Adventures in sewing

Yesterday after we looked at costumes, we stopped at Walmart so I could pick up some fabric to make Ethan some cloth wipes. Cloth diapers + cloth wipes = Makes things easier. Who wants to hunt for a trash can to toss out disposable wipes when we can just use cloth ones? Plus there will be less chemicals on Ethan's tush. We started our cloth diapering adventure last month, after tons of research and reading recommendations online. We decided to purchase a one-sized cloth diaper, meaning that it adjusts to grow with the baby! Ethan was 7 months old already, but we are so happy that we made this decision to do something better for him. Plus, it is so much more economical for the environment and for us money wise! I have read so many recommendations for Cotton Babies Bum Genius cloth diapers, so we started out with 12 of their Bum Genius 3.0 one size diapers. Check them out!!

So, I thought making cloth wipes would be easy-peasy, right? I tried last week I guess to cut up a receiving blanket with pinking shears, thinking that would keep the fabric together, but the edges just frayed in the wash and got little strings all over everything. So, I bought some cheap, cute monkey flannel and we headed to Mammaw's to get some lessons in sewing :) My first time! I cut out square-ish size cloth and we were going to sew two pieces together. We had some issues with the machine and the thread kept breaking, but I learned how to use the machine and how to thread it and even change the thread color and change the bobbin color too. We would have been flying through had the silly thread not kept breaking, it was driving us all crazy! Thanks to Aunt Sheila, Mom, and Mammaw for all their help and for giving me lessons! We managed to get all the wipes sewn together and flipped inside out, but it was nearly 9pm and Ethan was whining and ready for bed, so we headed home and will finish closing the tops of the wipes with a (semi) decorative stitch next week when I'm free. I think I did pretty good for a first timer. Now we just need to change out the Branton thread supply... there were too many spools from the Piece Goods store, which has not been around for quite some time!!

Ethan was pretty grumpy yesterday at naptimes, too... he would not take a morning nap for me or Ryan, but fell asleep the minute we got in the car. He fell asleep before we even reached Bypass 4. Then at Mammaw's, he was being Mr. Crankypants again and would not go to sleep for me or Mammaw. He finally conked out nursing, but woke up the minute I laid him back down and I couldn't get him back to sleep. Magically, when Papaw came and got him, he fell asleep cuddling with him and let him put him in the swing and he slept about 50 minutes. He just had the magic touch yesterday! He did fall asleep on the way home and napped for awhile after we got back, and then nursed and went right to sleep. The night went fine, so he just wanted to be part of the action yesterday!