The Cloth Adventure Continues

Almost 15 months in to the cloth diapering adventure around here and we're going strong. The stinkies have yet to come back...still being a rebel and washing in Tide and using a touch of bleach. Here are some pictures of my current favorite system: A super-soft LoveyBums jersey knit wool cover over a Mother-Ease one-size (MEOS in diaper lingo) diaper with snap in doubler.

He sure has a nice bubble but, but it's cool, soft and looks comfy (the tears are just the "but I want the camera mama" version)! I've finally found the wool love with these lightweight covers...before I was trying to use their snap-in diaper (they call that a LIO or LoveyBum-In-One) but it was not absorbent enough for Z-man. Having a nice thick fitted under it has done the trick!

At night I opt for a completely natural fiber dipe under a heavier wool cover or occasionally a PUL Mother-Ease Air-Flow cover. The MEOS occasionally get a faint ooky smell with the all night #1...maybe the touch of poly in them? Not sure, so I go for my bamboozle or a LoveyBums organic cotton fitted with doubler.

Since I don't stick to one system continuously, prefolds with Thirstie covers are always on hand. They work really well for Daddy, who can't handle all the snaps on the fitteds! I stack up a few covers with the dipes tri-folded inside and reassure him it will be just as easy as a sposie. He only freaks out now when #2 shows up and he gets to test out the diaper sprayer. One day he left the soaked (but thankfully completely sprayed off) dipe in the bathtub as he didn't know if he should put it in the pail. Oh dear!

All-in-all, thumbs up for not dropping the $$ for disposables! I've sold almost every diaper or cover that he's outgrown so I'm planning on breaking even and diapering this final bambino for almost free! Wheee!

Cloth Diaper Chaos!

Aaack! Cloth diapering is a great thing for so many reasons. It's also a not-so-great-thing for many other reasons!

Here's my current not-so-great-reason: S.T.I.N.K. We're talking, eye-watering, knock-you-over, gotta-be-bad-for-the-baby ammonia stink! Evidently this is not an unusual phenomenon in the cloth diaper jungle. It only occurs when baby has had a wet diaper on for a long time i.e. overnight...but just the thought that that nasty chemical reekiness is lurking in each and every dipe just waiting to release it's nastiness makes me cringe!

So, like any good CD mama, I went to the message boards and blogs to figure out a solution. Oh, and also consulted my chemistry guru hubby. And that began the experimentation phase: soaks, washes, extra rinses, vinegar, oxyclean, special CD detergent, Dawn dish soap, wool covers, stripping, more soaks, more rinses....double aaaack! Some of it worked. For about a week.

Now baby boy is wearing Luvs at night and I re-researched today. Here's the result: I am going to be a CD-washing rebel! I am going to bleach my diapers. I am going to purchase regular ol' Tide powder to wash them in. I am going to cross my fingers. I am not going to let the S.T.I.N.K. win. HA! Take THAT you nasty stuff!!!

Wool Longies

It's snowing. Again. So I decided to get a little crafty today and made our bouncing baby boy some wool longies! For those of you not "in" to the cloth diapering thing...wool is the most awesome fabric for making breathable, yet absorbent covers. But commercial or even WAHM-made wool covers can break the bank!

So I've taken the plunge into recycling wool sweaters...but as that I'm a, you guessed it, WOMAN...my wool sweaters all seem to have some version of PINK or embroidered FLOWERS on them. Poor baby boy. At least I'm not planning on taking him out in these for now...just good jammie bottoms or play pants. Smile.

This is with the long waistband turned down.

Big ol' bubble butt...he has a prefold AND a Thirsties cover on under this as it hasn't been prepped to wear yet.

Check out the rolled cuffs...so he can wear them as his legs get longer!

Zane is quite the cute baby model, don't you think?

If you want to make some for yourself there are a gazillion tutorials online...I'm not into reinventing the wheel of late, so go to google and have fun! I did run into some questions and here's what I decided to do:

Q: Do you felt your recycled wool first?
A: Depends, but if you like it soft and stretchy, you're better off leaving it unfelted, or just felt it a little in the washer, not dryer. I chose to leave all the wool unfelted. Either way, you still must lanolize by hand.

Q: What kind of thread?
A: 100% polyester (any cotton will wick)

Q: Do you have to finish your edges by zig-zagging or serging?
A: Nope, just double straight stitch. I even just single stitched since this is an experiment.