Tutorial: Washable Contoured Nursing Pads

Preparations for the baby are still in full swing and today I decided to make some washable nursing pads.  The disposable pads are awful, like maxi pads for your boobs, and it’s just like throwing money straight into the trash.  With Little Miss I had bought these washable pads and they worked fine, however, two sets was not nearly enough and I really didn’t want to invest a lot of money ($3.00 a pair?!?) on something that I could make myself. 
I decided to use flannel since I had some white flannel scraps from Little Miss’s curtains.  I used a coffee cup as my template (it is 3 1/2 inches across) and traced the circles on to my scraps using an air erase marker.
I found that I could cut through four layers of fabric with my super awesome Ginger Shears, which worked out perfectly because I wanted four layers of flannel for every pad.
I made a paper template using the same coffee cup and folded it in half twice to divide it into quarters (to lazy to measure).  I cut out one quarter and this was my template for cutting to make the dart.  I drew the line above so you could see how I cut the circle, but I just held the template on the circles and cut them as I went.  (To clarify, I only cut a line and not the whole quarter of a circle out, so that I could overlap the fabric).
My fabric was a little rumpled, so I thoroughly ironed each stack of four.  The ironing really reduced the bulk of the pads.I overlapped the cut edges by about one inch (I eyeballed it).  This is to make the dart or contour.  It makes pads look better under your clothes and I found them to be more comfortable than just the flat circles. Starting at the outer edge, zigzagged over the raw edge to the center.  Once I got to the center I turned the fabric and zigzagged over the other raw edge on the bottom of the pad to the outer edge.Then I turned the fabric again and continued the zigzag around the outer edge of the pad, over lapping the stitching on the edge a little.  I also went back and trimmed the fabric to the stitching.These really turned out just like the ones I bought and these are definitely softer.  It really is easy to make these, kind of hard to explain, but easy to do, if you have any questions just ask.
I also recommend making a laundry bag to wash these in, if you don’t already have one, because they get stuck in the door of the washer/dryer and sometimes end up in the lint trap of the dryer (ewwwww, linty nursing pads!!!)  A large rectangle of tulle sewn up the sides and a channel for a drawstring tie and you’re done. 
Twelve pairs of nursing pads ready to go, now I just need some nursing tops, we’ll see if I have time to whip some up this week.