Bottom wash

Wipes cost a lot, especially if your child can only use the name brand sensitive wipes like one of mine. If you cloth diaper, using cloth wipes is really no more work at all, and can save up to $5.00 a week per child. That's if you use 2 boxes of wipes per week. I read a ton of recipes and found this one to be the simplest and most common. Many included essential oils and other ingredients I didn't have, so I decided to try this one first. I did have to go get baby oil because I had never used it before. It cost about $3 I think and will last a long time. Probably will be the only bottle I ever buy, because only a fraction of it has been used and the baby is 5 months old. The original recipe made 2 cups of wash, but my bottle holds 1 cup so i cut it in half. I would link to the recipe where I found it, but I have no idea where it is and actually found it on several sites.

Here's what I do:

1. Warm 1 cup of water in microwave for about 45 seconds- this helps dissolve the other ingredients.
2. Put 1 tablespoon of baby oil in bottle
3. Put 1 tablespoon of baby wash in bottle (regular or moisturizing)
4. Pour in the water, cap it, and gently shake.
5. Pour on wipe and clean bottom.

So simple! I had tons of baby washcloths left over from the girls and some new ones for the baby, so this is what I use folded into fourths for the wipes.



I would warn you though that if you put your wipes in a box and wet them all, they will get all yucky and smelly in about a day. YUCK! I just fold all my washcloths into fourths while folding my diaper laundry and keep the bottle of cleanser on the change table and squirt on the washcloth as needed. I deposit the soiled washed cloth in the wetbag with my dirty diapers and wash them all on laundry day.



This bottle is the one I was given in the hospital after the baby's birth and it works great, but I've also read some like to use a spray type bottle. I only have to make the solution every couple of weeks, so I find this a great savings with little effort.



What type of bottom wash do you use? I might need to try it .

Easy inserts

When I originally began looking into cloth diapers for my ds, I liked the idea of cloth diapering and everything I was finding out, except the price. As an experienced seamstress I decided the way for me to cloth diaper would be to sew my own. I began researching the fabric and materials needed for sewing my own diapers, and I learned a lot. The only problem was I had never owned or used a cloth diaper, so I had no idea what features I actually needed. I started by sewing a few flannel fitteds using different free online patterns and tutorials and tried them out on my niece who I kept daily at the time. I liked what I had done so far and continued on in my cd journey and bought some PUL fabric. After a couple of versions, I ended up with a pretty successful pocket diaper. I made tons of inserts from old burp cloths (prefold version) and flannel scraps. I also picked up several thirsties covers NWT second-hand at a great price, and decided I had a good enough stash to start my ds off with.

Over the last 5 months I have learned a lot about cloth diapering. I learned my homemade inserts weren't absorbent enough, I needed to add more layers of absorption, I didn't love pocket diapers, fitted diapers with a cover aren't twice as much work, and most of all that cloth diapering is possible and I do want to make it work.

My chunky ds grew out of those size 1 thirsties duo wraps quickly and my homemade stash of pockets with various types of openings weren't exactly leak free, so I began to shop the sales. I researched a lot and bought what would work for a chubby legged big boy and soon to be much bigger boy. Much to my surprise, i loved all the products I ordered.

So, my advice to all you money-saving sewing mamas out there is to first find what you like and works in your situation, then recreate it!

I did just that and now I have a good stash of purchased and homemade cloth diapers and inserts that work well every time. This is an easy insert to make that I modeled after my softbums staydry microfiber inserts.

I knew by reading online that the softbums inserts were 4 layers of microfiber topped with stay dry micro fleece. I had green microfiber kitchen hand towels and brown micro suede in my cd making stash already, so that's what I used. Here are the steps to recreate an insert like this one:

1. Trace around existing insert to make a pattern
2. Pin and cut your layers
3. Pin layers together: stay dry on top then 4 layers of microfiber
4. Serge edges
5. Add a male snap (I used mismatched leftovers) to a tag or small piece of fabric
6. Sew this with the snap facing outwards onto the microfiber side of the insert
7. Snap in cover and use!

Just on a side note, I love the brown on the top of the inserts! They show no stains, while the white one does.

Here's a price comparison:

Butter suede bought as a remnant. Approximately $0.25 per insert

Microfiber bought as a dish towel . $1.30

Tag $0.25

Snap and thread. I used mismatched bits of snaps leftover from other projects. I'll just guesstimate around $0.20 for both.

That's $2.00 for a homemade insert versus $5.00 for a brand name one. They function exactly the same.

Every little girls' dream

We have a new neighbor across the street, and she had a big tree right next to the power line that needed cutting. So, the power company came out to cut it a little while back and they turned off our power during prime morning play-time without any warning. So, after we observed out the front door and window for a little while, I pulled out my stash of cardboard to entertain the crew of 3 little girls.

I encouraged them to stand the toilet paper rolls on end in the open top box to make it look like a castle. We arrange them all and then add craft glue to hold it all together. TwinA wants to add the castle door and explains where I should put it. We let it dry for a while and then work on the decorations. We start by making the turretts and flags out of pink typing paper. Each girl decorated their own flag with crayons and then I taped them onto a toothpick and dropped it into the hole in the top of the turrett because that is where twinA said they belonged. The last one I tapped to a roll in the back. They glued on Cheerios, which kept sliding down, and also stuck on heart stickers. Lastly, they wanted a princess to go inside, so I drew a prince and princess on paper and folded it so it could stand up inside. It took at least an hour to complete and kept us busy during our power outage. It could have been more extravagant, but the girls ages 3, 3, and 21 months did it themselves and loved it! I'm saving rolls and boxes again, so who knows what we"ll come up with next.

Our castle included:

• 10 toilet paper rolls
• 1 paper towel roll
• 1 stabilizer roll
• 1 small case box that held canned goods
• 1 cardboard flap cut from a small box
• 1 sheet of pink paper

What have you made using recycled materials?