Gordy's Girl Wool Soakers

With the Flats Handwashing Challenge coming up next week I wanted to highlight an awesome affordable diaper cover option. If you've been been around the cloth diaper community at all, you've probably heard about how awesome wool covers are. If you have followed through and looked up wool covers you have also probably discovered that they can be very pricey. Well, when I found Gordy's Girl on Etsy, I was really excited to have discovered a wool cover at a reasonable price. Priced between $8 and $14 per cover, these are a fantastic way to try wool affordably. All the products at Gordy's Girl are made by Shannon, a WAHM, and many are up-cycled wool. I love buying up-cycled wool because not only do cloth diapers keep disposables out of the landfills, but up-cycling old sweaters keeps them out of the landfills too!

Shannon sent a heavy wetter soaker in size large for Ava and me to review. The red portion is an up-cycled heavily felted wool and the gray on the waist and legs is a soft merino wool. This soaker doesn't need an extra layer in the wet zone due to the heavy felting on the main portion of it.

We used this on Ava over prefolds, fitteds, flats, and over our bulkiest nighttime solutions and got a really good fit with all of them. My favorite time to use this cover is at night actually! It does really well over nighttime diapers and I have never had a leak with this cover. I have found that since it is a pull over style the waist does stretch out a bit after a week or so of being pulled over a huge nighttime diaper. This has not affected the function for us at all though, and it does regain its snugness when I wash it. You can see in these pictures the nice fit I got on Ava!

Overall this soaker has worked great for us! I highly recommend these if you are looking to try wool for the first time or just want an affordable way to get some awesome up-cycled unique wool. Check out Gordy's Girl on Etsy to see all the adorable cover options she has.

Rebourne Clothing

Today I am excited to introduce you all to a lovely WAHM shop called Rebourne Clothing. The mama behind the shop is Marni, and she has a fantastic selection of cloth diapering items for sale in her shop. She makes and sells organic prefolds, flats, and fitteds; wool covers, wraps, and longies; blankets, clothing, and mattress toppers. One really unique thing about Rebourne Clothing is that they are committed to keeping their business green and Marni uses a cool cargo trike to take packages to the Post Office!  I asked her to share a little with us about how her shop got started and what types of diapers she likes to make.

My shop got started after the birth of my first daughter in 2006. We cloth diapered her from birth, but made many mistakes like assuming a fitted diaper was a cover! I got pregnant again in 2007 and started making diapers for our second baby. At first, I sewed a lot with PUL, synthetic fibers, and microfibers. Now I only sew with natural, organic fibers. They are safer for our babies and our earth. I opened my shop in 2008, but I didn't start selling many cloth diapering items until 2009. Rebourne has been my full time job since last January!

I also make organic fitted cloth diapers, organic prefold diapers, and organic flat diapers. My favorite to make are the fitted diapers because they are the most challenging (and often the cutest!). My favorite items to make are the unique ones: quirky Woolie Wraps, custom footies or custom overalls! I like the challenge of working with recycled wool and the constraints of holes and sleeves. I also just designed some fabric for fitted diapers that will be released this Spring!

Marni sent me this beautiful wool wrap to review and we have been loving it! This wool wrap is made with an upcycled wool outer and an organic merino wool interlock on the inside. It has a perfect amount of stretch to it and plenty of crossover snap options, giving a great customizable fit for babies 7-35 lbs. I am relatively new to using wool in my cloth diapering journey, and I feel like a wool wrap that snaps on is a perfect introduction to wool if you are looking to start! You get all the benefits of wool, but in the wrap shape that you're used to with PUL covers.

Marni is a licensed seamstress for the Nifty Nappy pattern, and has these cute tags on her wrap that show both her website and the Nifty Nappy information.

Here is a shot of the interior of the wrap. The organic merino on the inside is just lovely!

This is as close to a front shot as I could get with Ava, but you can see that we got a nice smooth fit with this wrap. These pictures are of the wrap over a GroVia Kiwi Pie fitted (review coming soon!).

