A Little Sewing

I have a feeling I'll have a lot of posts titled that!

In anticipation of visitors this weekend, and knowing that we have only one shower room, I decided that we needed a way to keep track of our towels. I made a tag for each person.

I added buttons to all the towels.

And, now we should be able to keep track!

Gray Days

Gray days are really hard for me. Like, don't have the gumption to get dressed, can't figure out what to eat, grumpy hard. I have been trying to pin point exactly how to overcome this, so today we started with a candle lit breakfast.

Then we had candle lit bread making.

And then, we had some candle lit bathroom cleaning. : )

And finally, some sewing for our weekend visitors.

Song of the week: Downeaster Alexa
(Sorry about the ad, this one was the only one I could find with this awesome video. It's about 3 and a half minutes.)

Day 7 of the Flats and Handwash Challenge

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all. You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post. This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world!

Today is the last day of the Flats and Handwash Challenge. I have to say that using only flat diapers and hand washing them is much easier than I had anticipated. Initially I was worried about three things; making flats work for us at night, having enough flats to make it through to wash day, and getting the flats clean enough with hand washing as the only option. As it turns out none of these were issues! And in addition, it didn't seem overly strenuous, or gross, or difficult. The one thing that was inconvenient was that it took a long time. I found myself neglecting other household duties. However, the blogging took a lot of time too. If I were just doing washing by hand out of necessity, the blogging wouldn't be an issue. It also took a lot of mental power, on my part, to anticipate when we would need to wash, how many diapers we had left, how many would we need before the clean ones could dry, etc. Again, though, if I were doing this for real, I think I would find a rhythm that worked. While it is not fun, I am surprised and pleased the say that I think using flats and hand washing them is a viable option. I think I am going to miss seeing them drying on the line.

On another note, I was again inspired by Janice at Mamawords. During the challenge she had dinner with her Grandma and was able to ask her about her experience using cloth diapers. At the end of her post, Janice invited others to ask their grandparents the same thing, and so I did.

I called my dad's mom, who currently lives in Massachusetts. When she was younger though, she lived in Virginia, closer to where we are now, and she commiserated about how the humidity does really effect the laundry. She said she used disposable diapers for traveling, but that when they were at home she had birdseye cotton and gauze diapers. She said the gauze were great because they were trimmer and they dried faster. I asked if she had hand washed her diapers, and she said, no. Her first child was born in '49, just after World War II, and all the inventions that people had been inventing during the war were finally able to be put into production. She got her first washing machine just after she was married. She and her mom got a washer in the same year. Neither of their houses had room for it, so they had little washing porches built to house the new washers. Even when my grandma was growing up she didn't wash diapers, as they hired a woman to do their washing. Apparently, it was the custom in the South, to send your washing out. Someone would come collect it, it would be washed, and returned to you. However, in my grandma's house, they hired someone to wash their clothes in their back yard, in a giant tub, over the fire. My great grandma did this because she was afraid of getting bed bugs from the common laundry facility.

I asked my grandma about water proofing, and she said they definitely let their babies go coverless most of the time. However, she remembers seeing a rubberized sheet about the same size as the diapers. The corners were reinforced with fabric and one would lay the diaper on top of the rubber sheet and then pin it on the baby as usual. The rubber would end up on the outside like a cover. After I mentioned that we use wool covers, she remembered that she had heard of soakers before. But, she said, "we didn't use them in Virginia because it was too hot".

Apparently they used those diapers for everything: for dusting, as towels, for polishing silver.  "I miss them," Grandma, said, "instead of the ubiquitous diaper, I have used a world of paper towels!"

Day 6 of the Flats and Handwash Challenge

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all. You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post. This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world! 

I had to laugh when I read Kim's post this morning over at Dirty Diaper Laundry because I had just left B with some friends while my husband and I went out last night. I did sort of agonize over what to do about diapers while we were away. Which covers do I have clean and available? How much can I ask of this particular friend? Should I just stuff a BumGenious 3.0 with a flat even though that isn't technically a pocket? I ended up just doing a pad fold in our regular night time wool wrap, and everything went perfectly. I think sometimes the concept of a cloth diaper or a flat diaper is more overwhelming than being faced with the actual diaper itself!

