We have something quite a bit different for you with the new Sandfly pattern. This pattern is personal to me and is motivated by the desire to give my growing girls the comfort and protection they need as they navigate into womanhood. Some girls are super excited and just can't wait for their period and others dread or even fear this new stage. Either way the last thing they want is embarrassing stains on their sheets or mattress. Old towels are doable, but suddenly I wanted something that felt a little more special so I've done a bit of research and decided to put together a simple tutorial and cut chart for how to make your own Sandfly protector.

The tutorial includes:

• twin and double/queen sizes
• optional side panels to help secure in place
• very basic tips on fabric choices
• cut chart only (This is a choice because I find it quite wasteful to have large rectangular pattern pieces that are mostly empty pages in the middle.)

I want to be clear that my forte is not reusable pads and such. Though I'm personally very much wishing the pad fairy would leave me a pile of reusable liners, she hasn't yet so my experience in that arena is zilch. For that reason, I do not go deep into tips in the tutorial, but I did do a bunch of reading into other blogs and websites and compiled some basic information to consider when choosing fabrics.

Of course, there is no age limit on who may want to use something like this and this is not at all only for period use!! Our testers suggested that this could be used for potty training, for nursing, for pregnancy, for the elderly, and even as a seat protector in the car after an afternoon in the pool. There really are no rules for how to use this.

Here's an example of using upcycled or matching flat sheets for the side panels. One less seam to sew when you can cut along the edge of the sheet.

Mattresses also come in many sizes so if you have a thinner mattress you might want to just shorten the side panels so you don't have a whole lot of excess fabric.

For the double/queen size Sandfly, it's a lot of fabric to handle! Both when cutting and sewing you will need patience and space. Here's some tips:

• Fold your fabric in half before cutting. Just don't forget to adjust the cut chart numbers accordingly.
• Use LOTS of pins!!! Once you've got your fabrics layered carefully, pin the c#%p out of that thing along all those grid lines because once you pick it up to sew, you'll be thankful for every single one of those pins.
• Maybe stay away from stretch fabrics for the larger one just because those fabrics can demand enough extra care that maybe also worrying about dealing with that MUCH shifty fabric isn't worth it. (Consider what you want to tackle there.)
• Roll your fabric up when quilting the top to make it more manageable.

One tester chose to make the twin size for her king size bed and add only one side panel. It really is all about how you want to make this specific for your needs!

I really don't have much more to say!