She is now Everywhere!

I am amazed at how fast Deirdre grew! I thought this amount of time passed really fast with Connor, but I realize that time went even faster with Deirdre.

She is crawling now!

And she is in everything!

And she keeps loosing her socks

And her knees are all dry and red

As I find something annoying on an every day basis, I search creatively for a stylish way to make it better...often to find out that someone already did and it's on the market somewhere. So I did find a product called SocksOn and I will be trying it shortly.

My mind has been as busy as my body this week (yes, I DID some cleaning, and the main floor now looks presentable to visitors!) and I have been planning out many projects. One thing I am most happy about is the purchase of TWO new Mini Kiwi diapers so I am on the way to disposable-free diapering.

With Deirdre being more independant (and Connor socialising with other toddlers at daycare), I was able to finish something close to my heart!

It is a Vintage Style Baby Bonnet and you can find the free pattern here. I worked on it for over a month, a few evenings at a time. I made some modification to the pattern, as you see, I put cord instead of a button. I used a baby yarn from Bernat but I can't remember which one. I think the gauge was not perfect, so it turned out a little to big for Deirdre, but I am working at adjusting it. 

Since I am still a beginner at knitting, I am pretty proud of the end result. And she will be so sweet with it this spring!

How I wish I had more time!

Ever wondered why there is only 24 hours in a day? I sure wonder that every day...and yet, I am not one of those better placed to complain...But time flies by so fast sometimes and I wonder where it went. My little girl is teething and my big boy is a talking machine (and a professional French / English translator at the age of 2)! I battle myself every day to do household chores and constantly start craft projects that I never finish...(like that baby blanket I started a year ago, and Deirdre's pink knitted hat!) Not to mention job searching that I feel being urgent but keep postponing! All that time I waste looking at my Facebook, sitting on the floor with Deirdre while she really doesn't need me, lying around doing nothing while she sleeps...

Aside from more time, I wish I had a better camera. I find my blog naked without pictures to accompany what I enjoy sharing. I guess that will have to be my next "gift" to myself, in a few months....

Creative inspiration!

Ever woke up in the middle of the night with a great idea to make something and was unable to fall back asleep since elaborating on that idea was haunting your mind all of a sudden? Or have you went to bed at night with a great idea and couldn't get a good rest as you couldn't stop thinking about it. Or even worst, spent a night putting your idea into action instead of going to bed! Well, all of the above have happened to me. Recently, I have been obsessed with my flat diaper conversion and ideas to make pocket diapers...but also a few creative ideas to organize my house stylishly.

 For all of you still using disposable diapers, or like me, alternating between both, you might love this idea. Since we have a toddler not yet potty trained, and an infant, we accumulate quite the amount of diaper boxes. And since our house is a two story house, with bedrooms on the second level...it's not always convenient to have all the kids clothing and mostly used items in their rooms.

So we set up a change table in the dining room and a change area in the living room. But having everything just "put" on the shelves of a change table is not really "organized" and a bit annoying. You'd say: " what about baskets?"  We don't have any, and since all those diaper boxes we just sitting there, waiting for Recycling day, I thought they were the perfect size to become drawers for my daughters mostly used items under the change table.

Yeah, the Pampers and Huggies logos and desings are not really "stylish"! But with a few materials and a bit of imagination, they can become everything BUT diaper boxes!

I have been using those boxes for a few months without alteration, but now, I am ready to give them a face lift. I have plans of covering them with fabric, adding ribbons all around and making handles with rope...Tutorial and instructions to come.

The end of my Flat Diapers

Well, I didn't have that much to write about today, so I decided to share my current project. I have been using cloth diapers on and off for the past 2 years and really found out the hard way what doesn't work and what not to do. The first thing I learned was that the All-in-ones I was using were not so great, the second was that flat diapers are complicated.

That last thing is the reason I decided to convert all my flat diapers into contour diapers. My first diaper was a bit of a mess, but it still works great, looks much more comfortable than a folded flat diaper and doesn't leak, so far.

Here is what I did; I took a flannel flat diaper from my stash and a piece of jersey knit cotton I found in a bag of old fabric in the basement. I thought I'd add the jersey knit as the shell so I could attach the diaper with a Snappi. I didn't want to add more velcro since my covers already work with it. And Snappies don't work with flannel.

Left leg elastic

 I recycled an old paper grocery bag to make my pattern. Based on a Pampers diaper and my Kushies diaper cover, I created my very own pattern. Then I cut the pattern in the flat diaper and the jersey knit (see tutorial coming up on my YouTube Channel). With the left over flannel, I cut out three rectangles to be used to make my soaker. I sewed the rectangles together in a three layer soaker, then I sewed the soaker to the middle of the flannel part of the diaper. I then sewed the jersey knit and the flannel together, but here is where I made a bit of a mistake...putting on the leg elastics.

Right leg elastic

I started sewing the flannel and jersey around the edges but forgot about the elastics. Oops! so when I go to the left leg area, I sewed the end of the elastic where my mark was, stretched it, sewed it at the second mark and tried to pull the flannel over and back on the other side of the diaper, and sew that like a pocket . That allowed the elastic to be loose inside and free to move.

After I was done the left side, I was not happy with the tightness of the leg so I thought I could try something different with the other side. I cut my elastic shorter and sewed the front and back together at the edges, then sewed them again about a cm away from the edge, making sure the elastic stayed in between. Sure it was tighter, but I that it was more stiff than the other side.

The end product is pretty thin and absorbent, but I find it takes a while to dry...making me think maybe it needs another stripping.

Well, I still have 9 flat diapers waiting for a transformation...more experimentation to come!