DIY Burp Cloths, Semi-Crunchy? and a cute baby gift!

I guess you might label me semi-crunchy. I actually came across that label yesterday in a forum and as I was listening to the ladies talk about their "crunchy" status, I realized I fell in the semi-crunchy realm of the eco-friendly lifestyle.

Anyway...from what I've read, this is all about living eco-friendly and I have been striving to do that for a number of years. Let's say since my boys were about 4 & 5.

I never thought of it as a choice of anything except trying to live by what is right...trying to live as a responsible human and not take part in systematically destroying my own habitat (as well as the habitat of other important animals) like so many of us blindly do. I'm not going to formally label myself "semi-crunchy." I hate labels...they are so limiting, but it might give you an idea of where I'm coming from.

So my choosing to cloth diaper and breastfeed just falls into this type of lifestyle. I mean...it's strange to me that people look at breastfeeding the way they do: negatively, although thankfully things have changed even since my boys were babies and society is becoming more open about it. Haha, society has become more open about human mothers feeding their human babies milk from their human bodies, that was naturally formulated for their offspring.

Yet we drink milk from a cow that was naturally formulated for calves and don't blink an eye...

Strange mentality.

So anyway, how did I get on this topic?

Oh yeah, today I'm going to be sewing! Yay! I love sewing and creating, especially sewing and creating useful things.

I'm going to make burp cloths today instead of buying them at the store. Why buy them at the store, when I can make super cute ones with patterns I love right here at home?

I have a friend who is expecting at the beginning of October, another at the end of October and yet another in early September like me. In addition to that, my step-brother & his wife are expecting their first in December AND my step-sister just had twins this month!

Can you say BABY BOOM?! So funny....we've gone YEARS with no babies in our family and now this explosion. It's nuts, but delightful lunacy and Christmas is going to be awesome this year.

So I'm having a baby shower tomorrow, but my friend who is expecting in September will also be there and she says, "I need nothing. I have J's stuff from when he was a baby and my sister is giving us all of her stuff from my niece." Well, I have to get her SOMETHING and you can never have too many burp cloths, so I'm making her a few and also giving her some organic bath essentials as a gift. Something simple, but useful.

I may end up doing this for everyone I know who is having babies this year. Otherwise, I'd be totally broke by Christmas and I can't let that happen! lol Plus, it's super fun to give something you actually put your energy into.

For those who are interested and who may be new to sewing, I've found a link with a great tutorial for burp cloths. They are simple to make, but this site has great photos and it's a good step-by-step tutorial for newbies.

It's called The Hazel Bloom. You can even pin her on Pinterest or follow her on Facebook. She has recipes and all sorts of goodies.

http://www.thehazelbloom.com/2012/02/diy-burp-cloths-from-fabric-scraps/

DIY BURP CLOTHS: 

Here are some pictures of the burp cloths I made. I  made my first two based on the size mentioned in the post above, but I like mine a little bigger, so I made the last two about  9.5 x 14.

The sewing set-up! Random fabrics, 2 receiving blankets (great because they are already nice and soft and flannel is a great burp cloth fabric, plus they have cute designs, scissors, thread, pins, pencil. 

Using sewing machine or you an hand sew...sew right side to right side of each fabric. Be sure to remove your pins as you go so you don't bend/break your sewing needle (if using machine)! 

Turn right side out, being sure to pull out corners. 

(below)

One complete! I love the green plaid with the cool bird print. 

Four complete. I like using fabrics that aren't necessarily "baby." Two of these are your average quilter's cotton and two are from the artist's group in the quilting section. I love them.

BABY SHOWER GIFT USING DIY BURP CLOTHS

So the next step in this gift is to create two Peas in a Pod with washcloths and cute ribbon!

To begin...find cute washcloths. Contrary to what I was thinking when I went shopping today, you don't NEED a green washcloth, but if you find one, that'll be super cute too. :) I saw a pink set and this yellow and white set. Pink isn't my favorite, so I went with this one.

Fold the "pod" cloth as shown above and set aside. 

As shown in the next three photos, roll each of the "pea" washcloths. 

Roll from one end, being sure you roll in the direction where the loose corner was on your first roll. This will secure it. 

Tack with needle and thread.

 Ta-da!

Two perfect peas. ;-) 

Place in folded "pod" washcloth. You may need to adjust the fold of the "pod," so that it fits around the peas securely. 