Here is a side shot of the wrap. One thing that I love about this wrap is how gentle the elastic is on Ava's legs. Ava has chunky legs and a skinny waist so usually I really struggle to get covers tight enough around the waist without having it too tight around the thighs. With this cover though, it was so easy to get a perfect fit every time and the wool is so gentle on Ava's skin!

Here is another side shot so that you can see another view of how nicely this fits Ava.

Here is a shot of the back of the wrap. I just love this fit of this on Ava and the color is just so gorgeous!

Overall, this cover has worked so well for us! Since we started using this cover at night we have not had a single leak, and it fits great over even the bulkiest of our nighttime options. The wool washed up and relanolized great and has stayed beautiful through many uses. I like to put fitteds underneath this cover, but we have also used it over prefolds and it works great over both. 

Rebourne Clothing has such a lovely selection of diapers for sale that I truly would love to have one of everything Marni makes! I have my eye on a few of her wraps and fitteds that I might just have to add to my stash the next time I'm ready to make a diaper purchase.

Marni has generously offered a $10 gift certificate to one of our readers! This is a great way to get one of her lovely products in your hands and I just know you'll love them. Enter in the form below!

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Bum E Kins

Bum E Kins

 Bum E Kins are made by a WAHM of five kids. She was looking for an alternative to expensive covers and discovered fleece. It is inexpensive, extremely easy to care for and you don't have any leaks!

   

Heather sent me this adorable fleece cover for review. I love the bright colors. Everything she makes is custom sized. You send your measurements of your child to her and she'll match it to what you need.

Here is the inside of the cover. Heather pays great detail to her work and you can tell she takes pride and enjoys what she does. The seams all lined up and they were not bulky when Kynlie wore it.

Cute tag alert!

When we opened this package, Kynlie grabbed it and pulled it on! She loved it right away.

Here is a side pic of the fleece in action. Fleece is great overtop of fitted diapers or just for added protection over another diaper at night. Because fleece is a breathable fabric, it is great to help with diaper rashes. 

Fleece is super soft yet extremely durable. You can wash it right in with your other diapers or with your regular laundry. We use fleece for my older kids overtop of thick training pants to help with any minor night time accident.

Kynlie wore this for bedtime quite a bit and it worked great to keep her cool and dry.

Fleece helps reduce the build up of heat which can lead to bacterial growth which can cause diaper rashes. Our Bum E Kins fleece cover was super soft when we opened it and it is still that soft after several washes and wears. 

The fit works great! You want to have it snug around the legs and belly but not tight. When you send your measurements to Bum E Kins, make sure you include them over what you'll use the cover for 

(ie: fitted diaper) She makes sized fleece covers in Small, Medium, Large, XL, XXL, and XXXL. If you are interested in wool, she can help you out with that as well!

Overall, we loved this fleece cover. We use fleece quite a bit at our house and the craftsmanship of Bum E Kins is great! Her prices are amazing as well. You can find them here. I highly recommend trying out fleece if you haven't already. Bum E Kins is a great place to start as she is very helpful and will get you started in the right direction!

Heather at Bum E Kins is offering a 50% discount to one lucky reader! Enter below for a chance to win. You pick your fabric and measurements. You can pick your fleece print here.

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O-Dee-O Designs

Next up today is O-Dee-O Designs. Katie is a mama of three boys, and is the mama behind O-Dee-O Designs. I found O-Dee-O Designs through Facebook and just loved the cute fleece covers she makes, and I was excited to have the chance to review one of them for Cloth Diaper Addiction. I asked Katie to share a little about herself, how she got started making diapers, and what products she offers.


