How We Do Cloth Diapers

I have a number of family and friends who are pregnant right now, and many of them want to know about our experience cloth diapering. So I'm sure some of you out there may be interested as well, or know someone you can share this information with. We knew we wanted to use cloth diapers, and I had been researching the options even before I was pregnant, so I had an idea of what was out there, but it was so overwhelming! In the haze of pregnancy, I spent an evening on the verge of tears on the phone with my mom stressing about diapers. I confessed to her I was more concerned about how we were going to cover baby's butt than the whole process of getting him out. HA! Yes, pregnancy hormones are a real thing and they are nothing to be messed with. The fog cleared and I went with my original plan. I'll get right down to business and if you want more detail, read on.

24 Size Newborn Cloth-eez Prefolds

12 Size Small Cloth-eez Prefolds

4 Thirsties Duo Wrap Covers

3 Snappis

14 BumGenius 4.0 Snap Diapers

Cloth wipes I made with flannel

2 Planet Wise Large Wet bags & 1 smaller one for travel

~I washed the Prefolds & Covers with Purex Free & Clear. Warm pre-wash, Hot wash with detergent, extra rinse. Hung the covers and wet bags to dry, everything else in the dryer on Perm Press.

~I wash the BumGenius diapers with Nellie's All Natural Laundry Soda. Cold pre-wash, Hot wash with detergent, extra rinse. Hang the diapers to dry and wet bags to dry, everything else in the dryer on Perm Press.

~If there are a number of extra nasty diapers, I will add a little detergent to the pre-wash cycle.

~If a diaper is still poop colored after washing, an afternoon in the sun removes the stain.

~I do diaper laundry about every other day. When I get down to two clean diapers, I wash. Sometimes the timing is weird and we supplement one of the prefolds or a spare disposable.

~The Duo Wraps dry within a couple hours, quicker if they are in the sun or a breezy spot. In a pinch I've thrown them in the dryer for just a couple minutes.

~The BumGenius diapers dry in an afternoon outside or overnight inside. We have a cool drying rack my dad found that fits them all and works great.

~The wet bags take longer to dry indoors - a day or two, but they are always ready by the time we need one.

If that's all the info you wanted, carry on. If you would like to know more, here you go….

We used disposables for the first two weeks. The real concern was getting through the nasty meconium stage. If you absolutely want to use cloth from the start, I'd recommend a disposable liner so that the tar poop doesn't ruin your diapers.

**SIDE NOTE** Our midwife gave us the most spectacular advice: Rub coconut oil on baby's bum during diaper changes and the meconium will slide right off. It's true! No need to use multiple wipes to scrape that stuff off, oil up that bum and get on with your day. **

Around two weeks old we started the cloth diapers. We used Cloth-eez Prefolds from Green Mountain Diaper in the Newborn size. Liam was back up to birth weight of 7 lbs, 11 oz at that time and the newborn size fit until he was about 11 lbs + at 2 months. At that point we were also using the Small size in the mix for nights and naps when he needed more absorbency. We used Thirsties Duo Wrap covers in Size One with all the prefolds.

**SIDE NOTE** If you go the disposable path, do yourself a favor and get a couple of the Duo Wraps. It's like a rite of passage in parenthood to clean up a blow-out but it's not necessary! We don't have problems with the cloth diapers but I don't trust the disposables we use while traveling. So we put a Duo Wrap over the disposable and voila! - no blow-outs. And trust me, there have been a bunch of diapers that would have completely ruined Liam's outfit and spoiled the day of whoever was holding him at the time. Totally worth the $12 investment to grab a couple of them, plus they look cute. **

When Liam hit 2 months old and was over 11 lbs, we switched him to BumGenius 4.0 snap diapers. He probably could have started those sooner, but the prefolds were still doing their job and I needed to buy different detergent for the BumGeniuses so I was waiting. We love these diapers! I would happily do prefolds for the rest of his diapering life, but the biggest improvement with the BumGenius is the moisture wicking liner fabric - the inserts can be soaked through but Liam's buns stay nice and dry. The snap adjustments make it easy to get a good fit and they are as easy to change as disposables. The adjustments also mean Liam can wear these diapers until he is ready for the big boy potty. Awesome!

We use the normal insert during the day and add the additional newborn insert for bedtime sleeping. I haven't had issues with absorbency, but the beauty of our diaper system is that if Liam ever needs something extra inside the diaper, his old prefolds work just like another insert.

