Day 3: DIY Flats and Covers

Today is day three of Dirty Diaper Laundry's Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  Today is an open topic day and this wouldn't be a crafting blog if I didn't cover some ways that you can DIY your flats and cover stash.  I purchased (or borrowed) a lot of the items I am using for the challenge but if you want to save some money you could easily sew a lot of items yourself. 

 

Flats

You can turn almost any absorbent materials into a flat!  Old Cotton or Flannel sheets can be easily cut up into the desired size (27x27 inches is standard) and then turn under the edge and sew or serge the edges.  Diaper Sewing Supplies sews beautiful bamboo terry material that would make soft and luxurious flats (I use the bamboo terry for all the diaper inserts I make).  In a pinch you can also cut the arms and neck off of a T-shirt and have two flats.  The beauty of the T-shirt flats is that they don't require any sewing to finish the edges because the material won't fray.  One of the things that I did DIY for the challenge is "half flats" (I just made up this name).  I wanted something that I could use as a doubler without having the bulkiness of actually using a second flat so I cut some of the flats that I had in half, serged the edges and they have worked great so far as doublers.

 

Covers

 

After buying some covers and not being thrilled with the choices I decided to make some of my own.  I used a free pattern that I found online that included front snaps as well as front and back flaps to hold my pad folded flats in place.  The tutorial and pattern are actually really good and I made two covers out of PUL that I had already.  These covers are now my favorite out of the 7 covers that I have.  For each cover they took approximately 1.5 hours to complete and cost me about $8 each. 

 

Accessories

Some of the accessories that I either had or made for the challenge included cloth wipes and fleece liners.  I love using cloth wipes and I make mine with one side terry cloth and one side flannel.  These so far have been easy to handwash but they are very slow to dry since they are thick.  If I was making wipes just for handwashing I would probably just do one layer of terry cloth and serge the edges.  I normally use disposable diapers on my daughters at night but in preparation for the Challenge and my Flats trial I actually started using my flats on them at night.  Because I didn't want them to feel the wetness for 12 hours at night while sleeping I cut some fleece liners.  I have micro fleece remnants from making diapers and I just cut them large enough so that I can wrap them around a pad folded flat. 

These are my favorite DIY crafts for the challenge and I like most of them so much I plan on using them as part of my regular stash even after the challenge.

Day 2: My Flats and Covers Stash

Whew! I survived the first day of Dirty Diaper Laundry's Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  It was easy using flats and the first night of hand washing them wasn't as bad as I expected.  As I commented yesterday, I enjoy trying different diapers and therefore have a lot of different kinds in my normal stash.  I tried not to buy a lot of diapers for this challenge but I also wanted to try a few different kinds of flats so that when I did my trial I could have different ones to compare.  I especially wanted to make sure that I had traditional flats, speciality flats and then other materials that are used by a lot of people as a flat (e.g. Flour Sack Towels and Receiving blankets).

 

The Flats in my “Stash”

I have heard a lot about using Flour Sack Towels (“FST”) by people that want to cloth diaper but also save money.  I actually have a ton of these in my house because I love to use them to dry dishes but I bought a set of 5 at Wal-Mart to use specifically for the Challenge and my Diaper Trial.  They cost $5 for a set of 5 towels, so $1 per flat.

I have also heard people recommend using receiving blankets that you already have laying around the house.  Most people find that (especially once baby is a little older) they have an excess of receiving blankets.  I wanted to try these out as well so that I could compare to the actual flats that I would be using.  I had a pack of 5 that were still in the package.  I found them a few months ago while cleaning out my daughters closet and realized they would be perfect for the challenge.  I looked up the price and they are about $10 for a set of 5, so $2 per flat.

Next I knew I wanted some traditional flats to try out.  I had heard in a lot of CD chat groups, blogs and message boards that Osocozy makes great birdseye flats, so I knew that Osocozy flats had to be included in the trial.  I have 12 Ososcozy birdseye flats that cost about $2 each. 

Last I wanted to try some bamboo flats, especially for night time.  I love bamboo inserts for my diapers and because I have not previously used cloth diapers on my girls at night I knew that bamboo for night would be necessary.  I have 2 Imagine Bamboo Flats that are $26 for a set of 6, or about $4.33 each. 

