Editors note - Many thanks to Deb's for sending this article in.
When I first had a baby 15 years ago many people thought I was completely bonkers to be using terry toweling nappies. Disposable nappies were the "In thing" and thought of, as they are now, convenient, the only thing available and the only nappy you should use. Cloth nappies were seen as an old fashioned thing, not something a 20 year old should be doing. People thought I was different, yet my response to that was "people have been using cloth years before the disposable came a long so how Cloth nappies are different is beyond me."
Three children later that is still my opinion but my methods have changed some what, thankfully peoples opinions on "real nappies" have changed too. Over the years I have come to be more frugal and more environmentally aware. I hate wasting money and resources. Last year when I gave birth to my fourth child I was in a position of having NO baby items. I had moved house several times in a short space of time and had thrown a lot of my stuff out as I had seriously downsized in property size. This is when E-bay came in handy.
I did a search for Terry nappies and discovered Kooshies. Good Idea I thought, and bought a few. These nappies were really good but I was a little uncomfortable with the plastic outer, as I was with using plastic pants on all my other children. As the weeks went by I discovered there were now many types of re useable nappies on the market. These were all well and good but I didn't have the money to be spending £10 per nappy. Although in the long run that is still cheaper than using disposables I still wanted to save more money.
I rediscovered my sewing machine one day as I had to make a costume for my daughter. It was then that I thought "I could maybe make a pattern to make my own nappies." I got a Kooshies nappy and drew around it. I then made this template bigger and then cut out the fabric for a "Test" nappy from an old sheet and old towel. That nappy was far from perfect in fit and it took a few tries before I came up with the right fit for my baby. The last test nappy I made was really good and that was when I got the idea of making all the nappies out of old clothes and sheets etc. Luckily I had a lot of these as we were just doing a clear out. I used a selection of my husband's old T shirts and some of our old towels. It worked fine and soon I had 20 nappies that cost next to nothing to make. Now I need to be making some more as she has outgrown them. This is where my new one size nappy comes in. Over the weeks I have been tweaking about with my old pattern in the hope I could make one that will hopefully last till she no longer needs nappies. The "test" nappy seems ok, but this time most of the fabric I am using is some terry toweling I got in a sale....not quite as frugal but still cheap. Had I managed to make the one size nappy to start with then the whole nappy process would have been very cheap and very eco friendly.
I have found charity shops are great for finding cheap towels and fabric for use with nappy making. Also, if you have old fleece sweatshirts etc then nappy liners can be made by cutting them up into rectangles.
When it came to nappy wraps I use Wool wraps. These I make mainly from old wool jumpers from charity shops. As long as you have about 50% wool content then that is fine, but make sure no cotton is in there as this absorbs liquid. I am lucky as the local charity shop often gets good wool in and I knit wraps too. Wool is waterproof so long as you add lanolin to it. This is an oil that sheep use to keep themselves dry...have you ever seen a soaking wet sheep? Lanolising a wool wrap is simple and lasts a few months. You don't need to wash the wraps, unless they get dirty. Just air them between nappy changes.
To soak the nappies you don't need to buy nappy cleanser. Just add a few drops of tea tree oil to some water in your nappy bucket. It works a treat and is obviously more eco and wallet friendly than the alternative. And, if you use handmade washing solution to wash them with then that's even better.
Making nappies and wraps this way works out so much cheaper than buying them new and is also re using items that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
Please click the above logo to return to the home page for more self sufficient 'ish' articles. Or why not check out our forum?
|
Bestfeeding |
If you buy a book and you are not just helping out this site, but you are supporting an independant ethical company.
|
Birthing From Within |
