I guess before I get too far ahead of myself, I should start at the beginning and explain where all of this began.
Back in the day (when I was first pregnant with my twins), I bought two bags of cloth diapers from a mom-to-mom sale. They had sewn-in inserts, and needed covers. It seemed like a daunting task. I wasn't sleeping more than 3 hours (that would be 3, 1-hour naps at night), and the idea of having more to do...having laundry that HAD to be done every day, no matter what, was just more than I could deal with. It sounded like more trouble than it was worth. I ended up selling them for next to nothing, and used disposables on them. I never thought I'd used cloth.
Then, after I had our singleton, I saw something online about how to make a cloth diaper. I did the math and realized how much we were spending on diapers that we used for a couple of hours, and threw away. It BLEW MY MIND. In the four months of her life we'd spent no less than $250 on diapers. In a year we'd be spending more than $750., and that would be if we kept buying the cheap ones when they were on sale. If she was potty trained by 3, it would work out to over $2200. On diapers. What the...?!
(When I thought about the money we spent on diapering our twins, I felt sick.)
We aren't rich, by any stretch of the word. My husband supports our family of five on his one income. With twin toddlers and a newborn, we just didn't have money to throw away like that...and using disposable diapers really was, literally, throwing money away.
So I sat down and drew out my own pattern. I had to try. Even if I only used cloth every now and then, it would help out by saving some money.
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| The first diaper I ever made. |
I decided to make her a couple and see how it went. I fell in love with cloth diapers, and ended up buying a ton of Alva diapers because they were inexpensive. At the same time I kept making my own, and realized very quickly that the diapers I bought left a lot to be desired. Over time I went from using the thin velcro on my diapers, to thick velcro, and my pattern changed slightly, to "fix" the problems I had found with other diapers out there. I was tired of "settling".
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| 2nd Generation diaper with thick velcro. |
I have made slight changes to my patterns three times to make them perfect. That's where we are now...3rd generation. Every change improved them, and eliminated the "issues" I had with other brands of cloth diapers. At this point, I could not be more happy with the fit and comfort of these diapers.
My own little bubs loves her cloth diapers, and we don't have to spend money on something she pees in once, and we throw away. That's not even mentioning how much better cloth is for the environment. It's funny to think that I was someone that said I would never use cloth because it was "too much work", and now I have a personal stash of about 20 diapers, and a pile of several prints yet to be sewn (also for my daughter). I may have a problem. LOL
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| My little Megan in her Cars diaper. |
I hope that as time goes on that I can make this little business into one that can help my husband support our family. He's still the only income for our family of 5, and as the kids are getting bigger, the cost of having them is increasing. I would love to be able to take some of the burden off of him, while doing something I really love.
So, what started as a way to save money has turned into something of an obsession, and a business. Now you know how this all began. :)
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