 

The Covers in my “Stash”

As I said, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on flats and covers that I may not use again so for my covers I used 2 that I had already, borrowed 2, bought 1 and made 2 more, for 7 total covers.

 

I already owned a Thirsties cover size Medium ($10) and a Bummis cover size small ($13).  I purchases a Sweet Pea Cover ($11) about a month before the Challenge.  From a friend I borrowed a Blueberry Capri Cover ($17) and a Thirsties Size 1 cover ($11).  Lastly I made two covers from PUL that I had already from other diaper projects but all the materials for (about $8 each).

 

All together I have 24 different squares of material that can be used as flats (plus 4 “half flats” that I will cover tomorrow) and 7 covers.  After the first day I would say that this is more than plenty flats and covers if you are washing every day (which is easier when hand washing).  In total, if you bought everything at full price, the cost of the stash I am using is $125. 

 

Day 1: My Top 5 Reasons to Take the Flats and Handwashing Challenge

 

This is the first year that I will be participating in the flats and hand washing challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. Leading up to the challenge I have had very mixed emotion.  One on hand I am terrified that I won’t be able to keep up or finish, on the other hand I love a good challenge.  There are many reasons that I decided to participate this year but here are the 5 biggest reasons that I will be taking “the Challenge”.

Can I do it?
One of the biggest reasons that I wanted to participate this year is just to challenge myself and see if I can do it.  I love to test myself and put myself out there to try new things.  I always figure that if I can do it anyone can do it, so hopefully my success will inspire others as well.

Hand washing as a working mother
I am a mother of two young girls and I also work “part time” (30 hours a week) so a big part of my interest in taking on the challenge is seeing if a working mother can handwash diapers.  I always tell people when promoting cloth diapers that the washing isn’t very difficult so I am curious how I will feel about handwashing and keeping up with my busy schedule.

I’m spoiled!
I realize this isn’t the most flattering thing to call yourself but the reality is that when it comes to cloth diapers I am spoiled.  I love to buy new diapers and thankfully my husband enables supports my addiction so I have quite a few diapers in my normal stash.  I wash every other day but sometimes don’t even fold my diapers and put them away until a weeks’ worth have accumulated. Cost savings is not one of the reason that I cloth diaper, it’s just a side benefit, so I wanted to better understand the perspective of a lot of cloth diapers users that have a minimalist stash.

I have never used flats before
I have pretty much every diaper style out there in the past year with the exception of flats, so I was really curious just to try them.  I started about a month early so that I could also do my diaper trial on the flats I will be using (results to be posted later this week) and I am surprised how much I really like them, especially for night.

Spread awareness
I am always surprised how little awareness there is for cloth diapers when it comes to diaper shortages for low income families.  I want people to know that there are other options and that you can provider better diapers for your child for very little money.  If just one family decides to cloth diaper because of my involvement in this Challenge I will consider it a huge success!

 

I hope everyone is excited as I am to try out flats and experience hand washing this week.  I appreciate your support this week and I hope you enjoy my posts.

DIY No-Rinse Facial Cleansing Cloths

If you have been following my blog for a little bit or know me personally you know how much I love using cloth wipes on my girls for diaper changes.  Every morning when I wipe a cold and wet disposable facial cleansing cloth across my face I think about those nice soft and warm wipes in my girls wipes warmers.  I have been telling myself for months that when my older daughter potty learns that I will take her wipes warmer and make my own wipes, but I just couldn't wait anymore!

 

A few weeks ago I purchased a travel size wipes warmer, borrowed some of the girls wipes and started experimenting with my own facial solution.  My goals were to keep it simple and to make a solution that I don't have to rinse off. 

 

The Ingredients

I did a lot of research about what ingredients I should put in my wipes solution including research on the Internet and also asked my local health food store.  I wanted something that was good for my combination (and acne prone) skin and something to moisturize so I included tea tree oil and coconut oil.  Tea tree oil has so many benefits including being antimicrobial and anti fungal and is a great treatment for acne.  Coconut oil is good for moisturizing your skin and can be used as a makeup remover.  Both of these are beneficial when left on the skin.  I decided to use distilled water as my base as using tap or filtered water will make the wipes smell musty.

