No, this is not like the good old April Fool's Day "let's all use river rocks as toilet paper" post. This one for real, suckers.
I think you'll remember my Useful, Homemade Baby/Toddler Toy that was resurrected as a useful green solution to tissue in the playroom.
Well since we first realized we could comfortably use these for things other than animal blankets or just pulling out ad nauseum, we use them all the time downstairs.
And even so, it still never occurred to me to make reusable tissues for the rest of the house. It was actually my Mom's idea. We both have pretty bad nasal allergies this time of year. I'm actually hoping the bong water I'm drinking twice a day will take care of that as well as my lower platelets during pregnancy. We'll see.
In the meantime, I am going through BOXES of tissue and my little nose is sore. My Mom mentioned she might go to cloth tissue for the comfort, so I suggested that flannel might make a really nice soft tissue. Then, of course, I had to try it myself.
And lucky me, I had a bunch of natural flannel on hand because I use it instead of interfacing with things that need extra weight but not stiffness.
I simply cut about 30 tissue-sized squares with pinking shears (to stall fraying) and have been blowing in style ever since. It couldn't be any easier. Of course, you could certainly spend a bit more time and effort to do a rolled hem for a longer lasting, nicer looking solution but I went for simple and quick and it's fine for now. I didn't even measure them. I just eyeballed the size of a paper tissue. Notice I don't even call them hankies. The are so basic they really are more like reusable tissues. And the great thing is that they are so small and lightweight, they really don't add to your laundry. Just stick them in with any other load.
I might do a few nicer ones for out and about or as Christmas gifts. I love these Flour Sack Hankies from Blue Yonder.
This project really gets at the big REDUCE in the RRR cycle if you have allergies.
Hankies are the new cloth napkins, don't you know.
Update: After a couple of washings, the flannel has frayed more than the regular cotton prints I used for the toddler tissues. Not a biggie to me, but it might make others want to either use plain cotton fabric or do a rolled hem.
