Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Recycled woolies as they are made from wool sweaters and sewn together to make fantastic wool covers for cloth diapering! I am a die hard wool user for night time use, and lately more and more I find myself using wool covers throughout the day with the boys I have. I find that they keep getting rashes every time they go on visits with biological parent and have to wear disposables... so the very best way to deal with diaper rash is to put them in a fitted diaper (or a prefold) with a wool cover as it is 100% breathable!!! The rash disappears quickly! And for night time we NEVER have even one leak at night and I have had some VERY heavy wetting foster babies go through here! :-)

At first I was a total skeptic about wool. When I think of wool I think of itching and scratching and wiggling around trying to reach spots to scratch.. hahaha! But the wool used in the wool covers, the soakers, the shorts and the longies is always a high quality wool that is soft to the touch and does not cause itching. Usually it will be merino wool, but lamb's wool or cashmere often works very well too! I have been VERY picky about choosing only wool that feels nice and is a high enough quality to make great covers!

I was struggling with finding wool covers that were not just plain wraps or soakers (like underwear type coverage) as I wanted to keep their little legs warm too and did not really want to have to use leg warmers as I still find there are gaps and with our weather being pretty chilly at times that is not ideal. So I decided that rather than ordering them from the internet and waiting forever, that I would make some! In testing the few that I have made I have been MORE than happy and have had several people ask me if I would make them some too!
I was joking with Laura last night that I really, really, really need to start making some pink ones or least more girly ones so I won't be tempted to keep them all for my little guys. They have all been turning out so darn cute that I don't want to part with them. The first pair I made was more like a long john pattern, so they are really quite geeky looking but they work UNBELIEVABLY as the pattern I developed has a double soaker area so they are PERFECT for night time!!! :-) I also have a couple of pairs of soakers made and a pair of teensie tiny little wool longies. Now I just need a baby that is teensie tiny to put them on!!!!
Many people have been asking about the CARE OF WOOL COVERS. When I first read the instructions with my very first wool covers I almost fainted. I thought it sounded so complex, but once I went through the steps I realized that a lot of information in the directions were not “steps” but simply really useful history about wool and information about the benefits of wool covers. Whew! I am not one that likes reading directions to begin with as anyone that knows me well will tell you. So I have condensed the directions for our customers at ALL NATURAL BABIES into a few simple steps.
1. Run a sink partially filled with lukewarm water. Too cold or too hot will shock the wool and shrink them.
2. Using a wool wash (NOT WOOLITE, as it is not gentle enough, or the proper type of wash for wool covers) add the amount of wash recommended on the bottle. **We carry some fantastic wool washes. Another recommended brand is Eucalan.
3. Place your wool covers into the water and GENTLY squish them and swoosh them around. DO NOT WRING THEM … BE GENTLE. Leave them soak for approximately 15-20 minutes in the lukewarm water, warming it a bit throughout if needed.
4. Gently lift the wool cover out and gently squeeze most of the water out. DO NOT WRING.
5. Lay it on a towel on your counter and start at the edge of the towel and begin rolling the towel with the cover in it until while gently squeezing with each roll that you do. Do this until you reach the other end of the towel.
6. Remove the wool cover from the towel and lay the cover flat to dry. Do NOT place it in the hot sunshine, but it does well to place it in a warm place in the home. Sweater drying racks work well, but are not necessary. I use a clothing drying rack and lay it across a few of the bars. When partially dry you can always flip it over and turn it inside out to dry quicker too.


In one of my upcoming blogs I will give the info and steps on how to lanolize the wool covers! This is also MUCH easier than I first thought. The whole process takes less than half an hour once every 2-4 weeks for washing the covers and about every 6-8 weeks you will need to relanolize. So when you actually think about it, the “laundering” process is much less frequent than washing regular diaper covers.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Wow.. where does time go? So much for blogging regularly!!!! *sigh*

Wow... I must apologize to those of you who have faithfully been checking this blog, only to find it outdated and "silent". Life has been hectic and although it is not an excuse, it is as honest of an explanation as I can give. :-)

On the upside of things there has been so much happening that I really don't know where to start! So I will do a bit at a time and not overwhelm everyone in the next 5 minutes.. hahaha...

Laura Smith joined ALL NATURAL BABIES at the beginning of January 2010 as the Central Alberta ALL NATURAL BABIES manager. She has taken on all sales, education, information and support for customers who are looking at cloth diapering and other products from ALL NATURAL BABIES.

Laura is located about 5 minutes from Bentley and is the mother of two wonderful little boys who have both been cloth diapered. Laura is a "wee bit" of a cloth diaper "guru" for lack of a better description. Between Laura and I there are few diapers left untested out there. :-) She is very passionate about finding various brands, styles and diapers and testing them to the limit. In fact I often chuckle as she tests them so much so that we joke that the only thing we don't do to them is run over them with a truck! Having said that you can rest assured that if diapers pass both mine and Laura's standards that you are going to be happy with them! :-)

My plan is to open the Sherwood Park / Edmonton area store in the next while. The new house that we bought has a whole area that is going to be the store; however right now we are still in the process of renovations. I will make an announcement on Facebook and here (hahaha.. ya right you are all saying, but I will TRY to remember to post here more often, honestly).

If you have any questions for either of us, here is our contact information:

Central Alberta ALL NATURAL BABIES Sherwood Park ALL NATURAL BABIES
Laura Smith, Manager Melody Baird, Owner
glsmith2@telus.net allnaturalbabies@gmail.com

Please feel free to contact us with any questions, concerns, or to schedule times to view products. You can also check out our group on FACEBOOK: ALL NATURAL BABIES cloth diapers, toys and more!!!

I will try posting frequently over the next few weeks to update all of our newest products, sales, and upcoming events!

Have a super day! :-)