Today I decided to adjust the rise on the height of the diapers. Liam is 4 months old and over 15 lbs with chubby thighs. BumGenius recommends changing to the middle rise around 16 lbs but it can vary depending on the size and shape of every baby, so Liam seems to be falling right in line with that. You can see in that picture above how it is pulling a little in the middle - time to extend!

Before he was born, I put my serger to good use and made 50 cloth wipes from leftover flannel. I just cut squares about 8X8 and serged the edges. I made some double sided, but the single ply has worked just fine. If you are cloth diapering, it only makes sense to use cloth wipes - you just throw them right in with the rest of the laundry and never run out. You can purchase cloth wipes or use wash cloths, but making them was really simple and free for me.

We keep a squirt bottle with water next to his change pad to wet the wipes. When he was younger we would spray right on the wipe, but now Liam gets a kick out of spraying his bum. I tried an aloe, tea tree, soap mixture, but something in that seemed to irritate his bottom so we have just been using water. Most experts recommend water for the first few months anyway to keep the sensitive skin happy.

We use two wet bags in rotation .. one gets washed with the diapers and hung to dry while the other one starts the cycle of filling up with diapers over again. They contain the stink and keep things dry. We had intentions of hanging them up but couldn't find a good spot or system, so they just sit between the dresser and trashcan on the ground and that has worked well for four months so I assume we'll just keep it that way.

Did I miss anything? Do you have any questions? Do you now know more about cloth diapers than you ever wanted to? Great! Not a super interesting post, but hopefully helpful!

Twins!

Do you remember Magic Nursery Dolls?

I received a Magic Nursery Baby when I was younger and after submerging her nightie in water to reveal what, exactly, she was, I shouted "It's a twin!" {By the way .. how weird was that concept?!} My parents didn't believe me, despite the fact that I was an excellent reader and 'twin' is really not a hard word. Did they think I was lying? Making it up? Delusional? Mom, Dad, can you weigh in? All I remember is, they didn't believe it. But I GOT TWINS! And by the way, my babies did not have gorgeous hair. My twin arrived in the mail and I was such a lucky Magic Nursery mommy.

All that to say ... I made quilts for twins :)

I used the same fabrics for both - Loulouthi + blue, yellow, and two pink solids. I've been in love with triangles lately and really enjoyed making two sweet little tops with loads of them. I didn't really have any plan in mind, both the tops are fairly randomly pieced, only making sure there was a nice balance.

I bound one in the dark pink, the other in the light. I did straight quilting on each side of the seams, forming larger triangles of quilting. 

I also used two different flannel backs, both from the Loulouthi line as well. 

I don't know if these baby girls have been born yet, but I do know that their parents adored the quilts and I hope they provide lots of beauty and comfort for many years to come! 

Ava's Quilt

{side-bar intro: Holy guacamole! Where did April go?! Sorry I've been absent - but I've been hard at work, and I'm working on a bunch of posts to catch up, so don't worry!}

This quilt is for baby Ava, who was born shortly before Easter. I wanted something simple but beautiful, so I decided on a giant log cabin made from other quilt blocks. I also opted for a few solids to really make the other fabric (Anna's Loulouthi) pop.

The center is a 16-patch of {I believe} 2" finished squares.

I added in a few flying geese along the thiner blue border, and half-square triangles along the top and bottom of the border.

I tried quilted letters for the first time to incorporate her name, which is not only so sweet, but also nice and short ;-) I quilted around the letters, and slightly wonky lines around the borders of the rest of the quilt.

I bound the quilt with this watermelon colored voile, which put the softest finishing touch on the quilt. 

The finished quilt was something like 40" square. And since I don't seem to have a photo of the back, you'll have to believe it is a polka dotty flannel (you can kind of see them shining through in that top photo). I washed it before gifting and it crinkled up so cozy. I hope Ava enjoys her quilt for years to come! 

Bitty Sewing

I have a few small sewing things to knock out before I get to work on a full nursery and I was happy to accomplish a good bit today before work.

First, a baby quilt for my dad's co-worker. The family is from India but their upcoming daughter will be an American citizen, making it easier for the rest of the family to become citizens as well. To signify that, my dad requested a bit of red, white & blue, but I couldn't help but go all out and do the whole quilt in that color scheme, with a lot of pink thrown in for good girly measure. And of course, that cute little flag block.

