Cloth Diapering
Spring Market, Michael Miller PUL and the Green Beginnings Cloth Diaper
Those of you who sew cloth diapers are going to love this news! Michael Miller Fabrics is releasing PUL! Excellent quality PUL in adorable Michael Miller prints! How cool is that?! I think those of you who don’t sew cloth diapers are going to love this PUL, too, though. It’s the perfect fabric for anything that needs to be waterproof, it has a great soft drape and feel to it, and it’s so easy to work with.
Michael Miller Fabrics had the cutest booth at Spring Market. My booth was right across from them.
The circus theme was so much fun, and there were elephants! No, not real elephants, but huge, adorably dressed almost-lifelike elephants.
And inside their booth, there was a really cute brochure that looked something like this:
I told you, didn’t I? Such cute prints. Can you already see these on your little one’s bum? Oh, the patterns? Why, yes, they are Fishsticks Designs patterns. The Mama & Baby Bag and the Which Way Out Jacket, and one of my brand new patterns: The Green Beginnings Cloth Diaper!
I was so excited by how many people at Quilt Market wanted to hear all about cloth diapering! I am sure that I talked cloth diapering as much as I chatted about my patterns. (I’m a huge advocate of cloth-diapering, in case you didn’t already know that, and I’m thrilled to see it becoming so much more mainstream!)
My goal in creating this diaper pattern was a little out of the ordinary for me. Usually, when I create a pattern, I try to give you lots of options. This pattern, though, I geared towards moms who are sewing their first cloth diapers, and I kept it really simple. The instructions include a whole page of diaper sewing tips–many are things that I’ve learned through my years of experience sewing cloth diapers, and the rest are suggestions from my amazing team of testers.
The Green Beginnings Cloth Diaper is a pocket diaper in sizes newborn to large. It has a trim fit through the crotch and bum, and a slightly raised back with a scooped front. The uncased leg elastic coupled with an absorbent soaker that is slightly narrower than the width of the diaper also creates a faux gusset at the legs to make this diaper a star when it comes to leak protection. My testers have given me great feedback, and Morgan and I both love it on Katie and Charlie. I can’t wait to hear how you and your little ones like it, too!
A quick note: All of the new patterns that I’m going to be introducing over the next week or so will be released at the same time. I mentioned before that I have a few things to finish up, and I want to make sure that my retailers all have the patterns on hand (or on their sites, in the case of pdf patterns). I’m shooting for Tuesday, June 5th, but I’ll keep you updated through my blog and my Facebook page!
Our Current Cloth Diaper Stash
I love sharing our cloth diaper love with other moms. This morning when I picked Charlie up from the church nursery, a couple of moms asked me about his diapers, and I shared with them that I sew my own and offered my business card so they could check out my blog for more information on the patterns that I use. When I got home, though, I realized that I haven’t even blogged about Charlie’s medium diaper stash! So, here you go. These are the ones that we use for church and my current favorite diaper.
These are made from the La-Di-Da pattern which you can find here: La-Di-Da Diapers. You can also find licensed seamstresses there who can sew for you, if you don’t sew yourself. We have a total of 15 medium La-Di-Da All-in-Two (AI2) diapers in our current stash (12 made my me and 3 sewn for us by Melanie of Canadian Cloth).
The remainder of our medium daytime stash consists of six side-snapping Darling Diaper AI2s. I made these, too, and I especially love the four embroidered ones. You can find the Darling Diaper Unlimited Pattern here: DDU. There’s also a free newborn pattern on the Darling Diapers site which I love for the newborn stage: DDNB.
For nighttime, we’re using a variety of fitted diapers with wool covers. I’ll have to post more on those later . . . got to get back to working on my newest patterns!
Adding a Gusset to the Little One Layette
The Little One Layette pattern was designed with a little extra room for cloth diapered babies, but not all babies and not all cloth diapers are alike—some just need a little more extra room. Adding a gusset piece to the pants or Jamie Jumper will give some extra space for bulkier cloth diapers or just more growing room.
Here, you can see how the gusset gives some extra room through the crotch without having to make adjustments to the body of the jumper or pants. If you’re adding the gusset piece, however, you will have to add an inch to the length of the legs because the gusset pulls the legs up a bit.
You can find the gusset pattern and tutorial here: Gusset Tutorial. (The link inside the tutorial for the pattern is broken. Click here instead to download the pattern: Gusset Pattern.
If you’ve never sewn in a gusset before, it make take a little practice to get it sewn in straight and even. The pants are a quick-sew, so I recommend trying it out on them first, then moving on the the Jamie Jumper.
As always, if you have any questions, leave a comment or drop me an email, and I’ll get back with you as soon as I can!
Little Lambs Diaper Shower Set
The double baby shower was last night, so I can post the set that I made for the second mom now. Oh, and I happened to hear that she did read my blog post about the first mom’s set and almost convinced herself not to scroll down and see if hers was posted, too. Hee-hee . . . I’m so glad I kept it a surprise!
This mom uses cloth diapers, so I had a great time sewing diapers and knitting soakers for her. She also sticks to natural fabrics like cotton, hemp and wool because of her children’s allergies.
I recycled two 100% cotton knit receiving blankets into four fitted diapers for her using the free Darling Diapers Newborn Pattern.
And, I knit her two soakers (wool diaper covers). For this first one, I used the free Snapdragon Soaker Pattern and Mosiac Moon’s Coastal Sunset colorway on Cestari.