Tie each end with ribbon and voila! 

Two peas in a pod washcloth set. 

I wrapped ribbon around the burp cloths, with a cute little tag. 

I added a few other goodies...natural bath shampoo and lotion, pacifiers and a rubber ducky that lets mama know if the water is a good temperature for the baby. The washcloth set I bought had a cute froggy with it, so he's tucked in under the burp cloths. 

I couldn't resist this cute box to wrap it all in. 

Now, to make burp cloths for my own baby! 

Diaper station set up.

Well, I have everything ready for little one when she arrives. I even have a basket with 12 diapers ready for the first day. (Second photo)

The other basket is for extras and the second shelf has extra covers.

I found the coolest boutique in my neighborhood! It's called Lollibeans Boutique. They have tons of cloth diaper essentials and lots of cool organic stuff. I'm so excited. I'll for sure be back to shop. I left them my number to call me when they get the snap-eez in. I love that I'll be able to support a local small business.

Oh...I have her things ready for the big day! The drive home from the hospital. Of course I've included a cute newborn size cloth diaper. :-) She will come home in the Harley Davidson outfit my hubby bought, a blanket I made for her, and the ruffle-butt diaper cover. Yay. I'm in the nesting mode and trying to control it a little bit, so I'm not packing just yet...but I have it ready. Maybe tomorrow I'll ready my things. :-)

Getting so incredibly excited!

I find it funny...

It's funny to me that when I or my husband mention that we're going to use cloth diapers, the response is almost always, "good luck with the cloth diapers." The tone is not genuine, but somewhat condescending...as if the whole experience will be horrible and we are naive new parents who have an idealized view of baby diapering.

However, anyone who has ever diapered a baby, including myself knows that besides the washing, disposables come with their own slew of issues...at least they did for me.

1. They take hundreds of years to decompose. Diapers I wore as a baby are still in the landfills. That's completely horrible.

2. With my boys, I can't tell you how many time the fronts of their clothes were soaked because they peed straight up and out of their diapers...and there is no way to adjust the absorbency of the front of a disposable diaper to prevent this.

3. Disposable diapers leak...contrary to popular belief, this is not a problem of the cloth diaper alone. They leak. Poop will burst forth from the seams of a disposable diaper just as easily as it will from cloth. You will get pooped on. Cloth or disposable. Period. Sorry.

4. Many babies are allergic to the ingredients in disposable diapers. Case in point, my nephew. My sister wrestled with a terrible, angry red bottom with blisters pretty much the entire time her son was in diapers. :( Cloth wasn't considered, so the only alternative was to switch back and forth between diapers to deal with varying degrees of diaper rash. thankfully he was potty trained fairly early.

5. Diaper rash occurs with either type of diaper. (obviously from #4)

Yay! New shipment!

We are all set now. With this addition to our stash, we have a great start and all the diapers we *need* for a while. :-) So excited to get these prepped and ready for my little girl.

My stash of covers

So far we have 6 covers.
5 are KaWaii Heavywetters and one is by a brand called Cocala...or something like that. I know nothing about this brand. Just thought it was cute and worth a shot. It's the only sized one we have so far. It's for 6-13 lbs.
I know the KaWaii ones are great for sure.
As far as inserts go, we have 22 MF inserts and one tri-fold insert which came with the pink ruffled cover.
We also ordered a set last night. It had 2 one-size covers and 24 cotton inserts. They were from luvyourbaby.com and I think they were bumgenius.
Once we get those, I think we'll be set.

Cloth diaper folds

I'm collecting these resources for myself so I don't have to bookmark a bunch of pages. This way, I have one place for all my resources. :) This source is for a few different folds for prefolds.

http://babycottonbottoms.com/cloth_diaper_folding.htm

Resources for Cloth Diapering 101

We just ordered a bunch of pre-folds and covers. I found these great resources for prepping and other CD related information.

Cloth diapering at night:
http://www.diaperpincorner.com/2001/09/cloth-diapers-at-night/

Cloth diapering FAQ:
http://www.diaperpin.com/howto.asp#wetdry

A cool link I found about pre-folds

I want to use prefolds and cute covers for sure, along with my KaWaii Heavywetters.
The following link is pretty helpful for first-timers like me. :-)

http://www.diaperpincorner.com/2003/06/prefolds-101-understanding-the-differences/