With the birth of my youngest son, I entered the world of cloth diapering. I have fallen in love with using cloth and have been finding ways to be "greener" and more earth friendly. I want to spread this love with other moms and dads and so I began sewing in May 2012 and decided to open O-Dee-O Designs in June. I make PUL pockets and covers, woven outer pockets and covers, upcycled T-shirt diapers, and of course the fleece covers and pockets. I also make accessories like wipes, wet bags, and taggie blankets. My favorite item to make is the upcycled T-Shirt diapers. They allow me to be very creative! But a close second is anything to do with fleece!


Katie let me choose the fleece print for the cover that she made me, and I picked out this cute hedgehog print. Her fleece covers have two layers of fleece, with an extra soaker layer sewn down the middle. The cover that I received is a one size cover and has cross over snaps on both flaps. I really like when one size diapers have the cross over snaps on both sides because then I don't have to remember to start with one side every time!

The cover has nice wide leg elastic and back elastic that are completely encased in the fleece. We have not had any red marks with this diaper at all! This picture above shows the diaper on the smallest rise settings.

A close up of the cute hedgehog print! Katie has really great prints to choose from on her Facebook page. It was a hard decision to narrow it down to one print!

A close up of Katie's adorable labels! The label has held up great through a bunch of washings too.

This picture shows the diaper all the way open with the largest rise. It is a great, roomy cover and will definitely fit Ava for a long time.

Here is the inside, where you can see that there is a third soaker layer in the wet zone. This has been so great for us to have in a cover. We have had zero leaks while using this cover!

Here is the diaper opened up. You can see that there are two sets of rise snaps, giving three rise size options. For Ava (24 lbs and 30 inches) we have been using this all the way opened up because we use bulky fitteds for night time. 

Here is a rear view on the bum. This cover has given us a great trim fit and I love how Katie took the time to center one of the hedgehogs on the back. It's just so cute!

Ava was a little too busy with her toys to let me get much of a side shot, but you can see that with an average sized fitted underneath this cover has a nice trim fit!

This front view of the cover was about as good as I could get with a wiggly toddler! Ava has a very skinny waist so we have the flaps of the cover meeting in the middle and we get a great fit that way. 

Overall, this has been a great addition to our cover stash, and I have really liked using it for night time and nap times. We haven't had any leaks and the breathable aspect of the fleece has really helped with Ava's occasional teething related diaper rash. Katie was so great to work with and I highly recommend her covers! 

Katie has offered to give away a custom fleece cover to one of our readers! She has a fantastic selection of fleece and our winner will have a great time choosing a print for their baby. 

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Londonware Fleece Cover Review & Giveaway

I was thrilled when I had been selected via Facebook to review a fleece cover from Londonware! Finding Londonware on Etsy many moons ago was how I first learned about fleece covers. Wendy, the WAHM behind Londonware, was amazing to work with, and her fleece covers are top notch.

I rolled the dice and went with a sized cover (my two-year olds size measurements are crazy). For reference:

• Waist: 21"
• Rise: 17.5"
• Thigh: 11.5"

I decided to go with a large (knowing we had some mediums that he had long outgrown). And then I got to browse through her in-stock items and pick out my favorite - always a hard decision!! :-) I finally decided on Orange Dream (I'm a summer gal, and while the colors are decidedly "fall", I choose to think of it as a summer cover) ;-)

Here you can see the sewn-in doubler in the wet zone (this is on the inside of the diaper) for extra absorbency.

Surprisingly, this is the only fleece cover I have that has come with a size tag - and for that I'm grateful! No having to compare it to other covers to figure out what size! ;-)

The fleece is so soft, and the cover is very well put together. We've had many covers that come apart fairly easily, but you can tell Wendy puts a lot of consideration into her covers.

The fit - considering I took my chances, fits great! Here is the Londonware cover with a Goodmama fitted. I was excited to see he still had a bit of growing room!

I love the extra high waist (not sure if that is intentional in the design, but I was not at all worried about any diapers slipping out and soaking sheets!)

Side view.

The Londonware cover worked wonderfully. I love the extra coverage I feel this cover has, as I really wasn't worried at any point - play time, nap time, or bed time - if some fitted might slip out and soak everything.

