Sewing Cloth Diapers

About 2 weeks ago, I decided to dust off my mom's old Brother sewing machine and give it a test run.  Since it had been stored in my attic for at least 2 years (and unused for who knows how long), it's no surprise that it didn't work well at all.  I thought it might be past the point of fixing but I took it in to a local shop to see if it could be salvaged.  As it turns out.... it could!  It just needed a full service and cleaning.

For the past year I've been lurking around a cloth diaper sewing forum just soaking in all of the advice.  But this week, I decided to actually give it a whirl.  And so this is what I came up with.

My first diaper:

It was created from the free Rita's Rump Pocket pattern.  I bought some scrap white fleece for the outer but I had no idea if it was anti-pill fleece or not (my guess was no).  But after washing it, it still looks great!  the inside layer is made from an old flannel receiving blanket.  This diaper needs a pin or snappi to keep it closed but I'm hoping to invest in a snap press so I can add snaps!  I'm pretty happy with how it came out and the gussets weren't as tough as I thought they'd be - but my stitch lines were a bit wobbly.  I stuffed it with a BabyKicks hemp insert and it fit like a glove!  Now I just need to test it on little G!

And my second diaper:

For this one, I modified the RRP pattern so that it looked a little more like a BumGenius or FuzziBunz.  I made the wings shorter but next time I might add a little length to the center and height to the front rise.  The outside layer is hidden PUL with a soccer ball fabric on top.  The inside is microsuede and it's SO soft!  Hopefully this works well with wicking.  In the picture, it's stuffed with another BabyKicks hemp insert but I also have some Swaddlebees bamboo inserts that will work.  Once I get some snap pliers, I'll be adding a bunch of snaps to make this a one-size (OS) pocket diaper!

And since these came out WAY better than I ever expected..... I've now got the sewing bug!  I have another cute print that I plan to make a diaper out of and I also plan to make some fleece longies and some wetbags!

Movement

Within this last week, I've definitely felt a lot more movement from the baby. Now that I know these feelings are the baby, I'm pretty sure I've felt him/her for at least 2 weeks now. It's more of a thump-thump near my bladder and nothing like what is described in books; No 'butterflies' or 'bubbles' here. And it all makes sense now because the baby is currently sitting on my cervix. It's a little distracting when I'm at work because there's just NO way I can concentrate when I'm thinking about this little bean squirming around in there! I just wish I could feel the movement on the outside of my stomach so that Mike could experience it in some way, too. But I'm sure that's just right around the corner for us.

Planning things are starting to come along. We've set up our 2 registries and I'm glad to have established those. At first it was daunting and we had no idea where to begin. Luckily for me, I have an awesome sister who just LIVES for stuff like this. So I made her come out with us and she guided us a bit on what we'll need. I'm still shocked at how much we picked out. At first I thought our list would be so insanely short because we're getting a ton of hand-me-down furniture. But we somehow managed to fill it up quickly with other ridiculously cute items.

I was a bit miffed that neither store carried cloth diaper supplies in their locations. What happened to the 'green' trend? Is it still that rare to cloth diaper babies??? Luckily for us, both stores carry SOME supplies online so I went and added those on for our internet-savvy fans. And even MORE luckily for us.... I recently reconnected with a high school friend who cloth diapers her infant!! She was so generous and gave me all of her used newborn and infant diapers because her son has moved on to a larger size (reduce, reuse, recycle!). Wow, I'm just so crazily blessed! I guess now I'm really committed to this project! ;-)

Other than that, Mike started painting the nursery! I'll post pictures once that comes along a little more.

21 weeks, 5 days pregnant!