DIY Reusable Nursing Pads

With our little boy on the way and all of my friends having babies and getting pregnant, it's hard not to think about babies and everything that comes with them. That being said, my husband and I were discussing the other night about all the things that we'll have to get for little Ryan since our first child was a girl.
Naturally, I began to pull out of all the gender-neutral things from her closet and room and began transitioning them to his room. That's when I discovered my secret stash of receiving blankets.

Any Mom knows that receiving blankets are probably the best thing in the world. They're so versatile! They come in an array of patterns, sizes, textures, and cloth. From using them for their intended purpose to burp raps, nursing covers, snot rags, and everything in between - you can never have enough. Or at least, close to enough. Most parents find themselves with more receiving blankets than they'll ever know what to do with.

Which is where I began to think - how can I repurpose these?
We have a ton of adorable flannel receiving blankets as well as a few fleece style blankets that I absolutely loved.
So I continued to sort through my stash and think over the things that I didn't have enough of.
That night while putting away laundry, I came across my supply of nursing pads and remembered how I had to constantly wash the few pairs that I had or buy the disposables.

Light bulb.

As a breastfeeding mom, I loved the reusable nursing pads. I breastfed our daughter until right before her 18th month, so I constantly used the things. I liked the disposables, but in the first few months you go through them so fast and I hated spending money on something that I would just throw away.

So with that in mind, I browsed Pinterest and sure enough, there were a bunch of tutorials for DIY nursing pads using the things I already had. This little tutorial should take you about 30 minutes or less than an hour (with bathroom breaks and entertaining little ones) and can be finished within the time frame of your little one's favorite TV show!

Here's how I did it.

First I got my receiving blankets and fleece blanket, folded them over a few times and then traced an old nursing pad onto them.

 I made 3 circles in the flannel for 1 circle in the fleece.

Then I pinned my 3 circles of flannel to 1 circle of fleece, trying my best to line up the edges. It's okay if it's not perfect- you'll make them pretty later.

Here's my exquisite hand. Sew around the edges, leaving a slight seam allowance to trim off the excess and make them even. 

Time to trim those edges and make them pretty!

Pretty!

DIY Reusable Nursing Pads

Materials:

• Flannel Receiving blanket
• Fleece (I just used a fleece blanket that I had on hand)
• Old nursing pad or cd (anything that is 4-5" in diameter)
• Contrasting thread
• Scissors
• Pen or marker
• Straight pins

Directions:

Fold the receiving blanket in half and then again. Trace the nursing pad or whatever you have on hand onto the blanket (My patterned blanket made six pairs while my plain blanket made four). Cut out the circles and set them aside in stacks of 3 or 4. You'll want at least 3 circles to each pad depending on how thick the material is. For the nursing pad with the pattern, I used 3 circles and for the plain one, I used 4. 

Using the same nursing pad, trace the circles in the fleece. You will only need one fleece circle per pad, so the ratio would be 3:1 (flannel:fleece). Cut out these circles and pin them to the stacks of flannel.

Using a sewing machine fitting with contrasting thread, sew around the edges of your pads in either a straight stitch or the smallest zigzag stitch on your machine.

Trim the excess edge off of your nursing pad to make it look neat and pretty.

That's it! You're done! You've made a nursing pad! Congratulations!

On the note of the strings and material left over from the trimming and cutting. With spring approaching, I collect all of the strings, small scraps of material and yarn I use over the winter and keep it in little bag. Then as Spring arrives, I put them outside in a small bird-friendly box for the birds to use in building their nests. Reuse, reuse, reuse! Plus it makes for a pretty birds nest outside of my kitchen window!

What do you do with your scraps?

Let me know how your nursing pads turned out!

Photos taken with iPhone 4 and edited with iPhoto.

All photos belong to Butcher, Baker, and the Homemaker.

Use with permission.