Meet Winkydinks....Etsy Shop Monday

 
I had the fun of interviewing Jen from Winkydinks for the Etsy Cloth Diaper Blog, I have reposted my interview here for the first installment of my Etsy Shop Mondays!

Winkydinks has been making fleece and wool covers for sale on Etsy since November 2008.   Using breathable covers is great for baby's skin and also helps regulate diaper temperature. Both fleece and wool work to repel the moisture back into the diaper, and protect the outer clothing. You might notice "compression wicking" if a child is sitting or laying for a long period of time with a full diaper - this is because they are not completely waterproof like PUL; but the benefit is the breath-ability and softness!

Winkydinks goal is to make things for the people who need them. Commitment to online customers keeps her shop busy. "I don't want people to have to wait weeks to get their fluffy mail, so I only offer custom slots when I know I'll have the time to get them done in a week or so. Last year I had to scale back production quite a bit and re-balance my life. I had gotten a little too caught up in Winkydinks and forgotten that I wanted to do it for fun. "

The passion behind Winkydinks is the excitement From knowing that their products are being used by people everywhere (including Malaysia, Australia, and Sweden!). Inspiration comes from browsing the fabric store and searching for great deals on old sweaters at the thrift shop.  Winkydinks never makes the same wool item twice, when you purchase a re-purposed wool soaker or longie, you are getting a one of a kind creation. Lately, Winkydinks does some custom orders with appliques. "They take more time and effort, but I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that someone is getting exactly what they want, and I like the challenge of doing something new every once in awhile." Click here to see some photos of new designs.

If you are interested in trying wool or fleece for it's breath-ability and softness on your babies skin, take a look at the options in Winkydinks Etsy shop.

DIY Fabric Leaves

I recently had to make 50 or 60 of these for a wedding we designed.  I thought it would be fun to post some photos and how to's of the project, as these leaves can be a really neat accent decoration around the house, for a party or, as we used them, for a wedding.

I used three to four layers of coordinating fabric per leaf.  The first thing I did is cut them all out!  I drew a simple leaf shape pattern and cut multiple layers of the same fabric, that way they weren't all perfect.

After cutting the leaves out, I used brown thread and my free style quilting foot on my machine.  I think you could get the same effect if you disabled your feed dog and used a regular sewing foot, but I haven't tried this.

I just free style sewed leaf veins up and around each leaf.

I chain sewed them to save time, but when I finished them all I thought that would also make a fun garland, all the leaves strung together.

Sewn leaves draped as a garland before cutting.

 

close up of the sewn leaves

After sewing the leaf veins in all the leaves I cut them apart!

After cutting them apart, I took some small gauge floral wire and cut it into about 8" long pieces.  I inserted wire in the bottom end of each leaf and folded it over and twisted it together.  After twisting the wire loosely together I wrapped each wire in brown floral tape.  You could obviously use green depending on where you were using the leaves and what color scheme you had in mind.

That is pretty much it.  We wrapped the wire stems around tree branches
to give the feel of a few fall leaves remaining on the trees.  I also used them for all the boutineer and corsage bases.  With the red flowers they were very striking.

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This was originally posted on the Etsy Cloth Diaper blog...

Meet the Etsy Cloth Diaper Team: Kelly from Lil' Stuff

This week we'll meet Kelly, from Lil' Stuff. Kelly has been selling on Etsy for about one year. Kelly first started out knitting baby items as gifts. People suggested she sell her creations and once her daughter-in-law got into cloth diapering, she switched to offering those items. Her store: www.kellylulu.Etsy.com offers a wide variety of cloth diapering items including wet bags, diaper pail liners, cloth wipes and swim dipes. Kelly sews out of her home and enjoys a sunny view of the birds as she works.

Kelly has hung inspiration bulletin boards around her workspace to help inspire her and provide motivation while she works. Her major inspiration, though, is her granddaughter, Fable Rose.





Kelly cloth diapered her own children for economical reasons, because it is better for babies' skin and because it is less wasteful. Kelly shares this piece of advice for cloth diaper users: always do a cold water rinse before your wash cycle, as it allows the stains to rinse out before setting in the hot water.

Kelly recently designed a new wet bag that she calls her gramma go bag. It combines wipes, wet bag, and a pocket for your wallet, etc all into one bag with a strap! She has designed all of her own bags.

This past summer, Kelly introduced a new cloth diaper swim suit. Using her granddaughter as a model, Kelly designed a swim suit with a cloth diaper bottom and matching top. "I was rather pleased with my final design, and will make them again next summer," said Kelly.

"I just would like to say that it is a blast selling on Etsy, and also at the few craft fairs I have done. I love talking to young moms with a passion for cloth diapering and natural child rearing etc, I was really surprised at how many moms actually stopped and talked and made a purchase at our booth the last fair we did...and as I have said before, I am amazed at all the moms who sew on Etsy, you deserve a special award, I could have never done that amount of sewing when I had kids at home, let alone kids still in diapers..."