Monster Pants Cloth Diapers

Making diapers started as a matter of practicality. I have been a seamstress for nearly ten years, and so when a baby was on the way, making my own diapers seemed to make sense. I loved making Addy’s diapers and quickly made more than strictly necessary for one baby. Next I started to make diapers for friends and soon after that began to create my brand: Monster Pants.

 A run of the mill line up that includes a bridal gown (needed a new zipper and to be taken in), a couple of skirts (needed to be altered to a more modern fit to be worn below the waist), a bridesmaid dress (needed to be hemmed), a sundress (also needed to be hemmed), and a men’s suit (the pants needed to be hemmed, the jacket taken in, and the sleeves shortened). Not pictured are the diapers that I was making this week as well. Those can be seen at facebook.com/MonsterPants.

Before I discovered the joys of diaper making, I worked primarily on formal wear. I have fitted more brides than I can count! I love to see brides in their dresses. It tends to be a happy time for everyone and it is a joy to be a part of that. Finding time to work on huge, fluffy bridal gowns became difficult when Addy, my little monster, became mobile. Dresses with four-digit price tags do not come out on top after an encounter with a toddler. I never had a dress come to harm, but it was tricky to work on the dresses while Addy was sleeping or while DH was on baby-duty and ensure the dresses were ready by their due dates. And so, I have changed my clientele largely from the bridal industry to the diaper-wearing crowd.

I still do alterations to bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses, and suits. I also hem pants, replace coat and pants zippers, and patch holey clothing. But mostly, I sew diapers. It is easier to fit diaper sewing into everyday reality with a little monster running loose. I also just plain enjoy interacting with parents and helping them make cloth diapering work for their families. I have helped quite a few people onto the cloth diapering bandwagon and I am proud of it!

What was a major influence on your choice to use cloth diapers?

Diapers are one of my favorite things to sew. I have been a seamstress for nearly ten years, so I have sewn a lot of stuff! Pant hems, bridesmaid dresses, bridal gown alterations, replacement zippers … you name it, I’ve probably sewn it! But there is just something about diapers. I love making something so functional. I love making something that can be worn more often than a formal gown. I love that it is relatively instant gratification from cutting fabric to finished object.

I say relatively instant gratification because it isn’t quite quick enough to say instant gratification. But it doesn’t take nearly as long as, say, making a gown. I have tried to time how long it takes me to make one diaper. Usually I make them in pairs to speed things a little with assembly line style construction. Except if I have too many going through the assembly line, it actually slows me down because I get overwhelmed with applying 100 snaps all at once, or applying 20 pieces of elastic in a row, all without the satisfaction of seeing a finished product. I am also frequently interrupted. The dear little monster who inspired Monster Pants requires quite a bit of tending. I don’t think I have ever finished a diaper in one sitting! My estimating puts two diapers in about 3 hours (this is actual work time, not including interruptions). So approximately an hour and a half for one diaper. Part of me wants that number to be a gross overestimation so that my hourly pay looks better. Then I turn a finished diaper over and over in my hands and don’t much care what the hourly wage is. Maybe I need to switch to nonprofit diaper making.

Handling the finished item is certainly satisfying, but my favorite step of making a diaper is turning the not-quite-finished diaper right side out. Most of the diaper-making happens with the wrong side of the fabric facing out.

See? Not nearly as cute as right side out. With the elastic added, it certainly has a diaper shape. But still looks like a work in progress. From here, I turn the diaper to get this:

Ahh, cuteness abounds! These are really real diapers that will soon be finished! I love this part! From here, each diaper receives about twenty to thirty minutes more of my time (so about an hour for both to be finished), and voila!

 

                          

Two very serviceable, incredibly cute diapers. The one on the left is a front-snapping one size AIP. The one on the right is a halfsie front-snapping one size pocket diaper.

I think I must just be an incredibly hopeful person. Turning the diaper right side out is the light that guides me to the end of the tunnel. It’s the little voice that whispers Almost there! just when I’m about to throw in the towel for the day. Because no matter how fun diaper sewing is (and it’s lots — you should give it a try sometime!), sometimes it is just plain hard to feel like I am working every way I turn. Work on diapers, work on keeping the house in anything resembling tidy, work on keeping the toddler from throwing the house into a deeper level of chaos (seriously, she just ate a stamp while I typed this). Nonetheless, I love being mommy, I love my little monster, I love making diapers, and I love being a WAHM.

