The invention concerns the manufacture of personal care articles consisting of compresses having a cooling effect by swelling with water which are presented individually in vacuum packaging. According to the invention, successive doses of powder comprising absorbent particles are placed in grooves formed by elastic deformation in a lower sheet made of water-permeable textile material, which is continuously unwound, and covered with an upper sheet, which is continuously unwound at the same time as the lower sheet. The lower sheet is then heat-welded in the intervals between adjacent grooves thus isolating the grooves from each other. Successive compartments each containing a dose of the powder are then enclosed in each groove by heat-welding the sheets along transverse weld lines across the width of the moving sheet assembly.