As I get closer to my due date (just a few weeks now), I've felt a push to finish building up my pad stash as quickly as possible. This seems like the perfect time to delve into the world of serged pads. It seemed a lot faster to serge a pad than to bother with all of the clipping and turning and top stitching. I wanted to test this theory. I've seen tons of great reviews of the pads from Homestead Emporium, but due to US legal red tape, they don't ship their pads from Canada to my area. One day I hope to be able to figure out how to recreate something similar, but in the mean time, I needed to learn how to make any kind of serged pad. I gave it a go with my Mamma Can Do It pattern, and they turned out fine, but lopsided. And left me feeling like I have no control over my serger. ... Probably because I don't. So I searched on Etsy and found this pattern and decided to give it a try.
The Shop: Nessie's Boutique
The Pattern: Nessie Pads Cloth Pad
This instant download pattern comes with 11 pages of clear, color photos, assembly instructions, suggestions, and pattern pieces. It includes patterns for a liner size, a light/moderate size, and a moderate/heavy size. The description and pattern don't state anywhere what the lengths of these pads are. So since I'll be using this for postpartum, I just chose the biggest one to print out and hoped for the best. (I didn't want to print and measure them all.) The larger, moderate/heavy pad works up to be about 10.5" long, but I haven't bothered to print and measure the other sizes yet.
The instructions
are pretty clear and straight-forward. I thought it was interesting
that the designer basically repeated the same set of assembly instructions and photos 3
times, once for each size of pad included in the pattern bundle, when it seemed like it could have been stated just once. It wasn't a problem at all, and there were slight variations, but it just seemed repetitive.
She also includes good suggestions and guidance for fabric selection.
This pattern was designed to create an "exposed core" style pad, with the exposed core being serged as well. All of the instructions in the pattern are for that style of pad. It does have several other suggestions for changing up the style, but none of those suggestions come with any instruction. You're just left to figure out the assembly for those on your own.
I personally didn't like the idea of a serged, exposed core for my personal use. I typically use Zorb in my cores, and I don't like the idea of any bits of fluff escaping out of my core materials when I'm using the pad. I also didn't feel like a serged exposed core would give my pad the "finished" look that I like. I think that a turned and topstitched exposed core would be nice on this pad, but the pattern just isn't designed for that. So I decided to go with an internal core. It took some work to figure out how to center the core on the back of the topper, and then I just needed to think it through for the total assembly. Not a big deal, but a little inconvenient the first time.
When all was said and done, I actually really liked the way this pattern. It was honestly the only serged pattern I could find on Etsy, but it worked out well because it turned out to be a good one to learn on. Even with the bits that weren't ideal, it was really easy to make, and took just 20 minutes from the time I printed the pattern, to completion of the pad. It's a great width, approximately 2.75" to 3" wide, depending on the materials you use. Once snapped, the finished pad is straight, with no flare. I did wish a bit for a longer length in the moderate/heavy pad, because a pad this length doesn't seem quite long enough for overnight use.
I do wish for more serged patterns now! Having tried this pattern, I'd like to find some with more lengths, and I prefer a pad with some flare at the ends, so I'd like to find patterns with more shape and length variety. But this was a good starting place, a good first serged pad, and it will be functional, even beyond postpartum.
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