Kudos to Wendy for a very high quality product!

If you would like to try a Londonware fleece cover for yourself, you're in luck! Wendy has offered one of her covers to one of our readers! Simply enter the form below!

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Disclaimer: I received one fleece cover for review. All opinions are honest and my own. Londonware is sponsoring the giveaway of one fleece cover.

Fleece vs. Wool Covers

Fleece and Wool are great alternatives to PUL covers to use over Fitteds, Prefolds, and Flats.

But, you may be asking, "Why would anyone want to use wool and fleece?"

Wool and Fleece offer:

• amazing breathability for your baby's bottom (ie: air circulation) which also reduces heat build-up (which leads to bacteria growing and diaper rashes!)
• a Water resistant cover - to an extent. They won't stay dry on the outside for forever, however, if paired with a very absorbent diaper (fitted, prefold) you can go many hours, even all night.

Wool does need to be hand washed, which might make it unappealing to some cloth diaperers, however, it does NOT need to be washed after every use (unless baby poops). When the cover starts to small like a wet diaper, then it is time for a wash (I've found this to be about 4-6 uses, depending on the stage of my baby, and when I've been using it {day use vs. night use}). Wool offers all natural materials that are anti-fungal, and it keeps baby cool in summer and warm in winter.

Wool Cover from Alfalfa & The Sprout.

Wool Shorties from Mama Hooks.

Wool Cover from Baby Go Green.

Fleece can be washed with your regular laundry or with your diapers (I prefer regular laundry so that the velcro tabs on cloth diapers don't snag the fleece). I usually use fleece 2-3 times (unless I use it all night, or baby poops) before washing. While the fibers are not natural, like wool, fleece is incredibly soft. 

Fleece Cover from EmotiBums.

Fleece Longies from FluffyRumps.

Both fleece and wool can be found in varying lengths/styles - in a typical diaper cover length/pattern, as shorts (shorties), pants (longies), capris, and for the little ladies, skirties! All work just as well as another in keeping them dry, and helping to reduce rashes on their bottoms through the breathable fibers. 

So, question to our readers - Do you use Fleece? Wool? Both? What do you love about it? Dislike about it? Favorite place to get your Wool or Fleece?

Alfalfa & the Sprout - Review

I'd been a fan of Alfalfa and the Sprout for quite awhile, oohing and aahing over her adorable up-cycled wool covers. Looking through her etsy shop and Facebook page, you can tell that Alex, the WAHM behind Alfalfa and the Sprout, has quite the imagination and creative side, not to mention talent. The designs she comes up with are incredible.

Alex sent me "Master of Disguise" to review:

Seriously. I "LOL'd" when I first saw it! "Funny mustaches" are all the rage right now, and I fell in love with this silly face! It brought back so many memories of wearing the goofy glasses/nose/mustache as a kid.

Master of Disguise is made from 100% Merino Wool. I can't begin to tell you how incredibly soft this woolie is. It's like silk in your hands. I was worried that the added design would mess with the wool and make it snag, but nothing like that has happened.

The front of the woolie is plain (forgive the wrinkledness mess. I lanolized it and placed it neatly back in Caedmon's "cover basket" to get it ready for pictures, and, well, he thinks it is dreamy-soft too, and is always toting it around and snuggling with it (no. joke.)

Inside you can see the hem lines, as well as the extra "wet zone protection".

Alex made this custom size for Caedmon a couple months ago and it has fit like a dream since day 1 of receiving it. (not the best action shots, but, welcome to toddler-hood!)

There is usually a gap in the back when he squats, but when standing/laying the gap is non-existent.

Trying to get him to be still for a second ;) I love the "shorts" style of this particular woolie.

Side shot. Great coverage all around.

From behind. TELL me that doesn't bring a smile to your face!!

