Completed my Newborn Diaper Cover Stash

Our baby girl is due in August. We decided to use flats, prefolds, and lay in inserts to diaper her. All of which I currently use for my 18 month old Toddler.
 I have been working on Newborn diaper covers using the Turn and Topstich method I've been using with my son's covers. They have double gussets to hold in all that Breast milk poop, and has a dip on the belly panel to avoid rubbing against the umbilical cord while it is still attached.

 Admittedly this diaper cover was MUCH more difficult to sew because it's so tiny. This diaper cover doesn't lay flat. It "concaves" to better fit around baby's legs and bum. It doesn't drape over my sewing machine like most projects. It curls around my sewing foot as I am trying to sew the tiny diaper pieces together.

 But I am VERY happy with how these came out. I plan on making Small sized and One Sized diaper covers so that I have a stash that can take her all the way to potty training. I don't think I will be getting much sewing done while I have 2 under 2.

The Pattern I use is Rocket Bottoms In A Snap cover pattern. It can be found here.
Tutorial on how I did the leg gussets can be found here.

"Upgrading" to a one car family

Before I had my son, I worked full time. Having two cars was a must!! Since then, I decided to stay home with our son, but being down a paycheck and still paying two hefty car notes with double the insurance, things become consistently tight around the household.

A year later after giving birth to our son, I find myself never leaving the neighborhood. My family lives on a military station. There are playgrounds for my son every corner, the Commisary and NEX is a short walking distance. The gym is a power walking distance away. Everything I need is already stocked at home.

My beloved car is parked in the garage, where I only take her out maybe once a week for a night time joy ride with our son.

I don't like to imagine selling my car, she's a really sexy ride. A sleek black sporty car fit for a car lover. But selling my car will be the smartest financial decision my husband and I will have ever made. We will be saving over $500 a month! We will be so much better off as a one car family.

My husband and I can go out on dates night more often. I can get my hair and nails done regularly.
Buy more sewing supplies, buy even more toys for our son. Finally decorate our very bare home! And most importantly, put money into a savings account and finally have piece of mind. Sounds like an upgrade to me!

We Practiced. My husband works almost 10 minutes away. I got our son ready and buckled him in the truck, I put on my mommy pants and a jacket over whatever T shirt I was wearing that night. And drove my husband to work for his overnight shift. My son Connor and I got up 6am in the morning, put on whatever we had on last night, and very sleepily picked up my husband from work. We made it there 5 minutes after his shift ended and he was standing outside in the freezing cold like an abandoned puppy.
 "Can you at least try to be early!?" What a whiner he was....
And then on our way back home, I ended up getting pulled over by the military police for going 21mph in a 10mph zone. Who the hell drives that slow! I got a freaking citation, and a wag of a finger.

So we finally make it home. I asked him how our one car practice went. "Minus the speeding citation, it wasn't that bad."

We already have a buyer for my car. It will be sold this Friday. Being a one car family is not doable for every family, but I think it's a conversation every family should consider. And practice for a day!

The Staple of my household. Cloth diapers for $80!

  Making the decision to cloth diaper was not an easy one for me. I already had a laundry pile mountain high waiting to be folded. And I couldn't imagine cleaning poop! eeewww!

 But the money savings was something I could simply not ignore. People spend on average $3000 on disposables per child. Cloth diapers would cost as little as $200 and can be used for multiple children. I am no environmentalist, saving money is my motivation!  With my son being 2 months old, I dived right in!

  I started off with flats and covers! I purchased 25 flour sack towels from wal-mart at $1 a piece. Two days worth of diapers for only $25! I was lucky enough to have a cloth diaper store in my area where I purchased 6 diaper covers for $54. So far, that's about $80 bucks for two days of diapering!

I have been an intermediate seamstress for about 8 years so I began to sew cloth diapers for my son. I made everything from pockets, fitteds, All-in-twos, covers, Hybrid Fitteds, and many others. But my favorite most reliable diaper till this day is Flour sack towels "stuffed" with a microfiber towel.

I sew my own diaper covers now. The material for each cover come up to about $2. So If I had to restart my entire diaper stash. I wouldn't spend more than $70!

$25- Flour Sack Towels x25

$30- Microfiber Towels x30

$12- Mommy made diaper covers x6

$69 for 2 days worth of diapers!!!

$70+ on cloth diapering vs $3000 in disposables. For that amount of savings, I can handle scrubbing poop!