It’s all about good preparation

When I attended my first quilt retreat I brought a stack of fat quarters and a pattern from a magazine I wanted to make. My table-mate brought all her pieces pre-cut and ready to sew. We both got about the same amount of work done, but at the end of the weekend, it looked like she had made far more progress.

The very prepared quilter is now my next door neighbor, and she taught me a very valuable quilting lesson. A successful retreat is dependent on good preparation. After all, who wants to spend precious retreat time cutting and pressing when you could start right in sewing?

That’s why I’ve already started my prep work even though retreat is still about a week-and-a-half away. My goal is to come home with three dozen cloth diapers for my little one. Considering I only have less than 48 hours to do it in and I’ll need to sleep for at least some of the time, that means good preparation is key.

Last night I cut out 14 PUL outer layers for my cloth diapers. For those of you not familiar with cloth diapers, or are envisioning pins and rubber pants, today’s cloth diapers have come a long way in both cuteness and functionality. There are many ways to make a cloth diaper, but I’m going with a pocket diaper, which has the fewest pieces to assemble at changing time. That should make life easier on my husband, who will be at home alone with the baby during the day and will undoubtedly be changing lots of diapers.

You start with a layer of moisture wicking fabric, I’m using alova suede cloth, then you have an inner layer, or soaker, of absorbent fabric to hold the wetness, and lastly you have the PUL, short for polyurethane laminate which is waterproof and breathable.

The PUL is the part you see most and it comes in some prints that are just stinking adorable. The prints generally cost more than the solids, so I buy in sets to keep costs down. For every print I buy, I also get two to three coordinating solids. Now whether I can keep my sets straight once I actually start using these will be quite the test. But right now they’re just adorable.

I’ve gotten the majority of my PUL from JoAnn Fabrics, which carries the Babyville line, and DiaperSewingSupplies.com, which also had plenty of other supplies you need, such as the alova suede cloth, microfiber terry cloth for the absorbent soaker layer, Velcro by the yard and even size tags.

The prices are very reasonable as well. When I decided to cloth diaper it was after reading a study that found you can save $2,000 over the time a child is in diapers by using cloth, and that’s including the cost to launder them. Now that’s with buying diapers that cost $20 or so a pop. I can make mine for about $7 each, so the cost savings is even greater, plus they’re just so darn cute when they’re done.

Next up tonight is finishing cutting out my PUL and then getting started on the alova suede cloth. After that I’d like to get all the Velcro sewed on before I go, so I can just sew them all together assembly line style once I arrive at retreat.