October progress

I haven't done much more shopping, though I think my mom hit up Wal-Mart for some elastic or velcro that was going ridiculously cheap--something like $0.97 or $1.97.

We've figured out a sort of system to do the diapers. My mom likes doing the soakers and I like doing the diapers. So we divided up what was left of the newborn diapers and finished up those separately. The next time we did diapers we started doing more of an assembly line process. The third time we continued working on them that way and the process seemed to really speed up. We're nearly done with the first two sizes. I'd said in total we've done three days work together and some sewing separately after work for a few weeks.

Total spent in October: $1
Total spent overall: $334
Total diapers: 15 newborn diapers and 30 soaker inserts, 16 size small diapers and probably a dozen inserts (I'm not sure of the exact progress)

Not counting all the extra soakers we've been making (2 per diaper) the price comes out to $10.77, and that's about $8 cheaper than a BumGenius.

September progress

In lieu of Surly Fest,  I went to my parents house for a diaper-making bonanza.

This required one last shopping trip for batting, elastic and velcro: $52

I'd say though we got off to a slow start the day was successful. My mom cut out just about everything we'd need for all newborn diapers. Jan and I started sewing. I hadn't worked with the pattern for two months and needed to refresh myself as I explained it to Jan. Eventually we got into a pattern and knocked out quite a few pieces.

Since then I've needed to resupply my flannel and elastic ($8) and had been keeping an eye on fabric promotions across the Twin Cities. JoAnn's did $2.99 a yard printed flannels one week so I stopped by to stock up on anything gender neutral, having heard complaints about sewing white on white: $27


Total spent in September: $87
Total spent overall: $333
Total diapers: 15 newborn diapers and 30 soaker inserts

A blanket for Jonesy Baby

'Tis the season to be crocheting. It's finally cool enough to work with yarn in my lap. I really want to make a blanket for Jonesy Baby. I've got a list of patterns I like and can't decide on one. 

All photos from Lion Brand Yarn 

These first four are basically the same two patterns, but with different color schemes. 

I've got some ideas for decorating Jonesy Baby's room, but I'm putting that off until we find a house and move. So in terms of color I don't want to decide on anything yet.

I really like this one, might wait a few years

I love this one, but I think I just like the color scheme, which is too girly 

So lovely, but too girly

Thoughts?!

Wedding homage

This summer I was not crafty. I spent much of it vomiting or laying on the couch thinking about how soon I'd be vomiting, again.

I managed to do one thing, though, and that was to put together a small wedding gift for friends in London. And I couldn't wait to brag about it (they've since received the package and I can brag publicly).

They had requested no gifts--but having to miss the wedding due to needing to save up money for Baby Jonesy I wanted to send a little something anyway.

Lee helped me with the logos and after much debate we settled with just two embroidered towels and then an extra (see bottom photo). The pack had four so we folded up the blank towel on top to make it look like just a stack of tea towels at first glance.

This was the second towel in the stack

This was the third

This was the bottom towel, folded strategically so that the top exposed layer had only white space

July and August

One is the loneliest number

Here is the breakdown for cloth diaper spending in July and August. To-date I have one completed diaper and one completed soaker pad. So we're good for about two hours the day Jonesy Baby is born, fingers crossed?

Initial expenses: $159 $106
That includes $45 for the Baby 101 class I took. I did pay for some of that with a gift certificate, and I did learn to make three other baby items. But I'm still counting it because the diaper was the most valuable part (maybe I'll say $15 later on).

I spent another $45 on the materials for the class. I'm okay with this splurge because I chose organic fabrics, and a third of that covers the pattern by Favorite Little Things.

And then another $16 on the day of the class because I didn't realize that you had to bring your own thread, velcro and batting. In my defense the class list said I only needed to bring a yard each of fabric, flannel, PUL and elastic--which I lost the receipt for, but that's tiny in the $106 I've racked up so far.

I've also splurged on an Olfa cutting mat for $28 and a cutter (for which I lost the receipt but I'm guessing it was probably $25) $18. These are not necessary for cloth diapering, but a huge help. And I'm already seeing how much of a benefit they'll be for ALL craft and sewing projects, so I guess I can go either way in counting them, I'll count them for now. *Edit after debating this with my mom, I won't count them.

Fabric: Roughly 10 yards, roughly $5.30 each
As pictured here. My $9.95 splurge on one yard of Michael Miller's Space Cadet fabric added $0.50 to the average.


Flannel: 5 yards, $2.99 each
With my new bib pattern I wanted to make a baby gift for a friend and needed flannel. This was towards the end of July. JoAnn's had a 50 percent off deal on flannel, and while I don't know if that's a good or possibly a common promotion I figured I might as well stock up on generic white flannel. I'll no doubt need to buy more but at least I took advantage of this deal.


