This winter, my family seems to be using quite a few paper tissues. I'm not used to this... I think it is because I decided to purchase a few boxes of tissues when we had a bout of the sniffles several weeks ago. In the past, we would always use toilet paper and it wasn't as obvious how much we used.
Regardless, I wanted to do something about it. My first thought was to try making some fabric hankies.
I'm no stranger to using fabric where paper is typically used. I have cloth-diapered my children. I use cloth towels in the kitchen (though I use paper when cleaning up cat throwup and drying off raw chicken!!!). So the idea of washing cloth hankies didn't scare me off.
And this project was a simple one. I started with inspiration from SouleMama's book The Rhythm of Family. In her chapter for February, she gives instructions for making fabric hankies and a hankie holder. I'll try making the holder later, but I wanted to get down to business making hankies.
She suggests using two layers of a quilting-weight cotton (or slightly sturdier). Having had plenty of experience with fabric baby wipes for cloth diapering, I thought that a soft flannel would be nice to work with. I found a few coordinating colors at a local fabric store and pre-washed it.
My project started with making three double-layer hankies using her suggestions for making a pocket, turning inside out, then top stitching the edging. It makes for a handsome hankie, but I found that, with the flannel, the hankies were just too thick. I will say, however, that the sizing was perfect (12" x 12" square).
My next step was to try out a single layer of flannel ... and that is when I busted out the rolled hem foot for my sewing machine. I had never felt that I really had gotten the hang of using this one. So, I went to YouTube to find a video on how to use the foot. This is the video I felt was the most useful.
I was surprised how quickly the hankies came together once I got the hang of starting off the rolled hem. And soon... I had a huge pile of hankies.
(close-up of the top-stitched two-ply hankies)
(close-up of the rolled-hem single-ply hankies)
During the process, my girls asked if they could try one out. Of course, I said, "Sure, take as many as you think you need. And use them anytime you need to blow your nose!" My girls are big fans of how soft the fabric is. And if that means they'll use those instead of the carpet, I'm a huge fan as well!
(Oh, and I finally decided to splurge and get myself a cutting mat and rotary cutter. WHY didn't I get these sooner for myself?!?!? It helped that they were on sale for 40% off and I had a coupon for an extra 20% off - which made them comparible in price to the cheapest I found them on the internet - and I was able to avoid shipping costs).