I also had to laugh because I ran into the very topic of hand washing in the book I am reading. I shouldn't have been too surprised because I am reading about rural life in old timey Appalachia. I have recently picked up the Foxfire series and I am loving them! The Foxfire books are a compilation of the magazine that came out of the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School. This is from the New Georgia Encyclopedia:

During the 1960s the school reconnected with its mountain heritage in an innovative way. In 1966 Eliot Wigginton, a young English teacher, was struggling to teach bored students. Seeking to make his courses relevant, he encouraged his students to interview older people in the community about their lives and southern Appalachian culture. The students documented such traditions as planting by the signs of the moon, building a log cabin, and mountain lore, then published the material in a magazine called Foxfire. The Foxfire program continued until 1977, when Rabun Gap–Nacoochee School became a private institution. Foxfire then moved to Rabun County High School to serve the local public school population.

The section I just read from the second book was about washing clothes in an iron pot. It is almost exactly like what all of us participating in the Flats and Handwash Challenge are doing this week. The only differences are that we have hot water coming out of our tap, and we don't have a "battling bench", a waist high, rough, split log table used as a surface for beating out the dirt. One tip the interviewee, Mimi Dickerson, gave, was to hang the washing out while completely wet. She says this reduces the wrinkle, and the clothes dry softer than if you wring them. Probably not a good idea for our particular challenge, but I thought it was interesting none the less.

One last thing that I have been wanting to share is a new (I think!) fold for flat diapers. I was in need of a diaper fold for those times around the house when I wanted to allow B to "air out", but I was too busy to follow him around and clean up after him. I thought, 'wouldn't it be cool if I could just tie the diaper on?' So, here is what I have come up with. If this already exists, I am sorry for  stealing the inventor's thunder! Please feel free to claim it if it's your's.

I call this either the Sumo Diaper or the Egyptian Diaper because, to me, it looks like a little of both.

Start like the kite fold:

1. Lay out flat.

2. Fold right side in.

3. Fold left side in.

4. Fold down top.

5. Turn the whole thing one point clockwise.

6. Fold right side in again.

7. Fold left side in again.

8. Fold the top points out to the sides.

9. Fold up the front point. Then, fold it up again. See how this makes a little tunnel through the front of the diaper?

Here I have pulled the left corner through the tunnel.

10. Again, as you see above, I have pulled the longer, left point through the tunnel in the front of the diaper. Then I tied the left point to the right point.

Action Shots!

 This fold isn't meant to keep in solids, but to act more like a trainer, catching one pee. It's great for airing out. I have found it to be very useful!

Day 5 of the Flats and Handwash Challenge

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.  For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all.  You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post.  This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world!

Here we are at day 5 of the challenge. I ended up washing diapers last night after B had gone to sleep. I was worried about waking him up, because the bathroom is right next to his room, but there was no problem. But now, we have our entire stash of diapers clean, except for the night time diaper, which means I think I have a day off!

Wringing out diapers last night.

I have been trying to think of tips for making this whole process easier. Since this is my first time doing the challenge I pretty much relied on everyone else's tips. The three tips that I found most surprising and helpful were to iron dry flats to help them dry faster, to set a timer while agitating because it feels a lot longer than it is. These both came from the Dirty Diaper Laundry website. The third tip is to repurpose an unused baby gate into a drying rack. This idea came from the Mamawords blog.

I discovered a few things that I think made the process easier:

•  I used a wet pail to store my dirty diapers, so that became my first rinse. I would agitate in the diaper pail a little, and then dump everything into the bathtub.
• I used a long dowel to agitate while washing. This meant I didn't have to bend down the whole time. 
• Also, I actually had two dowels, and I was able to use them like giant chop sticks to get the plug in and out of the bath tub. That way I didn't have to reach into the yucky water.
• I also spent a lot of time sitting while I was washing. I happen to be sitting on the toilet because it was there next to the tub. But if you set up your camp washer somewhere where you can sit while using it, I think it makes the whole process less strenuous. 
• I had two drying areas, outside and in. There is more space outside, but the diapers take longer to dry (in our weather). I found it helpful to cycle the diapers through; I would hang as many inside as would fit, and the rest outside. Then, when the inside diapers were dry, I would fold them and bring in some of the ones from outside to help them dry faster.
• I had read this somewhere, but I ended up sticking my pins in a bar of soap to help them slide in and out of the diaper more easily. 
• And one last thing. I am not sure this is really a tip, but I was surprised at how smell was a good indicator of where I was in the process of washing. The first, diaper pail rinse, was really stinky. Then I did a hot rinse, still stinky. Then I did a hot wash with soap (scent free), and until I drained that load, it was still stinky. But when I filled up for the first rinse to get the soap out, the stink was really gone.  That soapy load did its job!

