Shop Closed - For Now

I have been very busy with family stuff, home improvements, and writing an eBook (about sewing cloth diapers and other baby stuff).  So the shop is deactivated for the time being.

Please go check out my sewing blog though!  I still occasional host give-aways there, and it is a great HUGE resource for upcycling materials and sewing your own cloth diapers (or for sending family or friends who sew to sew YOU cloth diapers).   :)

http://prefold2fitted.blogspot.org

- Arfy (The Fairy Fluffmother)

We Have Another Home!!!

My wonderful husband has registered us our own domain!

The Fairyfluffmother blog will now also be at:

http://blog.fairyfluffmother.com

:D

The www. site will be next!!!

I also FINALLY got labels in (with this URL still obviously)...

FFM e-store Pairing Plans

Every cover sold gets paired with a donation* cover which could include fleece soakers/shorties/longies/wraps, wool, or PUL.

Every insert or embellished prefold sold gets paired with a donation insert, prefold, or flat.

Every pocket, AI2, or AIO sold gets paired with a donation pocket, AI2, or AIO.

Every doll diaper or smaller accessory sold gets paired with pins, snappies, cloth wipes, or fleece covers.

Auction diapers will be paired with donation samplers that will include at least one of each of the following:

AI2 or pocket with appropriate inserts or soakers, fitted, prefold, flat fold diaper, pins or snappi, PUL cover, fleece cover, cloth wipe

* Donation diapers will be a mix of new, used, and upcycled… but all in good condition and not needing any repairs.

Bamboo inserts have arrived!

So, I've been slowly organizing things and sewing AI2 shells when I can find a minute and steal my daughter's toddler desk (since our basement where my sewing room was is being refinished after some flooding this Winter). Well, yesterday my bamboo inserts arrived!

They arrived in 2-packs like this:

This is how each basic bamboo baby terry insert looks:

Then I got to sewing (and snap-applying) them into snap-in soakers for fitted and AI2 diapers:

Front and back:

How they look compared to the original inserts (top with hidden snap caps):

Bottom with snap stud and a socket for doubling

Label Creation

Making labels for the project has proven more challenging than I originally thought.

With the new label laws for textiles, I am trying to include the URL for this blog so that people can know to come here to gather information about us... PLUS, if they have questions about their product, I can provide them with accurate answers and help. Etc.

However, fitting this long URL onto a small diaper label/tag means too small a font size according to the label-makers.

I enlarged it to this:

or this?

But then it gets pretty crowded.... and they still want it to be a 1"x3" label which just looks so HUGE. Especially on something like a newborn diaper. *sigh*

It'd be way easier if I could just use this:

My first ideas

I have been a contributor to charity cloth diapering groups for a few years now. First the CDF, and then when that dissolved, I joined the Secret Fluff Attacks group on babycenter.com. I sent out MANY cloth diapers and diapering supplies and monetary donations to the CDF over the past three years. However, one thing I noticed with these groups was that the recipients had to be able to afford shipping their donated "stashes" back when done with them in order to keep those diapers in circulation. Well, as you can imagine, those without those funds (you know, like when feeding your family and paying your bills needs to come first) were unable to re-contribute and those diapers would be lost from circulation.

So, how about we create a system that includes a way to help with that!?

I used to collect returns/defects for a friend's retail site and verify them for her. Her customers didn't have to spend the money on return shipping, she got the defects verified and off the market, and I was able to repair them to either be resold or donated as was most suitable for each item. I paid for their pre-paid return shipping labels with the small revenue from my knitting pattern sales. A store for one thing paying for a service for another.

Why can't we do that here?

Diapering and baby item "WAHMs" and hobby seamstresses would create items for both donation for those without the funds of their own (just like all the other donation groups), but they would also create nicer/higher-end items for selling. I was thinking like charity auctions.

Each featured auction item would be paired with donation item groups (new, used, and even end of life in need of repair). The starting bids would be just the cost of shipping for the two packages. The winner would get their featured item, and also pay for the donation package to get shipped to an in-need recipient. Any amount they sold for, over the initial bid price, would go toward a fund for pre-paid shipping labels and store-front costs only. NO profits would be made. I would keep the paypal records available to the public for audit to ensure trust. :)

The shipping label fund could also pay for shipping to and from a participant who has volunteered to do repairs on damaged diapers (another issues that was never really addressed in the other groups I've participated).

I feel like having auctions this way also helps more people be involved in the giving. You don't have to have extra diaper supplies laying around or know how to sew, knit, crochet, etc. to be part of the giving. More people involved in the donations means more people we'll be able to help.

Anyone else have any ideas they'd like to contribute? Please leave comments!

I've also created a forum where we can share ideas.

http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a6731827/the_fairy_fluffmother

And so it begins...

I will come back soon to give an idea of where this will be going...