Friday, October 29, 2010

Busy, Busy, Busy!!

Yep! That is what Alex and I have been. We are busy preparing for the arrival of our precious bundle. We decided to leave everything baby related until after the wedding was over, and now after realising we have less then 8 weeks to go till my due date, we have been spending every free moment preparing. I have had a pretty good idea of what I wanted for bubs for a while and have been doing a lot (and I mean a lot) of research into the best products for the best prices. We are slowly getting there and have all the major furniture and equipment bought (photos coming in another post). It is now down to the decorating and preparing all the small stuff.

As I have talked about before, I really want to try and do a lot of home made things myself for bub. I plan to make the cot bumpers and sheets, room cushions, wall decorations, toys, burp cloths, home change mat covers, travel change mats, bibs, cotton nappy covers, shoes, clothes, hats and reusable wipes.

Today I have been busy getting started on crossing off some of that sewing list. I haven't sewn in over a year so it took a bit of practice to remember what to do and what settings to have the machine on, but I got there in the end, and am quite happy with my progress.

I decided to start small by tackling the reusable wipes and getting them out of the way. I have done a small tutorial of my wipe making process down below if you are interested in taking a look. They are pretty easy to make and without all those harsh chemicals found in the disposable wipes your delicate babies bum will appreciate it.


Reusable Cloth Baby Wipes Tutorial -

What you will need -

*fabric of your choice (I used flannel as it is soft and absorbent)
*sewing scissors
*sewing machine
*thread
*dress making pins

Cut out squares of material to the size you want. I did 7x7 inch squares.


Pin two bits of the fabric together with right sides facing each other


Sew around the edges of the fabric leaving a 2 inch hole to be able to pull the fabric back through


Pull the fabric through the hole you left so the fabric is now right side out


Flatten out material so seems are aligned. You could iron these flat if you wanted but as these ones are just for personal use I didn't. Now sew around the entire edge of the square.


This is what it looks like close up with the edge sewn.


This is the finished product. All you need to do is wet it under warm water to wipe baby's bottom or have a small water spray bottle close by to the change area and give it or bub's bum a few squirts then wipe away!

5 comments:

Kristina said...

Well, your cloth wipes look a bit more "finished" than mine do! I took old hand-me-down receiving blankets (flannel - absorbent) and cut the two squares and just zigzagged the edges together. There's a little bit of fraying that I'm sure will increase with each washing, but it was quick and since they were hand-me-downs, they were free!

How many did you make? I made about 30, I think.

Rita said...

What a great idea! And you'll be glad you used a print, I bet, so the stains don't show as boldly--hehe! Cute print.

Sounds like you and your sewing machine are going to be very busy! Love to see the pictures. :)

Where the Heart is said...

Kristina, yay! I am so excited you are doing reusable wipes aswell! They are so easy and quick to make. I think the hardest and longest part was cutting out all those squares. I think they look so cute! I have made 20 and am gonna do another 20 just to be sure I have enough. Pretty cool that you upcycled the old blankets. The zig zag stitch would have been much easier but I am such a perfectionist I wanted the neat edge, lol.

Rita, thanks! Yes I definitley wanted a print to help disguise the stains, lol. Luckily I had this material lying around from my sewing days a couple years ago. I think it works well :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Michelle,

I just wanted to say this is a great post! I like how the baby wipes turned out when you finished them! The tutorial is great, especially seeing the process being done!

Love Brad!
xoxo

Serena Lewis said...

Cool idea, Shell! These would be much better than the commercial baby wipes...less harsh on baby's soft bottom. I'll do a link to these in my next Blog Lovin' post.

Love Mum xo