 

 

Using My New Wipes

I "borrowed" some of my daughter's cloth wipes, mixed my solution, wet all my wipes and put them in my wipes warmer.  My small warmer only holds about 5-6 wipes so I just make enough solution for those wipes.  Since I only use one a day this lasts me about a week.  I like the cloth wipes that I make because I like to scrub my face a bit withe the terry cloth side and then wipe it down with the flannel side.  At first I tried to store extra solution in a plastic bottle, but the coconut oil separates from the water and hardens, so you have to rewarm it anyways when you want to use it.  If you don't want to use a wipes warmer you can probably just store your solution in a bottle and warm it in a sink of hot water, but I highly recommend the warmer. 

 

The Recipe

Over the past few weeks I experimented with a few different ratios in my recipe but this is what I have found to work the best.

 

1/2 cup distilled water

1 teaspoon of coconut oil

5 drops of tea tree oil

 

Combine all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and heat until warm and coconut oil is melted, about 30 seconds.   Once it has cooled a bit I like to transfer mine to a squirt bottle and shake.  I then wet my wipes one by one by placing them in the warmer and squirting the solution on them until thoroughly wet.  The warmer will keep the coconut oil melted and feels so nice in the morning :).

 

Enjoy! 

 

Earth Day: 5 Changes for a Better Earth

Today is Earth Day so I wanted to cover some Earth friendly changes I have made in the past year.  Since starting cloth diapering a little over a year ago, I have definitely become more aware of other areas in our life where we can reduce the waste, and reuse what we have.  As Earth Day approached I was reflecting on the different ways that our family has made changes in the past year that are Earth friendly.  We have done a good job of focusing on the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle principles and have seen a significant reduction in the amount of garbage we produce and sometimes we even skip garbage collection day!  Here are 5 changes that we have made in the past year:

 

 

1. Cloth Diapers and Cloth Wipes

I guess this one is pretty obvious one since a lot of my personal time and blogging time is devoted to cloth diapers now.  I estimate that using cloth diaper and cloth wipes on two kids for the past year has kept over 5000 diapers and approximately 6500 wipes out of landfills!!!  I was amazed when I did the math especially because this is just one year.  I of course love using my cloth diapers and wipes for a lot of different reasons, but reduction in waste is a big one.

 

2. Unpaper Towels

I did a pretty tutorial review on unpaper towels when I made a set for a friend but in reality, for myself, I just use cheap dish towels (approximately 9 for $3 at Wal-Mart).  I keep them folded in a drawer and normally just use them once before laundering.  They are great for wiping up spills, cleaning my girl's faces and hands after meals and just cleaning up any mess.  I have noticed the paper towel consumption decrease drastically in our house and I don't even remember the last time that I bought paper towels (we do keep some on hand for grease spills or other things that you don't want to put in your washer).  If you wanted to make your own it would be easy to just finish the edges (serge or turn and stitch) of some terry cloth, approximately 9x11 inches.

 

3. Reusable Sandwich Bags

This is a recent change for us but I really love it.  After trying out my sandwich bags for the tutorial I made a bunch and now we use them for everything.  The only thing I use zippered plastic bags for now is if something is really messy (e.g. peaches), things that need to be air tight or things that will go in the freezer.

 

4. Recycle

While recycling is not new to my family, this year I have spent more time checking to see if something is recyclable.  In the past I knew my spaghetti sauce jar and newspaper were recyclable but now I am looking up items to see if they are recyclable, so we have drastically increased the amount of items that we recycle (its a good thing we have a new big recycle bin).

 

5.  Reusable Shopping Bags

This is a new one for me and its the one I struggle with the most.  Its not that have an objection to using these shopping bags, it's purely a matter of remembering to bring them to the store.  This is definitely one area that I will be working on between now and next Earth Day.

 

To get your Earth Day started off right I am doing a give away for an Earth Day Starter Pack (not a real thing, I just made it up) that includes 2 cloth wipes, 2 serged "unpaper towels" and 1 reusable sandwich bag. 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

What Makes a Cloth Diaper Trim (or Bulky)?

When I started cloth diapering over a year ago I was obsessed with finding a trim diaper.  I had used disposables on my first daughter for 18 months and I didn’t want a huge bulky diaper on my very petite little girl.  In all of my diaper trials I have assessed the bulkiness of each diaper but what really makes a diaper bulky?  In my experience the two main factors are: crotch width and thickness of the insert used.

