My Cloth Diaper History

My mom used cloth diapers. Here you can see me (with my mom, little sister, and my dolly Polly), and there is my cloth diaper.


They were the big cotton flats, 36inches square, layered two or three thick then folded into a trapeziodal shape and pinned on with four pins (one at each hip, one at each leg), and covered with good old gerber plastic pants. They were very bulky. They were all white, and were always soaked in bleach water until laundry day.
I am the oldest of 9 kids, and all of us wore those same cloth diapers (or the same kind at least!), so as you can imagine I had to learn how to change diapers pretty early on. I think I was about 7 when I learned to change a diaper. I had to learn to do it because our babysitters couldn't figure out how to handle the pins. To the best of my memory, I only poked a baby once, but I poked myself a few times.
I hated the pins, I hated the bleach, I hated how bulky they were, I hated the stinky sopping wet diapers (and the idea of the baby feeling wet all the time). I swore I would never ever use cloth diapers.

When I was a newlywed I met some mamas who used new cloth--I think a FuzziBunz may have been my introduction to things like PUL and shaped diapers with elastic (elastic!!! How brilliant!) I thought they were pretty cool--and pretty cute. I saw how trim they were, and the fact that they were all one piece rather than needing those awful plastic pants.
Around the same time I started using cloth pads for myself, and the difference in comfort between cloth and the paper/plastic disposable pads was enormous. It made me consider cloth for the pure comfort of it.
When I was pregnant, I started researching cloth diapers. I learned about dry pails and I was sold. One day I approached my husband about it, and he said "well, let's be honest, you'll probably do most of the changing anyway [since I was a stay-at-home-mom and he worked full time], so if you want to do it let's go for it." I read reviews of various brands and started doing price comparisons, and realized that if I was going to buy them I'd pay $15 each for pocket diapers, but that I could make them for $4 each. So I bought fabric and started sewing my own.

I happened to mention to a friend what I was doing, and she commissioned me to make 6 diapers for her. Then she asked if I could do 6 in the next size... Then (after two months of buying disposables) my sister decided to switch to cloth and hired me to make them for her since she doesn't sew. So I opened shop!

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