PUL: 8 yards, roughly $8 each
I did some Googling and found the average price for PUL is about $9.99, whether it's purchased in a store like Hancock Fabrics or from various online shops. I did see prices as low as $7.95 per yard, although I'd be looking at $13 in shipping.

With some hesitation I set my "willing to spend bar" at $10 per yard--the cost at a local, independent craft shop I adore and would love to support. However, with 10 yards of fabric to turn into diapers that's slightly tough to swallow.

Going through several sites and playing around with discounts and shipping fees I found the best option was Fabric.com, which sells PUL for $9.98 per yard ("compared to $11.99" where? I don't know). There is also free shipping for orders over $35. And I found a list of coupon codes that I played around with on a few different sizes of orders.

Other: $8

A whooping 1km of white 100% polyester Gutermann thread from S.R. Harris. Considering I spent $3 on a 250m roll that's a tidy little savings.

In total, $299 $246, for one diaper (with one soaker pad) if I'm being over-dramatic. Depressing, but hell, that's motivating to start sewing.

(I googled to find the average cost, per month for disposable diapers and it looks like $50 to $80 is most often quoted, with the higher numbers for younger babies. The average price of a BumGenius AIO cloth diaper is about $18--and if I need about 20 diapers to get through two-days (washing cycle) I'm already saving money, if I can get sewing sometime soon!) 

Dollars and diaper sense

I'd say the main reasons we're going to do cloth diapers is because we care about the Earth (lame, cliched, whatever, I know) and want to contribute less landfill; we'd like to avoid some of the chemicals, bleaches and dyes used in disposable diapers; we'd like to avoid putting money into the pockets of companies who make those diapers; and we're hoping to save a few bucks along the way in doing that.

I'm tempted to add up all the costs of making the diapers to see how we fare compared to buying in bulk at Costco. Despite, as stated above, money being only one of the four reasons we're up for this.

Here's where I struggle with the financial aspect:

-Fabric can be expensive.
-Since I'm making these I need to put a price on my time. I won't, but I should.
-I've chosen an All-In-2 style diaper or AI2, which are more expensive.

Here I'd like to point out that I'm not an expert. I'm very new to this and have done very sparse research. Many of my decisions have been based on a pattern I learned to sew at a class. That may end up being a very unwise decision on my part, but I figure I paid for the pattern to the take the class so I might as well use it. 

That said:

There are cheaper cloth diapers for sale that I could buy but we already know that we'll be dependent on some form of outside care. The more similar to disposable diapers, the more likely this help--be it day care or a nanny--will be willing to go along with the whole process.

Pocket diapers seem counter productive to me. If the soaker is stuffed in the whole diaper, everything gets wet. Whereas with the AI2 you can swap out the soaker and leave the diaper if it's dry. All-In-Ones (AIO) seem less efficient to me, and besides the above mentioned pattern I learned is for an AI2.

Other benefits of the AI2 that I'll be making is that the PUL is completely hidden. Whereas on forums and other sites I've heard of babies having reactions to exposed PUL in the covers made to go over fitteds--more traditional cloth diapers. For anyone who's looking for basic information on cloth diapering, this site is brilliant.

I haven't done much research, but on Etsy and other sites I've seen AI2 diapers going for $15 to $18. And I wasn't impressed with the covers--they're either plain, gender specific, or just kind of ugly. I figure for that money I don't want something ugly. So I've got some pretty cute fabrics purchased, and I'm watching my prices. Here's to hoping by the time Jonesy Baby arrives I will have kept these under $15 per diaper, or at least $18.

I'm going to write a series of blog posts along the way to document the costs. You can find them under the $$$ tag

Winter wear for Jonesy Baby

Five years ago my good friend, Andrea, and I had the best intentions to save the world--or at least prematurely-born babies in Africa. For something like a month we knitted and crocheted these hats following a pattern distributed by a non-profit organisation. There was a deadline to submit them to be shipped to hospitals in Africa. I believe it was December 31.

As you can see by the above photo taken this morning, we missed that deadline.

I wouldn't be surprised if we got derailed by something horrible like a Real Housewives of Orange County marathon on Bravo, or what I remember to be an excellent season of Project Runway on Bravo. We obviously put that cable subscription to good use.

Andrea is moving house this week and found the hats (from the previous apartment even), which are now for Jonesy Baby.

My plan is to take all of them to the hospital and see which ones fit. My pastel numbers to the right are quite large. But I'm crossing my fingers the red hat front and centre fits because Valentine's Day will be right around the corner. And the multicolour one behind it will be perfect for spring--even if I have to do quite a bit of stretching to Make It Work.