My first sewing lesson on my new The Singer Simple sewing machine. My mother-in-law, Janice, was kind enough to come over and get me rolling. She taught me how to thread the machine and set up a bobbin (Doug has had oodles of fun making lewd bobbin jokes since then.) I decided my first attempt at sewing would be to make some cloth diaper wipes out of old receiving blankets. I figured I had a ton of them and it seemed like an easy thing to start with. I showed Janice my idea and she helped me set up a cool stitch pattern to use and away I went! It seemed to be going well, so she took off so I could figure it out on my own.
Unfortunately, I forgot to ask her how to turn corners, so my first attempt is pretty "reinforced" in the corners. LOL Nevertheless, I was proud of myself for trying and snipped up the strings and edges and showed it to Doug. He said, "Not bad, not bad. Let's see how it works, Ella just pooped" and he handed her off to me. Nice. Well, I am happy enough to say it made an efficient butt-wipe. :P
I called my mom to tell her what I was working on and she told me how to turn the corners. This morning, while the boys were at school, I made another wipe and it turned out much better. I started on the third one, got one edge done, then ran out of thread on the bobbin. By that time, Ella was tired of sitting in the highchair next to me and demanded I pick her up.
Lucky for me, she went to sleep fairly early tonight so I had time to re-fill the bobbin and make a few more. I got six 8 x 8 wipes made out of 2 blankets. Not bad!
Aidan wants me to hem up his PJ pants that he got for Christmas, so that will be my next session. I can see this becoming a very fun and useful hobby!
What kind of solution do you use with your cloth wipes? We tried cloth wipes for awhile when Aidan was really little and they made his skin really raw. He actually bled a few times. I would love to try it again. It could just be that Aidan is extra sensitive.
ReplyDeleteI use just a squirt of California Baby unscented bath wash in about 1/2 a box of water (i have a sposie wipe box with the lid cut off that I use for wipe water.) I keep a stack of dry wipes next to it & wet them as needed. I found they get stinky if they are left in water. I change the water every a.m., too.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! We use California Baby, so I already have that, plus I have a bunch of cloth wipes. Now that we only use wipes for Brendan I might give it a whirl. Especially once baby 3 comes along.
ReplyDeleteThose look good. It can be fun to sew but it can also eat a lot of time and then also get frustrating at times!
ReplyDeleteAs for your recipe above- I had a bunch of wipes that the kids pulled out, and got dried out. I looked up recipes for solutions and found a few. I tried one with baby oil (it said it helped 'slide' the poop off), baby wash and water. I think some even included vinegar to help with bacteria. The one I tried worked pretty well. The baby oil smelled nice! (although, now thinking about it, I think I have scented baby oil!)
Another Ca Baby lover here!
ReplyDeleteI think its so great that your learning to sew. I have a stack of receiving blankets that I'm holding onto for the same reason. I also have a serger, but I spend more time trying to figure out how to use it than I do sewing with it. :(
Lovin Mama, I love serged wipes, most of my stack is serged wipes bought from WAHMs. I think I have a long ways to go before I figure one of those machines out!
ReplyDeleteJennyH, When I first started using cloth wipes with Sean, I mixed up stuff with water, oil, etc. Eventually I found it was just easier to use water and soap!
Way to go! You'll be making all kinds of groovy things before long :) I love my machine and wouldn't want to live without it.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the sewing!!! I'm so happy that you got such an awesome Christmas present. I have had so much fun with mine, once I got over being afraid of it. Next up for me is a scrap quilt. I'll keep you posted. Did you ever get the oven mitt in the mail?
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