Pad Making Questions and worries

[daimere]

My homemade pads never seem as thirsty/nice looking as the ones that I buy from other people.  Is it because of the materials?  Typical pads I made are either: flannel, zorb, cotton terry, flannel.  Or flannel, multiples of cotton terry, and flannel.  Should I try using a different fabric?  I recently bought some bamboo velour, bamboo fleece, and

Comments

[littlravn]

The quality of the top fabric makes a HUGE difference in how the pads hold up over time. A couple of times I tried to buy flannel at JoAnn's but usually it is so poor quality that it is already faded and pilled just from the first initial wash so I stopped doing that immediately and started looking for higher end, brand name fabrics- bernartex flannels, for example, are wonderful. I usually buy prints at Fabric Depot or online but the other mod in my co-op has been buying the most beautiful wovens so I may start buying them from her. I buy most everything else through co-ops.

I am running a co-op on bamboo right now. Fleece and velour are $8.50 per yard and it is the LAST time I will offer these so cheap because the price just jumped up again. Which made me cry, btw. Single loop terry is $8. I am also running hemp and solid color PUL right now if you need any of those. If you want to join you are welcome to, the group ishttp://groups.yahoo.com/

[jamiethetiger]

I do think the number of layers is part of why your pads seem thicker. My pantyliners are pretty thin, while my day pads are thicker.

I prefer bamboo velour as an outer, but also have a number of flannel pads. I find I can deal witha thinner pad if I have a PUL layer, so that I don't have to worry about soaking through.

I've not used zorb, honestly, but it seems neato. Hemp and bamboo fleeces are popular inner layers for pads, but I think so is microfiber terry.

I do sell hemp and bamboo fabrics. Unfortunately, bamboo velour is backordered until mid May, and hemp fleece until the end of this month. But, if you are interested in looking around at those fabrics, my site is celticclothswholesale.com

Bamboo fleece is absorbant, hemp fabrics (fleece and french terry) even more so.

[matersum]

The WEIGHT of the fabric is also very important. I've seen flimsy fleeces, for example, and more robust ones. Quality plays a HUGE part here.

[daimere]

Thanks everyone! I think it might be quality. Even my husband says that washclothes I cut up aren't worth using on his body (after buying a walmart 10 pack, I offered him a few).

And I tried quality pads with velour on them and it made a ton of difference! I might be a velour convert!