Calgon, take me away!

I've been away for most of the summer at my family's cottage just north of Toronto, Ontario. It's a fabulous place for the kids to run around outside. Sadly, I have left my sewing machine and new serger at home, so I have not been able to sew for the past 5 weeks.

Meanwhile, I've been washing my diapers up here and I started noticing several things. First, my cotton and bamboo diapers started seriously fading. My orange gDiapers suddenly looked old and faded. My BSRBs started fading too. Second, we started getting a strong ammonia smell in the mornings. Then, the ammonia smell started happening throughout the day.

I added "blue Dawn" to the shopping list because I figured I just needed to strip my diaper. But before I went and got it, I consulted with my good friend Google. I told Google about our hard water up here at the cottage. We have well water, and that's about as hard as it gets. Google told me that all the minerals in the water are leaving a white filmy buildup on my diapers, thus making them appear to be old and faded. The hard water was also trapping in detergent and likely causing some serious detergent buildup in my diapers. The answer? I needed to get some Calgon water softener, not Dawn. So I crossed Dawn off the list and added on Calgon.

This Calgon is not to be confused with the "Calgon, take me away!" bubble bath stuff (despite my catchy title). This Calgon is specifically for use in washing machines to combat the problems of hard water. Calgon in hand, I put in the recommended half a cup into a load of diapers with NO soap and ran the wash on warm. I couldn't believe how many suds I saw! I repeated the wash on HOT with the tiniest bit of Tide Free (we're talking a teaspoon, if that) and there were so many suds that I was literally scooping them out of the washing machine and dumping them in the utility sink. The machine here is a 20 year old top loader that you can futz with during the wash. I'd never be able to do that at home with my fancy shmancy HE front loader. I've got pictures of this, so I'll add them tomorrow.

The end result is that Calgon is a MUST for anyone with hard water. My mom and I tried it with our clothes and noticed a huge difference. Everything just felt better, cleaner, even smelled fresher. My diapers have been fixed and the ammonia stink is gone. The powder works best on hot water because it helps to dissolve the powder - plus, warmer water helps get out more soap. I think that's why I noticed so much more sudsing on the hot wash.

Here is my box of Calgon powder:

Here is what I saw immediately when the wash first started:

And here's my second HOT wash (hot gets out more of the sudsy buildup) where I was literally scooping suds out and into the sink next to the washing machine!!! This was only about a months worth of detergent buildup in hard well water. And I was hardly using any detergent. Scary, right?

My 15 minutes of gDiaper fame...

I came in third in the gDiapers sweet deal promotion. I am very excited about that! For being in the top three, I got a gift certificate for $200! How awesome is that? I am so excited to pick out my new gDiapers :) They also put a little write-up about me on the gDiapers Facebook fan page. Check it out!

Sorry I've been MIA on keeping up this blog. I've been really getting into my cloth diapers and I have TONS of helpful information to add. In the near future, I will have a more organized website (not in blog format) where it will be easier to find things - like video tutorials, diaper reviews, contest and sales, etc.

I stumbled upon and unheard of deal today for Goodmamas. The entire site was 50% off! I had decided (in the past) not to buy any GMs for several reasons. First, they are very expensive at $33-35 a pop. Even the clearance diapers at $24 were a little too much to spend. I kind of draw the line at $20 BSRBs, and even then, I only bought 2 of them. Second, I have heard that many of the diapers come with damaged snaps and GM customer service is not too great. You have to pay to send back your already overpriced diaper to get it fixed. Third, many people have said that the serged edges of the GMs irritate their baby's legs. Well, today I purchased one of the $24 clearance diapers for an unheard of $12!!! It came to $16.16 with shipping included. How could I pass that up? If I want to make diapers - possibly to sell - I need to experience first-hand the most popular diapres, and GMs are certainly up there on the list of most popular fitteds. This is the diaper that I bought. Not my first choice in patterns, but it was the only one left. I think they are completely sold out now.

Why am I pushing someone else's gDiapers code?

If you read the previous post, I was actually winning the contest last week. Since then, I've fallen behind 144 to 125. First off, thank you SO much to anyone who supported me and chose my code to get your awesome deal. I realize that I probably won't win, so I want to support someone who really deserves to win.

Anna is a dedicated gMom with twin girls who have been in gDiapers for about a year. She also has 3 other kids. She is very active on the Yahoo gDiapers group and she has been helping other gMoms get to their 10 sales so that they can win gift certificates too.

Another participant has come out of nowhere, from behind, who was more than 50 orders behind us, and is now about to take the lead. She has been dishonest about representing the contest and has spammed the heck out of BabyCenter and craigslist. I don't mean 1-5 craigslist ads like most of us have done, much much more than that. And she has not disclosed that it's a contest and that she stands to benefit from.

