Make No Sew Reusable Swiffer Pads

This tutorial is how to make reusable Swiffer Pads.  I would love to own a sewing machine someday but as of now I do not have one.  So I went in search of way I could make these without actually sewing.  I found THIS site with a great tutorial on how to sew some if you would rather do it that way.  And I threw in my own creativity with a much cheaper means of sticking it your Swiffer.

Hopefully you've seen my previous post on reusing your Swiffer Wetjet by refilling the container with your own solution.  If not, check it out HERE.  


Here's what you need:

Cloth diapers (You can also use microfiber, burp rags, old kitchen towels, etc)
No Sew Hem Tape
Felt (super cheap - $0.25 a sheet.  1 sheet makes 3 pads)
Scissors
Iron

Directions in Pictures:

Lay out the cloth diaper or whatever cloth you choose to use.  I like the cloth diaper because later we will half it and it makes two swiffer pads.

Line the hem tape down a long edge and on the outer edge of the middle panel.

Fold the edge over and iron for several minutes until it is bonded.  The bond will become stronger when it cools.  The directions on the hem tape package said 3 minutes but I found it took a lot longer.  It may take less time if the iron is hotter but I did not want it to steam.

This is what the bonded seam looks like.

Do the same thing with the other flap.  So you are folding the edges into the center to make a triple layer cloth.

 Fold the cloth in half.

Mark the middle with a pencil or pen (I actually used a crayon!  Use what you have.) Cut the cloth in half to make 2 pads.

 Now you have two pads.

This is the annoying step.  On the edge that you just cut you will find about six layers of cloth.  I stuck a peice of seem tape in between each layer and then set my iron on top to meld it all together.  It took a few minutes on each side.  I flipped it over and iron the back too. 

Next we use my super cheap method of velcro.  Since you only need the soft side of velcro why waste money on the no sew velcro which can cost about $10?  Instead, use a cheap sheet of felt!  Fold the felt into three equal parts and cut.

On the seam side of the diaper cloth pad, make a box with an "x" in it with the seam tape.

Iron the felt on.  Keep ironing.  Still ironing.  This step took me about 10 minutes to finally get it to fuse.  

Ta-da! Now you have a reusable Swiffer pad.  Let it cool completely before you use it so that the seam tape has time to fully fuse.

This step is optional.  Because I ironed the felt so long I thought I should "fluff" it up a bit.  You can use anything to do this - a brush, a fork, or the edge of your scissors.

My bare Swiffer just waiting for its new reusable pad. 

And there you have it.  The pad is just shy of the full length of the Swiffer but it is not by much.  It's worth it to cut two pads from the cloth diaper.  

Now that you've turned your Swiffer into an efficient, inexpensive, green cleaning machine, it's time to get to work!