Homemade Handkerchiefs

In my continuing quest to reduce our trash, I thought we could stop buying tissues and I could make handkerchiefs. My husband had differing opinions on this though and tissues have, so far, stayed in our house.  However, I knew I could at least reduce the tissues I threw away by making some handkerchiefs.  Even better, I cut up a sheet (our favorite sheet!!) that had recently worn some holes in it.  We got 9+ years out of it though so I guess it got plenty of life as a sheet before it was reduced to cleaning up my nose. 

These were super simple to sew and used the same general process as the face pads I made a few weeks earlier.  Because it was so similar to the face pads I didn't take step-by-step pictures but it was easy enough to figure out.

1) Since I was using the fitted sheet, I first cut out the elastic and then the sewn corners that made it a fitted sheet.  The elastic we kept for tying up camping supplies and I composted the seams.  Then I laid out my sheet and cut rectangles about 9" x 18". 

2) I folded the good sides together (so they were inside out), pinned, and sewed around 3 full sides and about half of the last side. 

3) Flipped them right side out (soooo much easier to flip these than the little face pads!), pushed out the corners with a pencil, tucked in the unsewn part, and than sewed around the whole edge, about ¼ inch in, with colored thread.  That was it!  It was a great way to practice my sewing and use up a bunch of random bobbins. 

I made about 12 handkerchiefs but could certainly use more!  I didn't use nearly the whole sheet but it never hurts to have extra, free, fabric around!  These are great for little sniffles.  And softer than tissues!  And don't leave that tissue dust all over your purse!  For $0 and about 2 hours of work, I'm very happy with them.  I'll probably make more so I don't have to resort to using tissues at all for my next cold!

You, like Matt, may be wondering where I'll draw the line on reusables over one time use.  Toilet paper.  I don't see myself ever switching to something besides throwaway toilet paper.  I do have some standards.