Reusable Cotton Squares

I really hate buying cotton balls and cotton rounds. No reason, I just hate it. Anyone have those things you know you need but it feels physically painful to shell out money for them? I feel this way about contacts too... While there are no DIY contacts (unfortunately? fortunately)... there are DIY reusable cotton rounds. Or in this case squares.
While I'm not against DIY solutions that help the environment or decrease carbon footprint, that is not why I'm making these. You can make them for whatever reason you want, you won't find any green shaming here.

However I do feel some so-called-natural alternatives are downright unsafe. "Make your own _______! Without preservatives! Rub it on your baby! Rub it on your face!" Beware the aqueous DIY make up remover and home made baby wipes... pretty please? Rant over. Luckily these reusable cotton squares are cute and effective- no horrible bacterial infection included.

I bought some really soft cotton flannel for this project. A half yard would be plenty. It's tough to tell what is soft enough for your face, I felt weird rubbing my cheeks against all the fabric rolls so I used my inner arm to judge!

I cut a cardboard template measuring 4"x4". It helps to have a 90° angle to make sure you indeed do have a square.

This project had a little bit of a learning curve for me. I haven't sewn anything with my machine in a while! First to remember, put the inside out haha!

I sewed a 1/2" seam so when the square was turned inside out it was about 3"x3".

I sewed three sides of the square then sewed about 1" in on either side, back-stitching to reinforce.

I then trimmed the three sides that were sewed shut and left the 1/2" hem on the open side.

It's pretty much like a pillow. After turning it inside out and pressing with an iron I did a few hidden hand stitches to seal the open 1 inch area on the last side.

I use a ladder stitch, or modified ladder stitch to sew the gap closed:

Then I top stitched around the square, lifting the foot but keeping the needle in while I turned the fabric. At the end I back-stitched. I tied the loose threads and used a sewing needle to weave them into the inside of the square to hide them.

The 3rd square took me 16 minutes from start to finish. If you don't have to remember what you are doing this might be faster!

I made 10 in total. I will probably make more. Only having access to a single coin operated washer and dryer at my apartment building means I don't do laundry every week. So I'll need more like 20 since I don't want to ever reuse a dirty one. But I wanted to start with 10 to test out if they worked well.

Even though she has the thumbs to sew, Minnow was not able to figure out the sewing machine ;D