Add 10 Points To My Crunchy Quotient

It's not that I'm striving to fit the crunchy mama stereotype...I just keep finding myself drawn to certain decisions or behaviors that some folks associate with hippies. Not the shoeless, pot-smoking part though. I like to wear shoes in public. At least flip-flops.

I've mentioned before that I'm kind of a closet tree hugger. I don't know if that's truly the best description of where I'm coming from. I think it is absolutely accurate to say that I belong right at the corner of Frugal Street and Green Avenue. That is where I need to build me a house. A little house with solar panels.

Hence the cloth diaper experiment (they shipped today...yay!) and my most recent project - homemade, reusable baby wipes. Made with stuff I already had they are FREE and I can just toss them in with the diapers to wash instead of tossing baby wipes in the trash so they are enviro-friendly. Perfect!

My sweet friends Lisa and Amy shared their time, equipment and expertise to make this simple project happen. I really needed the help as I have practically zero experience with sewing (so little that I almost spelled it sowing which is not at all the same thing).

My experience is as follows: I made baby shirts to donate to Pregnancy Lifeline with my GA class almost 20 years ago. A college roommate helped me start a pillow sham that was never finished. I've sewn on a few buttons here and there. And that's pretty much the extent of it.

The combination of my propensity toward perfectionism and lack of sewing skill did not foreshadow pleasant times. Fortunately, this was an uncomplicated task. And whenever I started to grumble about my lines not being straight or edges not looking perfect my friends were quick to remind me of their utilitarian purpose. "They are only poo wipes!"

A perfect assignment for a sewing novice.

We simply took a couple of the many flannel receiving blankets we have from Bennett's babyhood and cut them into roughly the same sized rectangles. We started sewing double layer wipes by facing the right sides of fabric together, stitching all around except for about an inch, then turning them right side out and stitching the opening closed. Which gave us this:


But truly that was too much work and in my (overly critical) opinion ended up looking messy. So we decided to just sew the pieces together with the right sides facing out from the start. The stitches simply hold the layers together and keep the fabric from unraveling too much. I liked this better as it was faster and they lay flatter for neat stacking. We also experimented with different thread colors and stitch patterns. The result:


Tonight I made some wipe solution with water, a bit of baby oil and a little baby soap. It is currently stored in a little plastic bottle with a pop-up spray lid (like sports caps on water bottles). I figure instead of keeping the fabric soaked in solution I can just spray each wipe before I use it. We'll see how that goes.

I haven't actually wiped any poo with my pretty little wipes yet. I might ease myself in by using them first for cleaning food-covered hands or something.

Thanks to a recent trip to Costco I still have about 700 disposable wipes hanging around the house. This allows us to not be too dedicated to my reusable stash quite yet. I don't see myself completely forgoing disposables in the future. I especially like having those in the car. You just never know when you'll need a wet wipe with these little ones!

I also want to thank everyone for your encouraging comments and suggestions about our attempt to make the switch to cloth diapers. Y'all are so sweet. I promise I'll keep you all updated on our progress. I might even include a (pictorial?) tutorial for Lydia once we get it figured out. Won't you all be looking forward to that!