... :)

DIY nursing pads

On a blog search again--I found many containing ideas how to make your own nursing pads. There are standard nursing pads like this one, or this one, or this one, or this one, or this one. And contoured nursing pads like this one, or this one, or this one.

Needless to say, the ideas and possibilities are endless...

So, I got some great ideas from the other sites, but in the end, I just made it up as I went along.

For the shape, I just traced around a round food storage lid (ex: Tupperware). I needed to find something that I could easily trace around, a size that seemed like it would fit me well, and it didn't matter if I got Sharpie on it...which I did. No matter, it was an old lid that we never really use anyway.

My objective was to use material that I already have. I cut up an old sweatshirt, some fleece, and an old t-shirt. My layers were sweatshirt on the outside, fleece in the middle, and t-shirt on the inside (the side touching the skin).

I cut out 24 circles of each type of material( to have 12 pairs). I pinned them together and sewed them together with the sewing machine.

I am definitely not an expert sewer, and I do not have a serger. I stitched around the edges of the circles three times. I did regular stitch, a zigzag stitch, and the regular stitch again. **Note my super, highly technical use of names for the stitching, ha.

Voila! Reusable nursing pads! They work pretty well--I haven't had any problems with soaking through. They do bunch a little, and I have only made one set so far, so I may try to make the rest of the sets contoured.