Endometriosis is close to my heart so where and when I can, I always want to raise awareness to it. However everyone needs a sanitary pad pouch to put in their handbag, Endo or not. A cute, (discreet if you want it to be) pouch to contain all of your pads and tampons. On this one we don’t want it to be discreet because we are wanting to raise awareness for Endometriosis at the same time. Win win right?!
What is Endometriosis?
Before we teach you how to personalise your own sanitary pad pouch. Here is a link to Endometriosis Australia please take the time to go and read about it.
Hopefully this at least educates one person who didn’t know what it is, then I am satisfied!! Now lets get crafting!
–Disclaimer: This blog post contains some affiliate links. If you purchase through them I do receive a small commission, but this is at no extra cost to you.–
What you will need;
- A plain zip up bag
- Coloured Tassel
- Heat Transfer Vinyl
- Teflon Sheet
- Auto Heat Press (or a manual one)
- Canva Pro
- Cricut Vinyl Cutter
- Cricut Weeding Tools
Firstly we recommend Canva Pro as you can make SVGs in there and that is what we use to create our designs. So hop over to Canva. Make sure to open a new page of the size of your pouch. Then start to design what you would like on your Sanitary Pad Pouch. Ours is going to be in the theme of Endometriosis so we are writing ”Endo: The worst club, but clearly has the best members” . For the background we want to add a uterus outline on repeat.
So in order to do that we would need two separate pages on Canva Pro. We created the text on one and the repeated uterus pattern on the other. Later in Cricut we want to cut them in different colours, there are different ways of doing this but this is the way we have learnt. As mentioned in previous blogs I am still a newbie for HTV and making my own SVGs. Hopefully soon I can write about how to make one in depth. But for now it is all trial and error and your here for the ride!
Once your happy with your design, you will need to save as an SVG and tick the box that says transparent background. This is why we say you need Canva Pro and not the free addition as this component is only available on Canva Pro. However I use Canva Pro at least 5 times a week so it is very worth the outgoing cost to me.
Secondly we are going to enter the Cricut Design Space and import the SVG we have made. Make sure that you have removed all of the background till you see the little grey and white squares. Once they are imported click on the image and size it to just shy of the dimensions of your pouch.
It is hard to heat press vinyl near where the zip is as you cant always get the correct amount of pressure there for the HTV to stick.
We used one mat and put both pieces of HTV on their so I could cut the whole thing at once and not have to change over the mat for the next colour. We chose to do the Uterus pattern in Metallic Silver and the text in Pastel Purple to compliment.
Load your mat into your Cricut we have the Explore Air 2. We have had it for years, like almost 6 and I cant fault it. Be sure to make sure you place your vinyl the correct way – shiny side down onto the mat and that you mirror your image.
Yesterday when making a t shirt I was so careful with all the steps and couldn’t work out why I couldn’t weed and then realised I hadn’t even mirrored my image. Thankfully it didn’t ruin my vinyl, I just removed the vinyl from the mat and put it back through but mirrored, disaster averted!
Using your Cricut weeding tool carefully remove the unwanted parts of the design. Also switch on your HTV Auto Press to give it time to warm up to temperature. We did 300 at 5 seconds first for the metallic as it was very delicate.
Always use your Teflon Sheet so that nothing stick to your press.
We also made sure to hang the zip out of the machine as you don’t want to ruin your press. When we put the design in for another 10 seconds I unzipped the bag and hung it outside of the press again so it could put pressure on the part that it missed before.
Next we layer the Purple text where we would like it positioned. I was going to put it in the middle. Instead I settled for the bottom left hand corner. However next time I wont put it so close to the edge as one of the letters took a bit to stick on as the seam was in the way. Therefore making it hard for the press to put as much pressure there as the rest of the pouch. I got there in the end!
Once I was happy with the press I pealed the plastic off the text and pressed the pouch one more time under the Teflon Sheet.
Lastly, after the pouch had cooled I added the finishing touch by adding a matching purple tassel to the zip just for that little bit extra.
I love it, next time shark week comes around I will be proud to whip out my Sanitary Pad Pouch – Endo bag. And if people ask about Endo then my job is done!
Just remember excruciatingly painful periods are not normal, please seek medical advice from your Doctor! Sometimes you just need to advocate for yourself!
Where to buy all the materials;
- You can buy the Zip up pouch from here (takes you to Spotlight).
- You can buy the Heat Transfer Vinyl here (takes you to our Store Front)
- You can buy the Auto Press Here or the Manual Press here (takes you to our Store Front)
- You can buy a subscription of Canva Pro here (takes you to Canva)
- You can but the Cricut Cutting Machine Here (Takes you to our Store Front)
- You can buy coloured tassels here (Takes you to our Store Front)
–Disclaimer: This blog post contains some affiliate links. If you purchase through them I do receive a small commission, but this is at no extra cost to you.–
Until the next craft,
The Craft Chaser x