The quilt top is finished, I need to get more batting and maybe backing before I quilt it.

My friend Leann asked me to sew some things for a friend who is having a baby boy. Today I worked on shoes, tomorrow it will be bibs and burpers.

I love these fabrics for little boys, they are so fun like a circus. 

I got distracted by my music selection today and accidentally sewed in the wrong lining, so they are a little mismatched, but I think it works for these shoes. 

Tomorrow I hope to make a Joann's run and then spend the day sewing. I have a long list of to-do's, but I feel like I'll be able to crank them out! 

Warning: Chain Piecing May Lead to Quilts

There's nothing I love more than charm packs ...

... and scraps ...

... stitched into rows ...

... combined with other rows ...

... until suddenly you have three new quilt tops that took virtually no time at all!

Two of these (top) will be for sale online while the other one (bottom) is for my dad's co-worker. But I kind of love that one so much I might recreate it to sell. Thoughts?

I still have to figure out how I want to quilt these, I basted them all with backing so now they are just waiting around. I'm debating between random diagonal lines or straight echo lines, but not stippling. Or maybe straight diagonal lines corner to corner. Stippling is always so much quicker, but I like the fluffiness created by straight lines. Or maybe I'll try something different on each one. Thoughts? :)

Have a good day!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Curt & I spent Christmas in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with his family. We all stayed in a rental for the week in honor of his grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. 

We were right on the beach, which was strange since it was very freezing cold all week.

The beach is littered with these houses and hotels the colors of sherbet, a stark contrast to the wet sand and bleak winter skies. 

Sadly, a lot of these older hotels are literally being washed away into the ocean, held back only by these sandbags. 

But would you look at those colors?! 

Curt's uncle brought along a tree, which we decorated with handmade ornaments and bows, carefully cut snowflakes, and a popcorn and cranberry garland. It was very sweet and really turned the beach house into a special Christmas getaway. 

This little guy woke everyone up nice and early Christmas morning; it was fun to share Christmas with little kids again - they make the day a little more magical. 

These two had the honor of passing out presents to everyone. Among the gifts were a new camera, a Nook ebook reader, a new hat & scarf set, and plenty of toys for the little ones. 

I gifted Curt's family with this quilt I've been working on. Sorry I don't have better pictures, I'm working on obtaining some more. I finished the binding while we were there and never got a chance (aka I forgot) to take pictures of it in it's entirety. 

Curt's mom also got an iPad, so I now I will be making a sleeve for that.

We had a great time with Curt's family, we don't get to see them a lot, so it was nice to have time to catch up. We even got to meet the newest cousin for the first time, even though he was born way back in May. 

Because of impending snow storms, we all packed up and left the house on Christmas day. We headed up to Pennsylvania, which turned out to be a nightmare of a drive due to bad directions. After about 12 hours of driving we made it to our destination and called it a night (although it was really morning!) We spent a couple days with Curt's grandma and great aunt before heading back to Nashville. 

Overall we drove something like 37 hours and I have never been so sick of a car in my life! I was overjoyed to be home again, back to work, and back to my normal schedule. 

Since we were with Curt's family, we missed out on the fun in Michigan with my families, including this little cutie in the pants I made for him - yet another pair of Quick Change Trousers from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings. 

The pants are made from a burgundy corduroy shirt and a plaid shirt, both thrifted. When I saw the plaid shirt I knew it would be perfect for Christmas pants. The vest was already picked out, so it was a match made in heaven. The booty panel on the pants is the same plaid, and corduroy on the plaid reverse. I had plenty of fabric left over so I made the matching plaid bow-tie. I'm so glad to see it all fit and matched, making the sweetest outfit for his first Christmas! 

Hopefully I'll be getting more pictures of our holiday from other family members and I'll be sure to share those too! 

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and enjoy your New Year's Eve bashes! I have to work but hope to join a friends' party just before the ball drops. At the very least, I'll be able to give my honey a midnight kiss and make a wish for a wonderful 2011! 

Christmas is Coming

Are you ready for Christmas?

To be honest, it snuck up on me this year. Thanksgiving came and went and life took over, and all of the sudden Christmas is days away!

We decorated a little - the tree, stockings (not yet hung in this photo), and a few Christmas knick knacks around the house. We aren't home much to enjoy the decorations, but these are just enough to get us in the spirit. Curt fought hard for a real tree, but after seeing how expensive they were (not so in Anderson, Indiana!) we decided to go without. We were both bummed about it, and I couldn't let Curt go without a tree so I searched high & low on Craigslist and found a fake tree for cheap. Now we have a perfect little tree for years to come!