What did your little monster do while you were reading this?

I love that phrase. Patient as the earth. It comes from the second book in the Ann Brashares series, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. One of the characters says her mother was “patient as the earth.” When I first read that, years ago, it made me think of patience in a new light. Not simply waiting. But tirelessly, happily continuing. With a fresh blue sky in the morning and cheerful bright flowers each spring. Blue skies and bright flowers is not what my patience always looks like. Yesterday it looked more like storm clouds.

For whatever reason, Addy has been sleeping about 10 hours for every 24 several days in a row. Her normal is closer to 12 hours for every 24. That’s nap and nighttime sleep combined. Two hours short on sleep several days in a row is not the way to having a happy 18-month-old. If I knew what was making her not sleep, I would change it. If I knew something was waking her, I would prevent it. But there is no obvious explanation.

Should someone invent a baby speaker device that operates like those collars the dogs in the movie UP, I will buy it. In my imagination, this speaker device is worn by the baby at all times. It turns whines, cries, and baby-speak sentences into plain speech. Instead of goo-der-ba-ya, this speaking device will interpret “I woke up too early again today because I am going through a particularly tough phase of brain development; my mind is to active to sleep longer. Please be extra-patient with me today while I go through this difficult time.”

See how easy that would make your life? Now if only someone would invent this speaking device!

Meanwhile, Addy was a sad baby who needed more from me than usual. The dog, Miles, was at the backdoor wanting to come back inside. With mud up to his elbows. Spring means critters and as a sporting breed, Miles believes it to be his mission in live to keep the yard critter-free. The rain makes the dirt irresistibly soft. Perfect for digging up critters. So, leaving sad Addy on the clean side of the gate, I let Miles in to be rinsed at the utility sink before he could spread mud everywhere. A clean dog and a mom who couldn’t take any more whining crossed to the clean side of the gate to join the still-sad Addy. I got to one knee, looked my baby in the eye, and informed Addy that there was to be no more whining. Tearfully, she replied “poo-poo” while making the sign for toilet. I had just scolded my baby when she was trying to tell me she needed help getting to the bathroom in time.

See? No blue sky, bright flowers patience from me. Storm clouds. And ugly ones at that. I apologized to Addy and, of course, took her to the bathroom right away. She doesn’t seem to be holding my moment of impatience against me. She even slept for 11 hours last night and is napping right now, hopefully cutting into the sleep deficit she’s had of late. This morning she was certainly more like her usual happy self.

There is a quotable quote that goes “You never know how much patience you have until you’ve lost it.” I have always thought myself a patient person. Mothering a toddler is teaching me a whole new breed of patience never before imagined. Sometimes I fail, showing myself to be patient as a hungry newborn. I hope that each failure is adding to my understanding of patience and my ability to demonstrate it so that someday it might be said of me: “She was patient as the earth.”

What is one way in which parenting has challenged you?

Let’s start with our April winner before you all peg me as a nutter with the elimination communication talk. Congratulations to Tracy, who won a hemp flat in this month’s giveaway! It will be on its way to you shortly.

Have you heard of elimination communication (EC)? Simply put, it is taking a baby potty. I started offering potty breaks to Addy when she was about two months old. I didn’t start sooner because I hadn’t heard of it before then. After hearing about it, I spent several days snuggling my tiny baby thinking about whether she had to go. But it was too much work to take her potty, surely. So I continued to snuggle. And then realized I was just sitting around holding (and very much enjoying) my little newborn. I had no good reason not to try EC! After the first catch, I was hooked. It works! Infants know they need to go!

 Addy at about three months old. The Baby Bjorn Potty Chair offers plenty of support so even very young babies can sit on it well. It is a popular choice for EC parents, as is the Baby Bjorn Little Potty. Baby Bjorn may not make the best carriers, but they sure make awesome potties!

Diaper Free Baby has information on the philosophy of EC as well as practical information on how it is done. Though it isn’t revolutionary, as I thought it was on first hearing of it. EC is practiced all over the world! Most cultures don’t think anything of it, it is so commonplace. Only here in the Land of Pampers do we find it peculiar to breastfeed a baby who is capable of asking for milk, but normal to change a diaper on a child who just used a complete sentence asking to be changed. In countries where diapers are too expensive to be practical (i.e. a large portion of the world), caregivers learn to recognize a baby’s need to go and respond accordingly. I imagine if I were wearing a naked baby on my back all day, I would quickly learn when she needed to potty since the alternative is having a wet back!

