How to make a period pack

Every girl remembers her first period. If she is anything like me, she would rather forget that it ever happened.

I was in grade 7, my final year of elementary school. I was wearing my favourite pair of stonewashed jeans and that iconic Club Monaco sweater. If you know, you know.

I discovered that I had, erm, become a woman after hearing the whispers of my classmates behind my back. Ahhhh, those amazing pre-teen/teenaged years where instead of discretely letting someone know that there’s food in their teeth, a booger in their nose, or you know – blood staining their jeans, you chat about it among your friends behind the back of the person affected.

Being a product of the ’80s meant I couldn’t just pick up my cellphone and call my mom to bring me a new pair of pants. Nevermind that, my house was a 30-minute boat access only ride away from my school, so even if I did have today’s technology, that wasn’t an option. Pair that with the fact that my mom and I had never really had “the talk”. My entry into womanhood served as a model for what I did NOT want to happen to my future daughters.

While my parenting journey has been markedly different than that of my mother’s. Without question, the most notable difference is that I am divorced and living apart from my kids dad. The significance this plays on my own daughter’s first period is that there’s an even greater chance that she won’t be with me when her time comes.

That’s why in an effort to make her entry into womanhood NOTHING like mine was, we’ve made this period pack together that she can discretely keep in her backpack for that time of the month.

What you’ll need

Cricut Maker
Standard Grip Mat
Infusible Ink – I used Rainbow Watercolor Splash
EasyPress or EasyPress Mini
EasyPress Mat
Basic Tool Set
Cosmetic Bag Blanks

Materials required to make a period pack

First, you’re going to want to pick out your products you’re going to use for this project. I used the Cosmetic Bag Blanks. They come with three – two medium and a large. For this project I used a medium, however could have easily used the large as all of the contents were a little squished in the finished period pack. That said, I did want it to be small enough so that it was discrete, so smaller might be better for this project.

Next, open up Cricut Design Space and grab the template I created for the period pack. Again, this is sized for the 9″ x 6.1″ bag, but if you choose a different sized bag, you can just select the entire project (click and drag your mouse over the two elements) and resize it larger or smaller as you need.

Cricut design space period pack template

Hit that Make It button and let your machine get to work.

The next steps are easy, weed as you normally would and press according to material instructions.

Make sure to fill that Period Pack with all the necessities for that time of the month. And voila! You’ve got yourself the perfect DIY Period Pack!

What to put in your period pack

The great thing about creating a period pack is that you can customize it with whatever you want. Here’s what we put in ours:

1 pair of KT by Knix period underwear. These ones on Amazon are also great!
1 pair of cotton undies
Cottonelle flushable wipes
Kotex teen pads
Individually packed feminine wipes
A favourite chocolate bar
Extra pair of cotton undies
Ziplock bag (for any soiled clothing)
A thin pair of leggings in case a wardrobe change is needed. (choose a dark color legging for obvious reasons!)
Lip balm

Just make sure not to overfill your period pack, and equally important, involve your girl in the creation and filling so that she knows everything that’s in it and where it’s kept/how it’s used. Smalls and sat down and practiced opening the package and putting on her pads. What to do with the garbage, and how to take it off and dispose of it hygienically.

Keep the Period Pack conveniently in your girls backpack so she’s always ready regardless of when the time comes!