Sewn: A Reusable Swiffer Mop Pad!
I stumbled across the idea on "Instructables" to sew my own Swiffer pads. I go through around 2 week now that we have all tile floors (and white tile at that!) I've been throwing them in the Recycle (though I honestly am not sure if they are...) I thought "Hey, washing them with the towels makes way more sense!" I also save money doing it this way. So I used up the ones I had and saved the last one for a pattern. I spent a few hours fumbling around with the sewing machine, but once I really got used to it I ended up with something usable if not pretty!
I used four layers of husband's old tan army t-shirts, and a piece of an old wool scarf I doubt I'll ever need again in Florida.
It's kind of difficult to get all 5 of those layers under the sewing machine's foot, so I didn't end up with as many cross-support-stitches as the original called for. But I stuck it to the end of the Swiffer (stuck just fine) and mopped the kitchen. Brilliant! If I don't come back to amend the entry it means it survived the wash just fine :D
As a note: It doesn't have the ridges on the bottom that normal Swiffer pads have, so the dog hair I missed in the sweep doesn't stick as well. You also have to press a wee harder or have more sweeps over the extra sticky areas. I'll take a few seconds more work to not have to buy another box of pads at $7 a pop!
At 2 pads a week, at $7 a box & 14g a pad, sewing my own Swiffer pads saved me $60 a year and 3.21 POUNDS of nonrecyclable garbage (not counting the box they came in!)
It's kind of difficult to get all 5 of those layers under the sewing machine's foot, so I didn't end up with as many cross-support-stitches as the original called for. But I stuck it to the end of the Swiffer (stuck just fine) and mopped the kitchen. Brilliant! If I don't come back to amend the entry it means it survived the wash just fine :D
As a note: It doesn't have the ridges on the bottom that normal Swiffer pads have, so the dog hair I missed in the sweep doesn't stick as well. You also have to press a wee harder or have more sweeps over the extra sticky areas. I'll take a few seconds more work to not have to buy another box of pads at $7 a pop!
At 2 pads a week, at $7 a box & 14g a pad, sewing my own Swiffer pads saved me $60 a year and 3.21 POUNDS of nonrecyclable garbage (not counting the box they came in!)
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