I knit the second soaker using the Frantic Mama Soaker Pattern which also happens to be available free. (Both soaker patterns are quick and easy to follow and produce really nice results!) The yarn is this one is Purewool in their Omekua colorway.
I think both moms really liked the sets that I created for them. I can’t wait to see their new babies wearing them!
Diaper Bag Set for Mom and Baby
Yep, still pregnant and trying to stay busy until it’s time. Little bit really needed a diaper bag. I bought the fabric for it quite some time ago (Bloom and Grow by Riley Blake), but I hadn’t found just the right pattern. I know I could have made one up–I actually started to a few times, but sometimes, you just want someone else to do all the thinking for you. Yesterday, I happened on the Ladybug Diaper Bag pattern from Sew Spoiled and fell in love!
The pattern is a downloadable pdf, so I was able to get started right away. I spent most of the day working on it yesterday. (I actually thought maybe all the up and down, standing to sitting, that making an involved bag requires might help get labor started. It didn’t work.) I purchased my copy of the pattern from the website YouCanMakeThis.com. They have a 20% off code that is good through today: SUPERSALE.
I did make a few modifications, not because there was anything wrong with the pattern, but more to make the bag exactly what I wanted. I’ll detail those as I go.
Here’s the front. The biggest modification that I made was taking 3″ off of the width. I tend to be pretty minimalistic in the things that I pack in the diaper bag, so a slightly smaller one works well for us (yes, even with cloth diapers). I also brought the magnetic snap on the front down about an inch. I wanted it to close a little more tightly than the one in the picture on the website.
And, the back. I did two elasticized pockets here as the pattern recommends.
Here’s another modification that was really easy to make–a little “hidden” pocket on one of the side panels for my cell phone.
Inside, I added a divider to make it a mom & baby bag. Here’s the mom side with a couple of pockets for business cards, a pen, etc. I left out the zippered pocket, but now I wish I’d maybe put it in the divider.
Here’s baby’s side with three elasticized pockets instead of the two that the pattern calls for.
The pattern was really easy to follow and understand. The pictures of each step were great! If you’ve purchased any of my patterns, you probably already know how much I appreciate pictures of each step. I think they make getting a great result from a pattern so much easier.
A few of my favorite things about the pattern itself: The look of the front of the bag is so unique and really attractive. The small flap closure makes getting in and out of the bag quick and easy, but still provides some protection for the contents inside. The adjustable strap is awesome for going from shoulder to stroller–you could even add some length to the strap to make it long enough to go across your body, if you like to wear your bags that way. Adding iron-on interfacing to both the inner and outer pieces (although it does take awhile to iron it on) makes a really nice finished bag that stands up on it’s own (a great feature in a diaper bag).
Since this will be my “purse” for awhile after baby arrives, I just had to add a matching wallet and key fob. The wallet pattern can be found at Wired Up Designs.
I’m so excited about using my new bag. I think I’ll work on adding a few more accessories while I wait for baby . . . a changing pad, a wet bag . . . hmmm . . . what else?
Sock Monkeys and Elephants for Our Little Guy
Ah, the waiting . . . It’s interesting that when I reflect on the things that I’ve learned in life, I see how much God has taught me about waiting, yet I still find it hard to be patient and trust His timing. I am so ready for baby to be here, but so far, there’s not much sign that says it’ll be happening right away. While I wait, I’m relaxing a lot and really enjoying my new-found love of knitting! It’s so nice to have a hobby that I can do while I have my feet up (in hopes that I might actually have ankles again someday).
This little sock monkey set was inspired by the sweater in the picture below. I didn’t knit the sweater–it was actually a gift from a very sweet friend. When it arrived in my mail, I knew right away that I wanted to make a whole set to go with it!
I started with embroidering a sock monkey on a newborn-size laptee (from my Little One Layette pattern). Then I added a pair of knitted Picky Pants longies in newborn and, of course, every little sock monkey needs a hat!
The longies, hat and sweater were all knit with Patons Classic Wool which is readily available at craft stores like Michaels and Joann, and is a great wool to start with if you’re just learning to knit!
Then there’s the Eliott Elephant set. It’s entirely possible that I’ve been daydreaming about this set since I found out that we’re having a new little boy. The elephant fabric is so cute! I made this one in size 0-3 months with small Picky Pants, so it might not fit right away. The yarn was custom-dyed by the very talented Tasha of Eva Baby Designs on BFL.
I had plenty of the coordinating Eliott striped knit, so I also made a matching hat and a pair of knit pants (from my LOL pattern, as well).
Now, I just need this baby boy to come out so he can try out these clothes that I’ve been working so hard to create just for him! I know, patience, mama–baby will come when it’s time . . .
Diapers, Diapers and More Diapers . . . and they’re all cloth!
It’s getting close to time to welcome our new little one! We love using cloth diapers, and I especially enjoy sewing them myself. I’ve actually been working on diapers since not long after we found out that we were expecting. There are so many patterns available now, and they all have advantages. I thought I’d show off our newborn stash now, and then, as we try out each pattern on baby, I’ll report back with feedback.
I tried to make our newborn diapers from prints that are gender neutral so that they can be used again for another baby.
I also used knit fabrics to make all of these. The stretch in the fabric will help them to fit longer than if I used woven fabrics.
In case you’re counting, that makes a total of 40 newborn fitted diapers and 12 covers. I also have quite a few smalls finished, but I’ll save those for another post. Aren’t these adorable, though? If you’ve never tried cloth, you really should give a go. I promise they’re much easier to use and care for than you think they are!