 

 

 

Crotch Width

One of the biggest contributors to trimness is the width of the crotch for the diaper.  Having a more narrow crotch makes it so that extra material is not bunched up between you baby's legs and therefore there is no extra bulk.  Not only does the extra material from the width contribute to the bulk but the bunching of the insert also adds to that bulkiness.  Some of the trimmest diapers that I have have very narrow crotches: Peachy Greens and Bottom Bumpers.  Of course the narrower the crotch, the less absorbent material you will have and therefore these diapers might be less absorbent.  I would not recommend Peachy Green or Bottom Bumpers (even with a booster) for overnight, but they are perfect for leggings, jeans and are just nice trim diapers.  I have compiled a listing of the crotch measurements (based on my own measurements from edge to edge) for the diaper brands that I have so that you can get an idea of how they vary.

 

 

 

 

 

Inserts

The type of material used for your inserts and the number of layers of that material vastly contribute to the trimness of the diaper.  In general I would say that minky, hemp, cotton and bamboo are the trimmest materials but of course this will depend upon the the number of layers used for each insert.  I have found that my microfiber diapers are more bulky than my natural fiber diapers.  I love the Peachy Green inserts, they are 6 layers of bamboo and I think for being so trim they are also really absorbent. 

 

What Other Factors Contributes to Diaper Trimness?

Other than the crotch width and the insert type used some other things that contribute to how trim a diaper looks is how the fabric lays, sized v.s. one size and front snapping v.s. side snapping.

Sometimes how the elastic is put into a diaper (in a casing, free, etc.), the thickness of the PUL and just the general construction of the diaper will affect how trim it look.  For example Bottom Bumpers have a very narrow crotch and a trim insert but their diapers look slightly more bulky than some other diapers (e.g. Peach Green) because of how the elastic is done and because of how the PUL lays.

Another factor is buying a sized diaper (S, M, L) verses a one size diaper.  Generally a sized diaper will be trimmer than a one size diaper unless the one size diaper is on the largest setting.  This is because the extra fabric that allows the one size diaper to extend has to go somewhere and ends up making the diaper look bulkier than the sized diaper that doesn't have any extra fabric.

The placement of the snaps can also contribute to the trim/bulky factor.  I know a lot of people find side snapping diaper to be awkward, but I love them.  I love that they have a really smooth front compared to a more bunched up look of a front snapping diaper.  While the side snapping diaper may not actually be any more trim than its front snapping counterpart, the smoothness under clothes gives the illusion that it is.

 

Of course there are many factors to consider when purchasing diapers for your baby and trimness may or may not be a factor for you.  I, of course, love having a variety of diapers for different "occasions" and some of my favorite diapers are also very trim.  What are some of your favorite trim diapers?

Enough with the Lists!!!

I know this post isn't about my normal natural parenting or crafting but writing about this has been eating away at me for a month so I finally decided to share my thoughts.

 

 

 

I love FaceBook as a tool to keep up with friends and family as well as my favorite cloth diaper resources but I am over the lists!  Every day I see a new one: 10 things not to say to a mom of multiples, 35 things not to say to a nursing mother, 64 things not to say to a parent of a specials needs child, 1, 574 things not to say to a pregnant woman.  While I understand that the purpose of these lists is to inform people that there might be a nicer way to formulate their questions what I really get out of it is that we have turned into a nation of Easily Offended Mothers.  The over prevalence of these lists, instead of encouraging a change in the way we ask questions, discourages mom's from asking each other questions, learning from our differences and communicating with each other. 

 

I 100% recognize that some people are just rude and inconsiderate and in that case you should just ignore what they have to say, but most people are just asking questions or making statements to their fellow moms to support them or learn from them.  Mom's need to recognize the intent behind the questions instead of focusing so much on how it is worded (its the thought that counts right?).  It makes me sad to think that we would let these lists break down the lines of communication between moms because we are too afraid to talk to each other out of fear of saying the wrong thing.  These lists are really just an extension of the mommy wars, instead of supporting each other we are correcting each other's approach on every possible subject.

 

So...Enough with the Lists!!!  Let's get back to being a community of moms that focus on lifting each other up, learning from ether other and celebrating our differences.  We need to stop being so easily offended and instead be the strong moms that we are!