I hope these ideas can help!

Day 4 of the Flats and Handwash Challenge

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.  For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all.  You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post.  This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world!  

So, we are onto our fourth day of the challenge and our third day of having to wash. The washing itself doesn't seem that hard to me, however it is not built into my routine, so getting going is a bit tough. I think, if this were something I had to do, I would want to own about six more flats. I think that would really allow me to only have to wash every other day.  I also think I would get into a groove, habit would take over, and it wouldn't be so difficult to get started. I have noticed, however that all my other "chores" have gone by the way side. The beds are unmade, the house is untidy, and dishes start to pile up during the day. Maybe getting into a groove would help that. Maybe knowing that I wasn't just going to go back to using the washing machine in four days would help that. But seeing these other things slip really shows me how much effort is being spent on these diapers. 

I have mentioned a couple of times that I have a few "surgery drape flats". It probably sounds pretty strange and maybe a bit macabre. Well, here's what they are, they are medium sized (compared to a regular flat) rectangles of dark blue, loose weave cotton fabric. These particular ones are like the ones used in hospitals for mopping up blood or framing the area of the body to be ministered to. I say "like" because these ones were never used for those things. They did come from the hospital, but my husband assures me they were never used! I was totally creeped out when he first brought them home. He thought they would make good dish towels. When they first came home, they went right into the washing machine! When they had been washed and dried, I let them sit around for a while, and then we ran out of clean dish towels. I picked one up, and have loved them ever since. After a short while, I realized that if they could be used as towels, they could be used as diapers, and they have found their permanent home on the clean diaper shelf.

Because they are smaller than a flat, I use two. I lay the first flat out and fold it down to adjust the rise, and then I lay the second one, padfolded, in the center. The whole thing works like a prefold

Day 3 of the Flats and Handwash Challenge

I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry.  For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all.  You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post.  This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world!  

 I mentioned in my first post that I was concerned about not having enough flats so that I would only have to wash every other day. I had almost enough flats. I had to pull out two more flannel receiving blankets and two small, homemade, flannel doublers to make it. But I am pretty sure that was only because it took 7 hours for my flats to dry! I guess with 86% humidity that's only to be expected. I also ended up ironing dry an evening diaper and a nighttime diaper.

Iron drying is a really cool tip I learned from the tips list at Dirty Diaper Laundry, but again, with 86% humidity it took me a long time (like 20 minutes each) to iron them dry as well. So, this morning I was thinking I would just wash the nighttime diapers to tide us over to our real wash day tomorrow, but I just ended up throwing all the dirties in the tub. I am not sure I will have to wash every day, but I will have to wash a lot more than I was hoping!

Yesterday, I washed and lanolized all my wool covers, and now that they are finally dry as well, I am happy to be trying out different folds. Previously, I was just pad folding the flats and using them in gDiaper pants. My favorite these days is the Neat Fold with Jelly Rolled legs. I like this system because it is simple, fits well, and can be fastened with one pin. For some reason I do actually prefer pins. I guess they are the most familiar to me, because that's what my mom used when we were growing up. I also really like the way they look.

Here's how to do the Neat Fold. (You'll have to forgive me because the orientation of the pictures makes this a bit complicated. Just remember that the lower right corner of the pictures is "down" and it will end up being the front of the diaper. The upper left corner is "up" and ends up being the back of the diaper.)

1. Lay diaper out flat.

2. Fold lower right corner up to the center. "Bottom fold"

 

                                                                                3. Now, fold the top left corner down to the center. "Top fold"

   






 4. Now, fold the lower left corner so that the edge which is parallel to the bottom of this ^ picture is perpendicular to the other folded edges. The point of the corner actually ends up touching the top fold.

 

 












5. Fold in the upper right corner just like the lower left corner.
It looks like a Chinese food container.

Ah, that's better! 

6. Lay in your doubler.

7. Roll up the left  and right sides and tuck them under the doubler.

                                                          
 9. Lay your baby down, and bring up the front of the diaper.

10. Bring the sides around and pin!

Action shot!

This is a "Target Flat", a flour sack dish towel.