It's Diaper Swap Time Again!

I love hosting and participating in diaper swaps for the main reason that I get to meet my customers.  I sell so many items on line and talk back and fourth with people through my shop, but I rarely get to meet and talk face to face with customers.  That is my favorite part of swaps.  What is a swap you say?  A Diaper Swap is moms coming together to sell their new or gently used fluff to other moms who need more fluff!

Here is Becky from MomBecks at our last swap....we miss you Becky!

My swaps also include awesome "mompreneurs" who make  and sell their products like I do.  This swap will be at The Refuge~ our good friends non profit youth center and coffee house in Overland Park.  If you are in the area we would love to have you come and shop, visit and hang out with us.... We have 20+ moms coming to sell and Claudia our Refuge summer intern will be there making coffee drinks and lemonade!  Shop, Visit, Bring a Friend, Have a Coffee!

Diaper Swap

July 17, 2012

The Refuge

11336 W 135th St

Overland Park, KS 

5:00PM to 8:00PM

We take cash, check w ID or credit/debit cards

Contact me Kelly Quinn through the facebook event page if you have any questions, need more directions, etc.  Looking forward to a fun evening of visiting and swapping.

For the Love of Sewing...and other things

Sewing for a living is not something I thought I could ever do.  When I started making a few baby things and then the cloth diapering accessories I sell now, it was kind of a casual, "oh I'll list a few things in my shop and see what happens" kind of a thing.  Then people actually started buying the things I made, and that gave me inspiration to make some more things!


At the first of the year, I decided to try and define my shop and what I was about to see if I could actually make this a business that could help support our family.  You see several things took place to prompt this decision.  My wonderful husband worked at a job he really didn't love for over 20 years; faithfully so that I could stay home with our four boys and raise them up and homeschool them.  A few years ago, his job moved out of state, and we chose not to move with the job, as our family was here and our children were on the brink of grown, and to top it off and seal the decision, we found out we were going to be grandparents.  We chose family over job and have never regretted that decision.  Jobs in his field in our area are hard to come by in good times, and with the economic crises almost non existent.   

He has always been blessed with some kind of work however, and we have muddled through.  Anyway, back to my story.... At the first of the year, he decided that he really would like to go back to school.  I felt that after all those years of working for us, and now that our last baby was almost out of high school and I was almost officially done being a home school mom, he deserved to pursue a carees he would enjoy.  So back to school he has gone, and I have been working to improve my shop and make it the best possible place to find unique, hand made cloth diapering accessories.

I realized one day as I sat down at my sewing machine, at 11:00 at night to hem a pair of shorts for my now graduated youngest son who was leaving the next day on a trip, that I have come to love sitting down at my machine to create something new for someone.  Every time I get a custom order, I feel some of that excitement from the person ordering it; of their anticipation for their new arrival, or their pleasure at looking forward to having a unique and beautiful bag to toss those dirty diapers into.  Crazy isn't it, that having something beautiful even if it is just to toss dirty diapers into, would be such fun, but I think all humans, especially moms, have an inherent appreciation for beauty.  So on I sew, and I am happy that I can do it for the right reasons; for family, and choosing to stay together and strengthen family relationships.   I am very thankful and blessed by all my wonderful customers who allow me to sew for them, and repeatedly come and visit my shop.  I so appreciate all of you.  I am also so thankful for my family and my ever so patient husband who puts up with me taking over the whole house at times to get my projects done!

Here we all are

The Great Cloth Diaper Change 2012

Yesterday we were host to at least 66 babies (I know there were 67, because I didn't end up changing my own Grand Baby! I was too busy directing traffic)  And lots of moms and dads and friends and grammas and grampas.  It was a really fun event and I am posting the slide show of pictures here.  I would love it if everyone who was there would leave a comment about the event.  Thanks so much!


Created with flickr slideshow.

My Adventure With Japanese Designer Fabrics ~

This year I have started selling a line of Japanese linen and cotton blend designer fabric wet bags.

I love how this all came about... I took my friend Anny shopping one day at Sarah's ~ my favorite local fabric store.  They have the most amazing fabric selection that I have ever seen.  It is sometimes hard to shop there, as their selection is so vast and there are so many choices.  I have always admired the Japanese Echino fabrics by Etsuko Furuya from afar, but had never purchased any mainly because it's expensive.  Well in the whole store full of fabric, this is what Anny liked the best for her bags.  My fabric spidey sense was definitely going off, and I knew this fabric was going to make beautiful bags.  With great difficulty we narrowed it down to the "Birds and Floral" print.  I also loved the "Floral Savannah" print and decided to make two of each bag and try them out in my shop.

