Getting Ready for Baby--PUL Diaper Covers

Well this is the last of my diaper cover reviews. It has been quite some time since I posted. I've been avoiding my blog due to life. I love all my children. Learning to live with 5 has been an adjustment. A new schedule always pops out, it is just this time, it has taken a little bit more time. Also, I haven't been around because I'm a bit lazy. Putting my brain to work so my words sound somewhat reasonable, shooting and editing pictures (because I love pics) and using naptime to the fullest are just too taxing at time. Yup, I'm lazy. But that is beside the point.

PUL stands for polyurethane laminate. Basically it is a polyester laminated onto a knit fabric. I love this stuff because I feel more comfortable about leakage than I had with the fleece covers. One side is shiny; the polyester side and the other side is a knit. They can come in many different print depending on which company you choose.

My first experience with PUL was when I had some extra money and bought some Thirsties covers on Amazon.com. I loved the fact that I could just fold a prefold newspaper style and lay it in. Number 1 were easy, just dump out the wet prefold, pat dry and add another. Number 2 was easy as well, but Rockbiter was a bit messy with that, so I just got another cover for him at that time. I loved the leg gussets, since even with the wool covers Rockbiter had horrible leakage around the legs. These were really cost efficient for me. Unfortunately, I only got two at the time.

They were very easy to wash. Drying was a snap. I didn't even have to put them in the dryer, just hang them on a hanger. There was some staining, but that could be sunned out if necessary. I didn't mind the stains, no one could really see them.

I had also bought a Bum Genius 3.0 at the same time as the covers. This is a one sized pocket diaper with a microfiber insert. Rockbiter didn't do too well with this as he got too hot. Princess uses this diaper quite often. My only complaint is that it didn't fit Rockbiter after 9 months. He has a longer rise than that diaper. I love the stay dry suedecloth (I think it is suedecloth, I may be wrong) inside. It really does shake off the Number 2 away quite easily. I don't even take the insert out anymore when I wash it, it usually just shakes out in the wash for me.

For Princess, I wanted to get away from the bulk and uncertainty of fleece covers and I knew that I wouldn't really have the time or energy to work with wool again (also price came into play here). So I sewed my own PUL Covers incorporating what I liked about the ones I had with the ones I've seen online. That may become a tutorial one day, we'll see.

I absolutely love my PUL Covers. They are very breathable. They are easy to clean and a snap to dry. My little girl doesn't have a skin problem with them. I love that PUL has become more available to home hobbyists as well. If your baby doesn't have a polyester allergy, then I highly recommend this type of diaper cover.

Some of My Recent Soaps

 This first soap is Strawberry Facial Soap. It is made with strawberry puree, coconut milk, rose kaolin clay, rice bran oil, coconut oil, palm oil, castor oil, cocoa butter & sweet almond oil. I strained it so it shouldn't have any seeds in it. I'm hoping it will make a really nice gentle soap for my face. It was supposed to cream and pink, but I think the fragrance oil is discoloring it a bit. I used Citrus Strawberry fragrance from Nature's Garden. It is a lovely scent and I will be ordering it again. I've heard that strawberry fragrances fade out in CP soap, so I'll be watching this to see what happens. I made this nearly three weeks ago and it was still a little sticky when I cut the rest of it today. I will have to learn more about water discounts for this one. It did ash on me, but that isn't a problem, just looks funny.

This next one is one I formulated to be coconut-free for a friend. I haven't figured out what to call it so far. I used the crockpot hot process method on this one. I love how the rhassoul clay looks marbled in this soap. It is made with rice bran oil, sweet almond oil, palm kernal flakes, palm oil, castor oil, mowrah Butter, distilled water rhassoul clay. It is scented with Nature's Garden Apple Mango Tango. It seems to be a very good formula for hot process being very loose for marbling, I will be making this again. 

I'll be testing both soaps for lather and skin feel this next week. Nature's Garden is a new supplier for me. So far, I am very happy with them. I love all the fragrance oils I ordered. I did have a problem with the sample they sent me, it gave me a migraine. It was a wonderful scent, but I'm glad they sent a sample because now I know that I can't really handle it, so I won't order it. One reason I got into making my own soaps is because I am sensitive to certain scents and strong scents. I am blessed that I don't get migraines that often. When I make soap, I tend to make them less scented than other soapmakers. NG is a great company altogether with lots of stuff I'd love to order. Ah, one day, one day....