Wouldn't it be cool if this was our house decorated like this?! 

It's not, but it's in our neighborhood, and to be honest, it's kind of an eyesore. During the day all those blow-up decorations are just dead carcasses in the yard, which is a little freaky. 

The car was zooming too fast to get a good shot in the dark, but you get the idea! The lights really are pretty. 

Nashville got hit with a snow storm last week. It wasn't so much a snow storm as it was a few flurries, but the whole city shut down for a couple days.

This hill next to our house proved to be a big problem for those who live at the top after it all turned to ice. Curt and I spent a substantial amount of time at this window, watching cars try to make it up the hill. 

That Sunday I went into work and shut the store down because of the impending weather. I live about 3 miles from my work, but it took me two hours to get home because of all the idiot drivers on the icy roads. My Michigan training and all-wheel drive served me well, but I watched a few cars come within inches of mine because the drivers didn't know how to handle the situation. I took the above picture while stuck on the road waiting for cars to be pushed out of the intersection. Our neighborhood is that intersection. I sat there, 100 yards away from our neighborhood, for a good 30 minutes. It was such a relief to finally make it home safe before anyone crashed into our car!

In last minute Christmas preparations, packages have been sent. 

Presents for my mom and Christmas pants for baby Nicholas plus a little extra surprise. I didn't take any pictures, so I'll have to wait until his mommy sends me some to share them. 

Here we are on Thanksgiving - he's wearing another pair of pants I made. They looked adorable, and since I knew what he would be wearing, I though a little coordination was in order :) 

Hope your Christmas plans are all falling into place. Are there any last minute things you still need to do? Good luck!

Small Things for a Small Human

I've been itching to try Anna Maria Horner's Quick Change Trousers and finally had the perfect excuse when my cousin commissioned a few items for her son Nicholas. 

I combined some fabric in my stash with some new fabric and came up with these adorable (and reversible!) pants: 

The best thing about handmade clothing is that it is custom, meaning skinny little babies like Nicholas can have a pair of pants that fit!

Nicholas received these just as he turned 4 months, but I actually made the 0-3 month size from the book and reduced the elastic length by a few inches. 

{please excuse the crazy colors - that lime green was hard to photograph!}

I hear they fit him perfectly, right now his legs are 11" long, which is the rolled-up length, according to the book. The book recommends measuring baby's waist to ensure a proper fit, and this was definitely necessary for Nicholas. 

The pattern was very easy to follow, which seems to be the theme with Anna Maria's patterns. The pants went together quickly, the directions made sense, and after the first pair, they are easy to whip up from memory. 

We (Stacey, Nicholas, and I) were so happy with the final product that we thought a pair of Thanksgiving pants were in order!

Corduroy pants will be perfect for Thanksgiving in Michigan and the reverse lining on these is really soft. 

The booty panel reminds me of turkey feathers and I love the earthy tones. The corduroy itself came from a pair of thrifted J.Crew pants. It felt a little crazy cutting them up, but I was able to make one pair out of one leg, making it frugal to sew these baby pants out of high quality fabric.

The reverse is a brick red color, not exactly what's portrayed in the photos, but it's a perfect Thanksgiving color.

The back has a small navy blue gingham panel. Cute, yes? 

I'm still trying to figure out what elastic-wasted pants I should wear to Thanksgiving this year :) 

Nicholas also needed some lightweight caps to wear. It's not cold enough for fleece in Michigan yet, so these jersey knit caps are just the ticket. Cool enough to wear in an indoor environment, cozy enough to wear out and about while running errands. 

I used this tutorial from Sew Liberated. The tutorial was great but for whatever reason, my sewing machine refused to cooperate with the knit fabric. I tried a jersey ball point needle, a regular needle, different sizes, it seemed like no matter what I did, it was skipping zig zag stitches - very annoying! Any suggestions? It worked fine on the straight stitches, just decided to boycott the zig zags. 

We are enjoying the nice weather in Nashville for the next few days before heading up to chilly Michigan for Thanksgiving. Do you have any special holiday plans? 


[ETA: Stacey just posted a photo of Nicholas in his pants on their blog, so I stole it so you can all ooh and ahh over the cutie!]