My Homemade Newborn Cloth Diapers

So I have been sewing my entire newborn stash of cloth diapers, which has been so much fun! I love making them! I wish I had a sewing machine here in the hospital so I could keep working on them though, because I didn't get as many made as I had hoped to. However, my grandmother will also be making me several, so that will be a huge blessing! Especially since a newborn will go through more diapers a day than an older baby/toddler.

All of these diapers are fitted diapers, so they are not water proof, but water resistent. During the day I can leave them without a cover if I want to, however I will be making some wool covers to put over them and possibly a few waterproof covers after she is born.

By making my own newborn diapers I saved about $250 on newborn cloth diapers alone!! This does not include the money we will save by not using disposables.  On my OS diapers I will save at least $150-$450 on those cloth diapers.  Making them definitely takes more time and effort, but the savings is fantastic! Plus this way I have creative choices.
You can watch here how I made these diapers! This is a multiple part series, but here it part 1:


Here are some of the diapers that I have made! (Lots of pictures! Sorry!)

All-In-One Hybrid Fitted

Above:  This was my first diaper.
Closure: Velcro
Inner fabric: Flannel
Outer fabric: Flannel
Hidden layer: fleece
Soaker: 2 layers of terry towel

All-In-One Hybrid Fitted

Above: This was my second diaper.
Closure: Velcro

Inner fabric: Micro-fleece
Outer fabric: Flannel
Hidden layer: fleece
Soaker: 2 layers of terry towel

Birds All-In-Two Hybrid Fitted 

Inner fabric: Flannel
Outer fabric: Eco Fleece
Hidden Soaker:  1 layer of terry towel

Separate Soaker:
2 layers microfiber
1 layer terry towel
surrounded by flannel

The remaining diapers have no closures, I plan to use either snappis or boingos to hook them.

Left: Front

Left: Back

 Left: Outside

Left: Inside and soaker

 Left:  The front rise is folded down to make the diaper even smaller.  Will be good to fit a smaller baby and under the umbilical cord.




























Breast Cancer All-In-Two Hybrid Fitted

Inner fabric: Micro-Fleece
Outer fabric: Flannel
Hidden fabric: Fleece
Hidden Soaker:  1 layer of terry towel

Separate Soaker:
2 layers microfiber
1 layer terry towel
surrounded by flannel

 A part of the stash picture

Houses All-In-Two Hybrid Fitted

Inner fabric: Micro-Fleece
Outer fabric: Eco Fleece
Hidden fabric: fleece
Hidden Soaker:  1 layer of terry towel

Separate Soaker:
2 layers microfiber
1 layer terry towel
surrounded by flannel and micro fleece

 Owl All-In-Two Hybrid Fitted 

Inner fabric: Micro-Fleece
Outer fabric: Flannel
Hidden fabric: fleece
Hidden Soaker:  1 layer of terry towel

Separate Soaker:
2 layers microfiber
1 layer terry towel
surrounded by flannel and micro fleece

Stripes All-In-Two Hybrid Fitted

Sorry it's sideways... I don't know how to rotate it on here.

Inner fabric: Flannel
Outer fabric:Flannel
Hidden fabric: fleece
Hidden Soaker:  1 layer of terry towel

Separate Soaker:
2 layers microfiber
1 layer terry towel
surrounded by flannel

 Green Plaid All-In-Two Hybrid Fitted

Inner fabric: Flannel
Outer fabric: Flannel
Hidden fabric: fleece
Hidden Soaker:  1 layer of terry towel

Separate Soaker:
2 layers microfiber
1 layer terry towel
surrounded by flannel

Although these are not all the ones I made, this shows the different fabric choices I have. I have several diapers that look very similar because of the fabric choices.  When I get home I would like to make a few more newborn diapers if I have the time and energy. But then I need to get started on her bigger One-Size diapers.  The one size diapers can change size with snaps making them bigger and smaller.

What do you think of my diapers? Have you ever made any cloth diapers? I'd love to see them!

Love,
Erica

Homemade Laundry Detergent

 Want more tips and tricks for living an environmentally sustainable life?

Stop by my new blog Our Living World.

I've always had an interest in living as green and simply as can, while also staying budget friendly and realistic.  Several years ago my mom began making her own liquid laundry detergent and that has always been really interesting to me.  When I moved down here they made some for me and it lasted me from August to nearly February! That was amazing because we had spent no more than $7 on all the ingredients.

Recently while looking through blogs I found another blogger who makes her own laundry detergent, using the exact same recipe as my mom, however her is powder instead of liquid.  This sounded much more realistic to me because the liquid takes over a day to make and the powder was much quicker.  So I wanted to share this recipe with you today! I found the alternative version of this recipe over at Elisa Loves, which is definitely one of my new favorite blogs, so check her out!

Homemade Laundry detergent
This recipe is very simple and only requires 3 ingredients!  Borax, Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, and a Fels Naptha bar. Even better, the box of Borax and Washing Soda will last for several recipes and you will only need to buy Fels Naptha (97 cents at Walmart, last time I was there).  Not too bad at all!

Required Materials: 

1/2 cup Borax

1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda 

1 Fels Naptha Bar 

Container to hold detergent (This can be glass like what I got or simply a tupperware container, anything you want!)

Strong knife to cut the Soap bar 

Food processor (If you don't have a food processor you can always try to use a cheese grater as well, although I don't know how fine the soap will get. Let me know if you try it, please!)

Small bowl to hold soap throughout the process 

Let's get started! 

Step 1: Take the Fels Naptha Bar and cut it in at least 8 pieces. 