Elimination communication does not mean I spend the entire day rushing Addy to the bathroom “just in case.” She is in diapers so that I don’t have to stress about possible misses. There are also people who go completely diaper free from birth. If that is too hardcore for you, babies often do well with part time EC too. Even if you only practice it in the evenings after daycare or on weekends when you’re home, you’ll probably be surprised by how often you make a catch!

We have used diapers to minimize cleaning up misses, especially if I get too distracted to noticed baby needs to go. But Addy understands what to do on a toilet. She regularly holds it and waits to go on the potty. By around seven months, dirty diapers were a very rare occurrence. By around 9 months, Addy was regularly giving the American Sign Language sign for “toilet” when she needed to go. Now, at 18 months, we are about to put away the diapers. Don’t worry; I’m still making Monster Pants even if my little monster doesn’t need them. Might even branch out into training pants and some EC-friendly pants.

I wanted to mention elimination communication so others know it is an option. It has been one of the best parenting decisions I made, but I would not have made it had I not heard of EC from a friend who has practiced it with all seven of her children. If it isn’t a good fit for your family, I trust your judgement. But if you are a little bit intrigued by the idea, I encourage you to give it a try. You might even save yourself from changing a poopy diaper.

Have you heard of elimination communication before?

I was going to continue our laundry discussion, and then present April’s giveaway. But the vanilla beans I ordered through a co-op arrived in the mail and made me change my mind. I have never used actual vanilla beans before. They are about $3 each at the store! Through the co-op, beans were seventy cents apiece. I can work with that!

This morning, Addy and I made vanilla syrup and I couldn’t wait to share the recipe! I intend to add the syrup to my coffee. I used the instructions from Bartending Basics. They use a ratio, which means you can make a little or a lot very easily. Even more easily if you have a kitchen scale that measures in grams. If you think kitchen scales and metric units sound difficult and scary, you need to read Ratio.

The following is the ratio from the Bartending Basics link above put to use. This amount resulted in about five cups of vanilla syrup.

Vanilla Syrup Recipe

• 500 g water (about 2 1/4 cups)
• 2 vanilla beans
• 1000 g sugar (about 4 3/4 cups)

Boil the water, but don’t leave it boiling. The evaporation will skew your ratio. Split the vanilla beans and scrape them out. Add the beans and scrapings as soon as the water is boiling. Remove from heat. Add sugar and stir until completely dissolved. It takes some stirring to dissolve all that sugar. The mixture will look cloudy and be grainy at first. Keep stirring until it turns clear. Mixture will be tinted from the color of the vanilla. Allow to cool. Strain the mixture through a clean towel or cheesecloth.

I haven’t yet added the finished syrup to anything. But I did take a taste. And it was fantastic. I thought I loved the vanilla syrup you buy in the coffee aisle at the grocery. Now that I’ve made my own syrup, I realize that the store bought version has a distinct chemical flavor compared to the purity of what just came off the stove. I can’t wait to put this stuff in everything!

I wish I could put some vanilla syrup up for the giveaway this month! Unfortunately, current postal regulations prohibits mailing liquid. So I’ll stick to the original giveaway plan for April. A hemp flat! The flat is about 12″ x 12″. Perfect as a doubler in an overnight diaper or a trifolded insert for any pocket diaper.  To enter, simply answer today’s question.

What is something of which you will only accept the homemade version?

I have had a lot of questions on how to wash cloth diapers lately. So let’s discuss it! Details on why diapers should be washed with care are very thoroughly explained in this article on diaper care by Wazoodle. Here I’ll focus on what a basic wash routine should look like, though you will probably find that each cloth diapering mama has her own unique wash routine! Since what works depends on the water in your home, the types of diapers you use, your detergent, and even the growing stage of your baby, it makes sense that everyone fine tunes a washing routine to fit their situation.

 Diaper pail, next to changing table/dresser, and to the right of that (pictured below) is the diaper bin for clean fluff.

As the Wazoodle article says, washing frequently is important to keep diapers in top form and to reduce buildup. I wash every other day almost without exception. I keep used diapers in a dry pail. My pail is a lidded trash bin, no bag of any kind. After dumping the diapers in the washer, I swish a squirt of soap or bleach in the pail with water, and rinse well.

And now my not-so-secret recipe for fresh, clean diapers! This exact routine may or may not work for you in your home. The good news is that if it doesn’t, you can find your own perfect wash routine with just a bit of tweaking. The general idea that I use seems to be relatively universal, even if details vary by household.