So yes, it is adorably cute, but how does it work? I was seriously so impressed with how well this woolie worked for us. I was nervous - it is very thin, much more so than any of our other upcycled woolie covers. I tried it out during the day several times before trying it out at naps. It was almost a month before I even dared to try it at night time (I need to not be so fearful of wool at night!!) I paired the woolie with a Goodmama fitted and hoped for the best. Twelve hours later...not a leak. I shouldn't be surprised, but I was ;-)

I love that there is information about what makes wool so amazing on the Alfalfa and the Sprout
etsy shop:

Wool is the only fiber that can absorb up to 1/3 of its weight in moisture. Despite that fact, wool does not feel wet. The moisture immediately evaporates into the air. When it is hot, wool keeps the body cool and the heat out. When it is cold, wool keeps the body warm and the cold out. Wool is resilient, maintains it shape, soft, breathable, odor resistant, antibacterial and it is very easy to clean!

I mean, it really is that awesome ;)

Alfalfa and the Sprout has a ton of design choices to choose from! You can click here to see so many of them.

If you've been hesitant to try wool, I encourage you to give it a shot! It really isn't as intimidating as it seems.
You can find Alfalfa and the Sprout in the following locations:
Alfalfa and the Sprout Etsy shop
Alfalfa and the Sprout Facebook page

Disclaimer: I received a "Master of Disguise" woolie for review. All opinions are my own and honest. You may have a different experience.

Oeko Popo - Review

The Versatility Cover from Oeko Popo isn't like every other cover on the market. Yes, it's a cover, but it can also become an AI2 if you so choose, or you can even make it a Pocket!For starters there are two different diapers offered by Oeko Popo - The Versatility Cover (which I received for review) and the Trim Cut (TCS). Both come in 2 sizes: Size 1 (5-18lbs, complete with an umbilical snap for those early days) and Size 2, or the One-Size (8-40lbs). The biggest difference between the two is the width in the crotch of the diaper. The TCS has a (you guessed it!) trimmer fit, whereas the Versatility Cover is wider to accommodate fitting over a wider range of diapers.The Pocket Sleeve comes complete with gussets and it snaps into the cover (I received for review, a "snap in insert" so mine did not have the gussets, as you can see from my pictures). But, the gusseted sleeves would allow you to reuse the cover, just as with a fitted or prefold, but the diaper acts like an AI2/AIO or pocket!Custom Embroidery makes the diapers YOURS (or, ahem, your child's!) You can click here to see all the options available from Oeko Popo, or even suggest your own! I loved the goofy face on the back of the Oeko Popo I received for review! My big boys found it especially funny and anyone who has seen it has definitely gotten a laugh too!And the amount of snaps on the Oeko Popo guarantee that you will find a fit for your little one - Crossover snaps, 3 different rise settings, and two rows to adjust both tummy and thigh, as well as to prevent wing droop!
We have really enjoyed trying out the Oeko Popo. The fit is fantastic with all diapers that we have tried it with.We mostly used it with the Snap-In Insert that was provided with the Versatility Cover. The Snap-In Inserts are made out of 3 layers of microfiber and then a layer of PUL and are incredibly absorbent!
We have also tried it a number of times paired with a fitted diaper, and again, works great! The width was perfect for covering all fitteds we tried it with and we never had any leaks.We also tried this with a double-stuffed prefold for bedtime one night - and again, perfection! No leaks, dry baby, happy mama!

The Oeko Popo comes in a slew of colors - blue, red, green, pink, violet, orange and yellow, as well as a couple of prints - camo, jeans and whales. Combine this with embroidery and the amazingness packed into this diapers, and you have yourself a great alternative to other covers/pockets/AI2's out there!

You can find Oeko Popo via the following links:
Oeko Popo website
Oeko Popo Hyena Cart
Oeko Popo on Facebook
Oeko Popo on Twitter

Disclaimer: I received for review: 1 Versatility Cover in yellow and 1 Snap-In Insert. All opinions are honest and my own.