New Swatch Photo for the Kokka Fabrics

Well Anny loved her bags, and I have sold more of these prints than any other fabric so far this year!  I have enjoyed working with it so much that I have added several more choices from Etsuko Furuya and also a few I really liked from Melody Miller.  The base fabrics in this line are top quality, and the colors are crisp and vibrant.  The linen blend makes it a really good choice for wet bags, as it is a very durable fabric and will withstand the multiple washings well.



All in all I am so thankful to Anny for selecting this fabric, as it is beautiful to look at, as well as a pleasure to sew and each bag has turned out simply beautiful.

and here is Anny's new baby Suri in her first cloth Fluff!

A Rainbow of Wet Bags

Project 52 Rainbow Pictures....

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..."

Accessories or Neccessities?

assortment of wet bags from Lil' Stuff

 Reposted from my former blog spot last year....enjoy

pail liners are a must!

Hello!
It has been weeks since I added a post, and since the last post I have been super busy sewing and selling!  Alexis and I sold all of my cloth diapering products at the happybottumus diaper swap, and they were very well received.  In fact I pretty much sold out of wet bags and wipes.  It was super fun to actually talk to people and tell them about my designs and hear about their cloth diapering needs and wants.  One of the wants was a diaper bag that would accommodate all the necessities of cloth diapering, I have started creating a few and posted a picture of my first design.  Check it out here or at my Etsy shop.  Please read on if you are interested in cloth diapering, my friend Rebecca Liang of MomBecks.com talks about her journey to cloth diapering.  Check out her store also, she has some great diapering products. and now.... here's Becky!

    When I started cloth diapering 10 years ago out of necessity (i.e. groceries or diapers) I just assumed the only cloth diapers were what they sold at Wal-Mart. So, with $30 to “invest” in cloth diapers, that’s where I headed. Of course the only diapers they had, and still have, at Wal-Mart are the horrible Gerber diapers. Seriously, I can’t believe they are wasting their time and valuable resources on those things. I got my 2 dozen prefolds and 6 plastic pants and headed home to dive into cloth diapering pins and all! (Cloth diapers were a lot cheaper back in the olden days) Of course it didn’t take long to realize that the plastic pants would only last through a few washes before they got holes and I’d have to buy more, and they leaked everywhere and left horrible scratch marks on my baby’s legs. Then there was the issue of what to do with all those dirty diapers at home and when we were out. And I hated wasting money on disposable wipes, but I had no idea there was such a thing as cloth wet wipes because Wal-Mart didn’t carry them. I’m sure I could’ve found something better online, but this was in the day of dial-up internet and I couldn’t leave my child unattended for days on end waiting for each page to load. So I just stuck with what I had.
    Needless to say, cloth diapers have come a long way in the last 10 years! There are more options and accessories than you could ever need! It’s amazing how beautiful diapers have become, and how easy they are to use. But, there is still the same issue of what to do with all those beautiful dirty diapers. For many years I got by with using grocery bags in both the pail and the diaper bag. But I found they didn’t do such a great job of keeping in smells or wetness. I had bags suddenly tear apart on the way to the washing machine spilling dirty diapers everywhere. Can you say YUCK! Cheap me, I knew there were nice pail liners and pretty wet bags but I thought they were a waste of money. So I just kept toting around my smelly grocery bags. I also noticed my diaper pail mysteriously getting stinkier and stinkier.
    Then one day I was shopping online at a diaper website and saw they had free shipping on their wet bags so I bought one. Revelation! I had no idea what I was missing out on! It was so nice to be able to have a PUL bag with a zipper! No more tying plastic bags, and it actually kept the smells in. On top of all that it was just so cute!
    After this eye opening experience I decided to give pail liners a try. Again, revelation! Since I purchased a front loader I had been dreading loading my diapers into the washer because they would inevitably spill out on the floor. It was so gross and frustrating! And like I mentioned before, my diaper pail was always smelly. Since I started using a real pail liner the diaper pail no longer reeks! Seriously, I haven’t changed anything else but the liner – same diapers, same detergent. I’m not a scientist but I’m thinking that the ammonia in the urine was reacting with the plastic grocery bags in a bad way. Other people have noticed it as well – my mom, my husband, my sister, and even my kids. I had a customer come for a consultation last week who was checking out how I have my baby’s diaper station set up and she said, “Wow! Your dirty diapers don’t even stink!” Proof in the pudding.
    Lastly, can I say what a difference cloth wet wipes make. You wouldn’t use paper towels to wash your dishes would you? Why use paper wipes to wash your baby’s bum? My sister-in-law just started using cloth and one of the things she loves most is the wipes! They do an infinitely better job and are soo much softer than disposables. I really think using cloth wipes is a lot easier when you’re using cloth diapers anyway. They just get thrown in the pail with everything else. I just keep a squirt bottle with water on the changing table and wet a wipe down whenever I need one.
I would have to say that even though wet bags, pail liners, and wet wipes are classified as accessories, I really think of them as necessities. Anything that makes life that much easier IS necessary.