It is nice to get back on my feet after this pregnancy and Princess is settling into a routine. I've still have a lot on my plate, but it is workable. The Lord has been very good to my family, and I thank Him for that. Now, time to work on my Autumn Swap soap.

A Little More on Menu Planning

Well I'm sorry to say that I didn't get on the S.O.A.P. panel from Brambleberry. That's alright, at least I get to read about what the others are doing with their selections. So onto other things.

As you know, I love using my Menu Planner. It fits so nicely into my Home Book. But I find that often, I don't pick it up during the week after I've planned. That means I forget to start a crockpot, take frozen meats out to thaw and really mess up my plans. So I decided to make a little poster to hang on my fridge. I always go by the fridge, so when I notice the poster I can take out what I need because I'm reminded about it. I used to have a dry erase board on the fridge, but my boys kept taking it down and losing it. Also, the magnets were not very strong and kept sliding down the refrigerator. That was annoying. So I stopped using it.

After I made my little poster, I came across this neat thing on Pinterest. I think I'll end up making something like it when I have the funds, but things are really tight right now. I love playing with scrapbook paper and making things look pretty. My new obsession is making my everyday items lovely to look at. So it has been placed on the back burner.

Back to my poster, I found that even though I like started my week with Sunday the one with the Sunday on the top didn't work for me. My Sundays are very busy so most of my planning happens on Monday. I'm making due with what I printed out because I can't stand the thought of trashing this perfectly good paper. So I'm still using my menu planner, but I also put what I've planned onto my fridge poster. Everyone in the family likes knowing what is today's dinner. I laminated it after I printed it. I just pop it on the fridge with magnets. As you can see most my pretty ones have disappeared. Hmmmm, I think I need to make more!

I made my poster on Publisher, but if you didn't want to go through the trouble of making your own, I uploaded mine to Dropbox. You can get it here. There are 4 pages, 2 with my rainbow and 2 plain script. After it is laminated, you can use a dry erase marker to write down your menu. Easy and reusable.
 

Some of My Brambleberry Favorites

Brambleberry is one of my go to companies for my soapmaking supplies. So when they are looking for people for their S.O.A.P panel, I'm always interested but have never entered. I always talked myself out it one way or another. Well this time I thought I would try. Afterall, you will never get it if you never try. So here it is, my favorites from Brambleberry.

I love the fragrances Brambleberry has to offer. I like many of their scents. I do have to be careful because I get migraines with certain smells, but so far I've liked most of what I have chosen from their selection. My current favorite is Wake Up Rosemary. I wouldn't have even thought about getting it except that a friend of mine who helps me out with my soaping endeavors brought up that she likes the scent of rosemary, so I looked for it. It turns out, I like the scent as well. I was afraid of an Italian foodie smell. But this fragrance oil is so fresh and green! It really lives up to its name.

My next favorite is this 9 Cube Silicone Mold. I haven't had the chance to use it too much. I got interested from this post about its much bigger sister. I was so happy to see that they carried a much smaller version, since I don't make that much soap in one sitting. Now that Princess is a bit older and not so clingy, I have PLANS for it. In the picture you can see the one batch that I have done. It was a request from Roosiers. He loves watermelon and wanted to use this mold. That one is as soap crazy as me. He will give me all sorts of things and says, "Hey Mom, this would make a really great soap mold!" Ah, what a wonderful boy. I understand silicone molds are a bit tricky and you should either use sodium lactate or formulate a hard bar. I love hard bars, so that is what I did. I actually got this mold for my Sea Salt Spa bars, so I was happy with it. I can't really tell you too much about releasing with this mold. Right after I made this batch, Princess decided to make her Grand Entrance into the world, so it sat for quite a few days in the mold. I love that I don't have to line it, so if I have a little difficulty unmolding, I'm willing to deal with it. But so far, so good it unmolded fine after sitting for so long. No dents, though it was a bit tacky even after sitting for so long.

