Monday, April 1, 2013

Generation 2 Launch

**Photos will be added tomorrow. Nothing like going to take photos and the battery is DEAD!

For quite a time I had improvements swirling in my head for our diapers. This was finally the time to implement them when a large custom order came in.

As I cut into several of my fabrics for the first time, I decided to make extras and make the best use of the fabrics as I did so. Fabrics very close to the end were used up so they did not have to be put away for example. 36 were pre~ordered and by the time all was said and done, there were 100 diaper outers cut.


It was the middle of March then. I decided to challenge myself to see how many of them I could sew up by the end of the month. I opened a Facebook question and invited people to make their guess as a way to enter for a 50% off diaper giveaway.

During those two weeks, the kids were out of school for spring break, I caught some sort of bug that laid me out in bed for three days, and I had my regular full day in hospital. Suddenly, those two weeks seemed like no more than a couple of days. While I had to finish the pre orders for the end of the month, I also wanted (and took) some time for my family and home as well. Actually, truth be told I did not take it, it TOOK ME!

The first improvement was increased absorption in all our diapers. The soaker layers are also now sewn individually so that there is greater water flow in the washer thus less chance of trapped particles, less compression and decreased drying times. 


Secondly, cross over snaps are standard on all sizes of diapers now. If you have chosen velcro as your closure of preference (available by request), it is also styled with a cross over tab to allow for more fitting options, especially during those size transition periods.

Third, we have increased the variety of inner fabrics available. Flannel will always be an option to add a cute print at an economical price point. Micro-fleece is available with print or solid PUL outters as is micro-chamois (color choices are limited however and I can let you know what would best suit a particular print outer  Suede-cloth is available in a cow print only at this time. Wicking lining jersey is newly available at BB Butts. Light, breathable and dry against baby. There will soon be a wide variety of colors of the jersey available to work with out print PULs.

Finally, small diapers all have a snap down umbilical cord "dip". Snap it down and adjust your other snaps to work around the area. One snap closing on each side is sufficient to hold for these newbies that have entered your lives.

The diaper construction challenge began! Labels were sewn in (200 in all), soakers sewn together, diapers stacked and pinned. Snaps were applied..until my hand hurt.

This necessitated an invention (or intervention) of need. The handle of the snap press is rough cast metal...it literally shreds hands while snapping large orders. When you consider that a diaper has 16 snap pressings (on average) times 100 diapers... owies! I had worked one evening until my hand really hurt. The next morning I was doing laundry and it all clicked for me. I have some rubber shelf liner stuff atop my dryer to protect it and reduce noise when things are on top of it. I cut about a three inch wide strip of it off (times however wide it is...18 inches maybe), plugged in my glue gun and got at it. I simply wrapped the handle in the stuff to make a cushion. I hot glued it together and then because I thought it may slip down the handle with repeated pressings I injected glue in between the layers at the end then let it dry. SCORE!! No more sore, raw feeling hands and I went on to snap MANY more diapers. Now if someone has a cure for the sore shoulder.....

So at the end of the day on Easter Sunday there was 65 diapers completed!! Not my full goal of 100 but also nothing to sneeze at either. Actually there is another 15ish that are about 2 hours away from all being done as well. I never did get to working on the mediums, the completed diapers are all smalls. This is also ok as I was getting very low on inventory for smalls.

The joy of being a WAHM is that I can set my own schedule and am answerable to me only. I was able to live life during an off schedule time and in the end came out ahead and met my customer need. Success!!


So who won??? Well congratulations to Mallory Robbins who entered in the 60 to 70 complete category. Mallory, you can message me through either FB or Etsy to let me know which instock diaper you would like half price!

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