Method of making absorbent articles having shaped absorbent cores on a substrate

A method of making a stretchable absorbent article, comprising the steps of:

• providing a stretchable substrate layer having a uniform width;
• providing one or more streams of adhesive fibers and superabsorbent particles in a combined amount of about 1-60% by weight adhesive fibers and about 40-99% by weight superabsorbent particles;
• shaping at least the one or more streams of adhesive fibers;
• depositing the adhesive fibers and superabsorbent particles continuously on the substrate layer to form a plurality of non-rectangular absorbent cores end-to-end and bound to the stretchable substrate layer;
• and
• collecting and recycling loose superabsorbent particles;
• wherein the non-rectangular absorbent cores are formed and shaped on the substrate layer without cutting lateral side edges of the absorbent cores, each shaped absorbent core has an average width in an end region that is at least 10% greater than an average width in a central region thereof and less than the width of the substrate layer, and the lateral side edges of the absorbent cores have a fuzzy or serrated configuration of laterally extending peaks and valleys defined by a P/EL greater than or equal to 1.50 and a MDMFE greater than or equal to 1.0 mm.