whatyousowblog:

I’m constantly on the lookout for ways of reducing my carbon footprint, one of the main aims being to reduce the amount of things I buy and throw away.

One daily annoyance is throwing away the cotton pads that I use to remove my makeup. Not only do they come in a non-recyclable plastic packet but many have been factory made then air freighted half way around the world as well.

Prompted to create a tutorial for sustainable living blog Moral Fibres, I decided to make some reusable cotton pads that I could just put in the wash when they’ve been used, read on to find out how I did it!    

You will need a size 4 crochet hook and some cotton yarn of your chioce. My favourites are Sirdar Simply Recycled and Rowan Purelife which both come in some lovely colours. You need about 8m of yarn.  

Ch4, then join with a sl st to the first stitch. 

Row 1: Ch 1, *puff st (yo, insert hook into stitch, pull strand through, do the same 4 more times then pull your yarn through all 11 loops on the hook, close the puff with a chain), ch 1*, repeat * 7 more times then join with a sl st to the top of the first puff stitch and move with a sl st into the gap between the first & second puff. 8 puff st. 

Row 2: Ch 1, 2 puff st into first gap, then 2 puff st into each gap all the way round. Note that you don’t chain betweenthe stitches like you did on the first row. Once you have 16 puff st, join with a sl st to the first puff stitch. 16 puff st. 

Sew in the ends and there you have your finished cotton pad. Make a bundle of them and store them in your bathroom ready to use at bed time!

If you don’t want to crochet them yourself, you can buy a pack of 5 Cotton Pads from the What You Sow shop or if you live outside of the UK, you can find them on Etsy too. 

Enjoy.