My current favorite is this Crinkle Cutter. I've always wanted one, but kept putting off getting one.  Well, when we moved from Arizona to Arkansas, I lost my regular soap blade (dough scraper). So I went ahead and bought it when I made my usual order. Man, am I glad I did. I just love it to death. I'm not sure you can see how it makes my rebatched soap look, but let me tell ya, it looks almost elegant. That is not something you usually equate with rebatched soap. My original plan was to make a Coffee Cream soap. The bottom was going to be brown with a cream textured top. *Sigh* it over heated, causing tunnels and some separation. It wasn't what I was looking for at all, so I rebatched it. I don't like wasting my materials and have fortunately been able to save all of my failures and ugly soaps. Well, when I went to cut with my new Crinkle cutter was so happy with the end result. So what I planned for a pretty soap, turned out pretty in the end. It kinda makes Cowboy Preacher scratch his head though. He always asked me, "What is up with the wavy soap." Lol, guess he just doesn't understand, I guess it is kinda girlie. Fine by me, after all, I live with 5 males. Consider it my little Girlie rebellion. :)

Pictures of a Cloth Diapered Baby

Sometimes it helps to see a cloth diapered baby when trying to decide to cloth diaper. It helps that I just love showing pictures of my cute kiddos. Here is a few pictures for your enjoyment

One Month old with Newborn Prefold and Snappi

PUL Diaper Cover

Leg Gussets

Four Months old, infant prefold and snappi

Four Months Old, Rita's Rump Pocket Diaper stuffed with infant prefold

I am not liking the pin, I will be adding snaps later on as I have time

PUL Diaper Cover

Getting Ready for Baby--Fleece Diaper Covers

Sorry it has been awhile to get back to this series. Having a newborn is always a challenge learning to adjust the newest member to the family. Princess is a little more clingy than her brothers as a little one, so we have been making her feel more comfortable which doesn't leave a lot of extra time.

Onto the fleece diaper covers. After finding that I really didn't have the time nor the inclination to continue wool covers, I needed to find a more affordable way to cloth diaper. At this time, we were suddenly without an income, so I couldn't go order material online. PUL was also very expensive as well. I found out about fleece covers from this blog. I had already sewn a lot of the pocket diapers, so I decided to give fleece a try.

Fleece is breathable and a little water resistant in itself. It does need a little different treatment from the prefolds though. To keep the water resistant properties you need to add fabric softener, so you can't wash them with your cloth diapers. The great thing about these is that you could just buy a bunch of fleece pants and use them with a fitted diaper such as Rita's pocket diapers. I had prefolds that no longer fit and no money with which to add to my diaper stash.

I found a free pattern from Celtic Cloth. With a gift of money from some very lovely Christian folk, I bought some pretty cheap fleece from Wal-mart. I had some notions left from a previous purchase. So I sewed 8 fleece diaper covers with TouchTape closures. These covers were turned and topstitched with 2 layers of fleece. They were very thick and bulky. They were a little big on Rockbiter, but they fulfilled their purpose. I wanted a wrap style that I could easily use with my existing prefolds.

We used these covers with Rockbiter from 5 months old to 28 months where they were getting too small. I love this pattern. I am so happy to have been able to use it so long. The only thing I didn't like about these is when your baby gets to be older and able to hold his bladder longer the covers don't work very well. Yes, we had diaper leaks and other accidents. I had wanted to potty train Rockbiter at that point, but being pregnant didn't leave me with a lot of energy and now with the new baby, pottytraining is put off for a bit. I am currently sewing up some trainers for him, but that is another post.

So here is what it comes down to in my opionion:

Pros

• Inexpensive
• Readily available
• Breathable 

Cons

• Bulky
• Can be inconvenient to wash separately
•  Needs fabric softener to stay water resistant
• Does not work very well with a heavy wetter

I want to mention that I love that some people offer a free sample or pattern. It was a blessing for me in a great time of need. It is great that you get to try a sample before buying the full item. Sometimes a pattern just doesn't work for me and then I have a pattern that I won't use. I would have loved to support Celtic Cloths by buying the full pattern, but at the time I had the money to purchase it, I couldn't find it. So if you would like a pattern for diaper covers or fitteds, I recommend the Celtic Cloth pattern. I will express my thanks with a purchase from them as I can.

Stay tuned for my newest cover made from PUL!

My Very First Soap Swap!

I participated in my very first soap swap this last month. The theme was Mother's Day. I was very excited to do a swap as I have always wanted to but haven't due to several circumstances. I was very happy to see it came before Mother's Day.

Anyhow without further ado, here is what I got in the box. (I forgot to take a picture of my contribution; Cucumber Wasabi soap).