• Cold rinse with nothing added. I set my machine to the “extra rinse” setting. A cold rinse first helps remove anything with staining potential. Also helps get rid of the stink that comes from urine. A lot of it is drained out during this initial rinse. Some find it helpful to rinse each wet diaper as it is changed, before putting it in the pail. Experiment, see what works for you.
• Hot wash with manufacturer’s recommended amount of detergent. If the diapers have seemed less fresh lately, I also add either 1/2 cup of baking soda or a packet of RLR. My detergent of choice is Tide Free & Gentle. I have used several brands with varying degrees of success. Tide is my current favorite. My washing machine follows the hot wash with a cold rinse.
• Cold rinse with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of white vinegar. Again, I use my machine’s “extra rinse” setting. Sometimes I skip this last rinse. But if I skip the extra rinse consistently, the diapers begin to take on an odor the moment they are peed in.
• Weather permitting, I line dry everything. Otherwise I use the dryer on medium heat.

 Pictured is our diaper bin. All of these are Monster Pants AIP diapers. My favorite are side-snapping.

The important points in any diaper wash routine is to have an initial cold rinse to keep staining to a minimum. If you’re not concerned with staining, this rinse is less vital. A hot wash helps clear your diapers of any living things. After that, rinses can be any temperature but cold rinses use less energy. Keep in mind that you are always trying to eliminate buildup of ammonia, minerals left by hard water, and detergent. Diapers that are super-stinky are not normal and often indicate an issue with the regular wash routine.

I wash Addy’s clothes with the diapers. Everything gets tossed in the same pail. Towels often get washed with the diapers too. I used to segregate diaper laundry like it was a contagion harboring the plague. Then I realized the diaper laundry received the best, most thoughtful care of all my laundry. And either everything was coming out clean, in which case it doesn’t matter that non-diapers are being wash with diapers. Or nothing was coming out clean, in which case I ought to be careful of underwear and face towels being washed together too. I am confident everything is coming out of the washer clean.

 Our prefolds have mostly been retired for now, except for occasionally stuffing a nighttime pocket if bamboo and hemp inserts aren’t clean. With a PUL or wool cover, they are my favorite for newborn to 4 (or so) months. 

If you’ve been using cloth for some time, you have likely tested and tweaked a variety of wash routines. New cloth diapering families can use this as a starting point of sorts. If you are having trouble with The Stinkies or feel like your wash routine needs some help, feel free to ask questions.

My question for you: How do you wash your fluff?

We had a slow week around here, waiting for colds to abate so life could return to normal. It started with Addy, who shared her germs with me. About the time we were both improving, husband caught it. There are some lingering coughs, but otherwise it’s back to business as usual!

It never ceases to amaze me how active a sick toddler can be. On my worst day of this cold, all I wanted to do was sit on the couch with a box of tissues and stare at the wall. Addy’s energy seemed immune to the effects of a cold. If it weren’t for other obvious signs, I wouldn’t have thought she was sick at all!

The first clue is that constantly-running nose! Which leads to wet spots on her shirt, if I don’t get a wipe in time. Perhaps the most amazing thing about a toddler with a cold is that her overall expression has the same glazed, lethargic look as I do when sick. She can’t possibly feel well! And yet she runs laps around the house as if she were training for the Olympic 100-meter dash.

PJ’s all day is a given during illness, though is perhaps more a sign of mom being sick than the toddler. Addy would just as soon not wear anything ever.

After days of all that nose-wiping, it’s sure to turn red. I apply copious amounts of lanolin to help keep it from getting too chapped and dried out. As long as I pretend to apply it to myself first, Addy is all about getting some too. She loves doing what everyone else is doing!

My favorite aspect of a sick toddler is how cuddly she becomes. Usually she is bouncing from one activity to the next, climbing on anything she can, running after whatever catches her eye. I know she is sick if she will pause, ask to be picked up, and just snuggle for a few moments.

Now that the household is mostly recovered, I have been trying out some new experiments! I have wool covers in the works. I am really excited to get these perfected for moms who love wool and for babies who are rash-prone! I have also been fiddling with my front-snapping pattern, just to see if there is something else I like better than what I am currently doing. So far, what I’ve been doing is still my favorite, but I have a couple more ideas to try before I am satisfied.

How do you know your little one is coming down with something?