Step 2: Place each piece in the food processor. I have a 2-3 cup processor, which is the small one, I found it was easiest to do one piece at a time. Allow it process a few minutes until the soap has become more of a powder. (It may not be the finest powder, just do the best you can! We will put it back in later) 

Step 3: Dump out the powdered soap into a small bowl and continue which each piece of soap remaining. 

Step 4: Once finished with each piece dump the powdered contents in the bowl back into the processor and allow it a few more minutes in the processor. 

Step 5: Pour contents from the processor into your detergent container.

Step 6: Add 1 cup of Washing Soda and 1/2 cup of Borax (per bar of Fels Naptha). 

Step 7: Mix and enjoy! Each load use between 1-2 Tablespoons of soap depending on the size of the load. 

Left: one "serving" of soap.  I bought a 1/2 gallon glass container from walmart ($4) which should hold between 3-4 servings of soap. 

Notes: If you do multiple "servings" of this soap, I recommend giving your food processor a break between bars, especially if you have a small processor like I do. I felt mine was getting a little hot after I finished processing the bar. 

This recipe is a little messy, so make sure you have plenty of counter or table space to utilize. 

Let me know what you think of this recipe! So far I like it alot and find it's a lot easier to handle a small container of powdered detergent than a 5 gallon bucket of liquid detergent! 

Have you ever tried homemade detergent? If so, what is your opinion? 

Talk to you soon! 

Erica 

Another Successful Couponing Trip!

So I posted on facebook the other day that I had made $3 at walgreens and I wanted to share with all of you how I did this. It was actually pretty easy and only required 3 transactions. I was also really happy because I got a chance to get some things that we can really use on a daily basis! So here we go:

Here are the items I got: Airwick air freshener, 2 chewy packages, 1 9oz Dawn.

NOTE: I did go into this trip having $4 Register Rewards from a previous trip. So this is how I made so much money. I tend to save one from the week before so that I can apply it to the next trip. It saves me more in the end.  You can also spend them on other items you need, however I prefer to use them on sale items the following week.  

Transaction #1: Air Wick Freshmatic Odor Detect 

Sale Price: $7.99
Register Rewards: - $4.00 (from the week prior)
Total out of pocket: $4.38 
THEN I got $5.00 Register Rewards back:

Total price: $0.67 made back 


Transaction #2: 2  8ct. Quaker Chewy Bars

Sale Price: 2 for $5.00
Register Rewards: -$5.00 (From previous transaction)
Total out of pocket: $0.00!!! 
THEN I got $2.00 Register Rewards back!

I MADE $2.00!!

Total Price: $2.00 made back

Transaction #3: 9oz. Dawn Liquid Soap

I've written previously about how even though sometimes the really good deals are on the small sizes, that it's still a good deal!! I have about 6 of these 9 oz containers of dawn that I've spent maybe a total of $2 out of pocket on.  They may be small, but they are mighty savings!

Original Price: $1.19
In-store coupon: $0.99 for one
Manufacturer's coupon: -$0.50
Total out of pocket: $0.49! That is a really good deal for dawn!

I love when I can stack store coupons and Manufacturer's coupons, that can give you some great saving!

Altogether I paid $4.38 out of pocket, but I ended up making $3.00 from Register Rewards! That definitely made this trip completely worth it!

Have you ever gotten a great deal on a product? I'd love to hear about it!

Pin It

How to refill the Swiffer Wet Jet!

So I was on pinterest the other day and I found this awesome video on how to open the bottle of a Swiffer Wet Jet so that you don't have to always buy a new one! This is a great thing because it will save significant amounts of money in the future! I filled mine with homemade lysol solution.






Do you have any creative ways that you save money on a daily basis?  Leave some in the comments!

Another couponing trip :)

Yesterday I made another trip over to Walgreens and got some more AMAZING deals! I wanted to share those with you. If you ever have any questions about couponing, beginning doing it, or how to find deals, let me know and I will definitely help you the best I can!

So here is everything I purchased today:

I spent a total of $4.32 for everything!


TRANSACTION #1: AIR WICK AIR FRESHENER

Original Price: $7.99
Coupon: -$4.00
Total Price paid: $4.32
THEN received $3.00 Register Rewards!

TRANSACTION #2: TOOTHPASTE AND DAWN 

Toothpaste Original Price: $4.29
Sale Price: $3.99
Coupon: -$1.50
Total Price: $2.50

Dawn Original Price: $1.50
Sale Price: $0.99
Coupon:-$0.50
Total Price: $0.50

GRAND TOTAL: $3.00 paid with $3.00 register rewards from previous transaction.
THEN received $2.00 Register Rewards from the Toothpaste :)

Total paid: $0.00

TRANSACTION #3: DAWN AND SHAVING CREAM

Dawn Original Price: $1.50
Sale Price: $0.99
No coupon on this transaction but I didn't need one.
Total: $0.99

Shaving cream Original Price: $2.00
Store Coupon Price: $0.99
Total: $0.99

GRAND TOTAL: $2.00 paid with $2.00 register rewards from previous transaction :)


Ultimately I only paid for the first transaction and then used the register rewards for the rest of the purchases! It's like I got the Air Wick thing for $4.00 and everything else was FREE!
Pretty awesome I'm not going to lie. Definitely going to keep this up!

Quick side note: If you notice, I get the really good deals on the smaller sizes of things like dawn and toothpaste. Although this is not always the case, it is most commonly what is the best deal.  However, right now I have 3 things of 4 oz. toothpaste (the expensive kinds) and I have paid maybe $0.50 total. So the small things add up. I just have more quantities of the small items and we won't run out of toothpaste or dawn for a long time! 


Couponing is definitely worth it :)