Where I began in the cloth diaper world

I gave birth Jonah and Jaxon in December of 2008, Josh is their father and my fiance. I knew living naturally efficiently was how I wanted to live as a new family. Since I breastfed them exclusively I had little time for anything aside from showering and eating and very little cleaning until they were about 3 months old and sleeping less sporadically.

I joined Cafemom.com and was joining natural mommy groups. I stumbled across Cuties with Cloth Booties and became hooked at the gorgeous prints that were on the cloth diapers that the other mother's made. I immediately joined Sewing Diaper Divas and began my research on making cloth diapers. I took a month of researching fabrics before I bought any, I got some flannel and fleece to practice on since they are cheap fabrics I could buy locally. My first came out pretty good, it did not look like a first time diaper according to my peers in Sewing Diaper Divas. I attribute that to my artistic skills. The only real sewing I did a side from my grandmother showing me how to when I was in middle school, was in sculpture class I made a really cool boxing cape with hood and tassels out of the art museum vinyl banner, the project was to make a outfit for a fashion show out of recycled items
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I then bought some PUL and OBV from some co-ops. After I got the OBV which came first I made about a dozen turned and top stitched pocket fitteds from the Rita's Rump Pattern. I attached the leg elastic with a blind zig zag stitch to make them ruffly because I thought that looked cute. I also made some fleece shorties and longies to make them 'waterproof' when we were out and about (which was still rare at this point in time) when they were 5 months old I was finished with this small stash. I loved cloth, the boys could just be in the diapers at home and they were sooo cute! They never had anymore poo blow outs up their backs which were a constant with disposables. They never had any rashes and their skin looked so healthy on their bums, I was sold on cloth :)

Around the time of them being 7 months old they started getting a rash around their thighs though and I could not figure out why for the life of me! I tried stripping, tried different detergents, special cloth diaper detergents. Nothing seems to change the ever growing rash around their thighs. Their diapers didn't smell, I changed often. I couldn't figure it out so we stopped using them. Mostly let them air dry around the house and used disposables :/

After asking all over forums what it could possibly be someone said that their little one was sensitive to serged fitteds and the ruffly effect it has around the legs. Ahh HA! It made sense that it didn't bother them before they were crawling and started after the crawling began...So I remade the boys' whole stash. I made them fleece pockets, daddy flats (easy to fold flats with no elastic), and did mostly covers and prefolds while out since they were cheap and easy to make (not the prefolds I bought premium unbleached indian ones).

Once again my boys were fully cloth diapered and their skin was happy as can be. Josh only knew how to do the prefolds and covers, unless the pockets were stuffed. I showed him and now he does it all on his own :) Good daddy!

My friend saw the pictures of my kids in cloth diapers and asked if I could make her cousin a shower gift. Once I got my PUL in (finally!) I made her an assortment; an AIO, AI2, pocket and cover with little wash clothes I folded into flowers all in a cute basket. Then I started my GreenBottoms etsy shop around when the boys were 9 months old. I started out with a one size fits most pocket with aplix on the front and back so you could fold it down and have a smaller diaper. A picture of Jaxon wearing the first OS diapers is on my avatar on my GreenBottoms Facebook page. My boys started pulling off their aplix diapers and the ones I had accumulated lint in the wash despite the laundry tabs, pulling lint out of hook velcro hurts your fingers! I then bought some snap pliers and definitely loved all the colors to coordinate with the fabric. I stopped making the one size diapers and made some sized ones based on all the different patterns Ive seen and took what I liked from them.

• Slightly rounded but square tabs
• A 3rd snap to prevent wing droop and keep leg elastic snug around the legs
• Pockets with front openings so the inserts could come out easy
• Super soft minky inside that never stains and wicks moisture away from the baby and into the absorbent part.

I became addicted to cute prints and my business was slowly growing by the end of 2009