So if you haven't used my code yet and you were planning to, please use Anna's code instead. If I can't win, I would like to support someone who really deserves to win! The code is at the top of the blog (g677Swank). Thank you!

8/1 Update... Anna won!!! I came in third :) I'm very pleased with the results. Thanks to everyone who helped me get this far. I hope you love your gDiapers as much as I do!

I have a shot to win the gDiapers contest!!!

I just found out by reading the gDiapers Facebook page that I was winning the contest!!! Now I am in second place. I really never thought I would get this far. I was going for 10. Somehow I got 108!!! Now I think I have a shot at winning. Help me go for it! How awesome would that be? I'm going to see what I could win... this is crazy... I'm in shock.

Link to gDiapers on FB:

http://www.facebook.com/gdiapers?ref=nf#/gdiapers?ref=mf

Where I just saw this status:

gDiapers

oh, Swank just pulled ahead of Erdos in the everyday g's sweet deal contest. Swank 109 vs. Erdos 108....the race to the finish line is on!

How to use a pre-fold with your gDiaper

I took a quick video of how I use my infant pre-fold instead of a flushie in my gDiapers. Hopefully this will help out those of you who have been wondering how this works. The nylon liner holds the pre-fold well with no slipping.

This is an unbleached Indian pre-fold that I bought from Cotton Babies. I use the infant size for my medium gPants. I'd use the same size for a large (because they use the same size nylon liner), but if I had a small gPant I'd probably use the preemie size pre-fold.

Get a 6-pack of gDiapers for $40!

This is an awesome deal if you are looking to try the gDiaper system. The 6-pack is regularly $70! You get a combo of the orange and vanilla g-pants and the inserts are sold separately. You can choose from the biodegradable flushable inserts OR, the NEW gCloth inserts! I would love to try the new gCloth inserts. I've been using a folded up infant pre-fold for my cloth inserts, and they work great too.

Use this coupon code to grab your 6-pack:

g795Erdos

To use your personal gMum/Dad coupon code, add one or more everyday g's six-pack(s) to your gDiapers.com cart, enter your code and click the "redeem" button. The price will automatically drop from $70 (regular price) to $40. What a sweet deal!

Share your code and use it yourself. The contest is over on July 31st, 2009, so don't wait to get the word out. When the contest is over, it's over. I get a gift certificate for gDiapers if 10 people use my code :)

Cloth Diaper Sewing 101... Equipment!

I've been sewing on a Singer 4528 Merritt, which is about 20 years old. Lovely, isn't it?

It's still working well enough that I don't feel the need to buy a new sewing machine, but I needed to get a new presser foot to accommodate the different types of fabric that you need to sew when making cloth diapers. More specifically, I needed to buy an even feed walking foot. A walking foot helps you sew on stretchy fabrics (like cotton knits and PUL) so that this doesn't happen:

I was trying to sew two layers of hemp fleece together by zig zagging the edges together. As you can see, this ruffling effect is not the look I was going for. Here's the same zig zag stitch AFTER I installed my new walking foot.

Much better, right? The walking foot makes it so the fabric on top and the fabric on the bottom go through at the same rate. That's why it's also called an "even feed" foot. Better, yes, but I decided that the zig zagged edges aren't as professional as I would like. SO, in addition to the new walking foot, I finally bit the bullet and bought a serger! I did my research and found a serger that gets great reviews, but is on the lower end of the price range. I've ordered the Brother 1034D. It has a feature called "differential feed" which basically does what a walking foot does and serges your stretchy fabrics without the puckered edges.

It's important to note that a serger does NOT replace a sewing machine. If you are new to sewing and want to make your own diapers, you must start with a sewing machine. Sergers are intended to be used in addition to a sewing machine to help make your edges look more professional. That is why I still needed the walking foot. So back to the walking foot...

I purchased my walking foot on eBay for two reasons. The first reason is that you can get one on eBay for almost half of what it would cost in the store. I paid $16 (shipping included) for mine. A similar one in a store would cost $3o. The second reason I bought it on eBay is because my machine is a dinosaur, and it's not as easy to find parts for it in a store. Walking feet are fairly universal though, so they should be easy to find. I found an eBay seller that listed my machine under compatibility, so I was sure it would fit properly. Here's a picture of the walking foot next to a regular foot so you can see the difference. Looks like a monster, eh? lol

And here is the walking foot after I installed it. It took me about 10 seconds to install, very easy. Notice how there is a forked part that goes over the nob that holds your needle in. I'm not sure what it does, but that's where it's supposed to go.