Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Do Without: Cottonball Edition

I'm generally a quite lazy person, so when I ran out of cotton balls before our trip I was in no rush to run to the store to find replacements.  Cotton balls are a part of my daily "beauty" (I use that term VERY loosely) routine.    In the spirit of trying to come up with reusable items, I began to ponder what might replace these little puffy wonders.  I tried a wash cloth, but it absorbed too much astringent.  Then, like Archimedes, EUREKA!  I had found it.  Flannel.  Like, Little E's cloth wipes, flannel was the perfect material for my morning astringent.  The only problem was I didn't have any flannel lying around the house, and I didn't want to pay for any either.


Enter, a set of my childhood sheets.  My mother kindly bestowed them upon me while we were home.  I had initially planned on cutting up the pillow case for my cause, but seeing as how I couldn't bare the thought of such waste, I came up with an alternative. 


 I simply ripped out the seam...

 Cut the interior hem...


and pinned a new, much less generous hem 


and sewed it up.


Then I sewed the excess flannel in to nine double sided "cotton" squares.


The finished product!

I've used these squares for over a week now, and I have to say, I am not missing the cotton balls at all.  When I've used a square I simply put it in a lingerie bag so that it doesn't get lost in the washer.  Piece of cake; I'm never going back!

12 comments:

  1. Oh that's great!
    I usually just use a washcloth but I LOVE how CUTE those are & they look adorable on your sink.
    Good job!

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  2. Great idea about the hem! I want to know when you go to reusable TP. Keep it up Alison!

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  3. Awesome! Thanks for sharing! I'm so doing this!

    Money Saving Mom sent me.

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  4. I also recycle the cotton that come in asprin bottles. I just cut it up into a more useable size.

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  5. I was just thinking about this - that I needed something to replace my throw away cotton balls. We have switched to reusable products around the rest of the house and cotton balls and q-tips were two things I hadn't figured out yet.
    I'm going to use some flannel baby blankets that we never really used and I've been saving to find a use for like this!

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  6. I've been doing this for years! I throw mine in the bathroom laundry, and they get washed with towels and the like... never a problem :)

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  7. I have been thinking about doing something like this for weeks but hadn't come up with a soft enough fabric so I didn't feel like I was ripping my face off :) Thanks for the great idea...flannel had not occurred to me and I have a pair of flannel pjs I can't wear anymore!

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  8. Hope its ok I shared your post on my blog crediting you of course! Love the blog, I am a new follower!

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  9. Awesome, I love it! Thanks for the idea!

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  10. Hope you don't mind. I'm going to share this on my Facebook wall. Giving you the credit. Wonderful Idea & their pretty!

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  11. Thank you all for visiting and for all the love and support. Rosy, I also cut up cotton from pill bottles and use them for removing nail polish. I actually get disappointed when I open a bottle & there isn't cotton!

    Thank you for sharing the link on your blogs and Facebook. Keep coming back for more! :)

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