Pattern Review: Versodile

Well, I've been testing up a storm on these mama cloth (reusable menstrual pad) patterns.  I don't have any idea what I'm going to like once I start needing them again, so I'm making lots of styles and lengths and combinations for absorbancy and things.  My current goal is to find patterns that are fast and easy to cut and sew, and that create a nice looking finished product.  I also know that certain widths are not going to work for me.  That part won't usually come up in these reviews, though, because I realize different widths are better for different people.  The only time I'm going to mention it as a problem in a review would be if it just seems like the width is totally unreasonable.

This pattern, though.  Winning in every way.  

The Shop: Versodile
The Pattern: 10" Tessellation Cloth Pad Sewing Pattern

The designer, Courtney, created this reusable menstrual pad pattern to work with some tessellated fabric that she came up with and will be selling on Spoonflower.  Honestly, I have no idea how Spoonflower works or what it is, but I had come across Courtney's how-to videos on YouTube, and they basically blew my mind.  She gave some tips for stabilizing stretchy fabrics and keeping seams straight. So I felt the need to give the pattern a try. I contacted Courtney with several questions, and she was just great.  She answered all of my questions, very quickly, and was a huge help with some troubleshooting for general pad construction patterns that I had (not related to her pattern).  One of the things I learned from her was that this pattern can be used with any fabric you would normally use.  Although it's designed to work with her specialty fabric, it's not a requirement.  And the shape of the pattern really reduces waste.  (You know - because it's tessellated.)

One of the things that I loved about this pattern was that it included not only the template for the topper, backer, and core, but it also includes a template for a stitching line.  This is placed on the back of the topper fabric and traced on, and then when you're ready to do your stitching, you just follow the line you've drawn instead of maintaining a particular seam allowance in relation to your presser foot or sewing machine.  This is a dream for assembling pads, because there are so many layers involved that they can get pretty shifty, so it can be really hard to get a nice, straight seam. Especially for someone like me.  And that will really effect the finished product once it's been turned and topstitched.  Because of this stitching line, my finished product was probably the nicest looking pad I've ever made.  (Of course, that ice dyed organic bamboo velour helps too!)  Because this was a pattern with all straight edges, that saved me some time with cutting, which I appreciated.  Those straight edges and the stitching line made it so that I just didn't feel like I had to be so careful with the cutting.

 

Although this pattern is for a 10" pad, my finished product turned out to be close to 11" long.  (I don't know if that's due to my fabric choice, though.  OBV is really stretchy, as opposed to the flannel that I used in my other tests.)  It's also nice and trim when the snaps are closed, measuring just 2.5" across the center.  Here it is with my hand for size comparison.  *I have smallish hands.

 

I just really loved this pattern.  It was well-designed for waste reduction and quick, easy cutting and assembly.  Although there are a few extra steps involved (like drawing the stitch line), I found that it added very little time to the process of creating the pad, and the additional effort was well worth it.  It doesn't create a pad that's as "fancy" looking, so I had moved it to the back of my stack of patterns to try.  Fancy is fun!  But I'm so glad that I decided to move ahead with it, because if it turns out to be as nice to wear as I think it will, it will definitely end up being one of my favorites.  In fact, I liked it so much that I decided to get her 13" pattern too, to use for when the baby comes, and then for overnights.  And I'm glad I did, because that one offers additional features that weren't included in the 10" version. 

If you'd like to take a look at Courtney's how-to videos for assembling this pad, just click the link above.  Got any questions for me?  Feel free to ask in the comments.