New in my Shop: A Green Monster

I made a new toy for my shop! He's a cutie and my 2 1/2 year old daughter, who does watch Smallville, named him Zod, though I don't think she realizes the Superman reference.  I love him because he's long, and lanky with poseable arms and a goofy smile. He even gives hugs!

 Bunny is jealous because she thinks some kid gets Etsy gets all the best of her Mommy's creations so the moment I showed him to her she declared simply, "I want a blue one."  She'll get one sometime today, probably.  :-D  Without further ado, here he is.  If you like him, he's only $15.50 which is cheaper than most other monster plushies of this caliber and relative size on Etsy.

New in the Shop: TWO Dollies!

We just love these dollies in my house! It takes me about a week of naptimes and bedtimes to make one, so over the past month I've done about four--and three are in my shop now! I went to www.knitpicks.com and got all sorts of wonderful skin tones and hair colors for dolls in the future, including this amazing heathered blonde color from their Palette wool yarn collection.  I hope you enjoy them!
Come on over and check them out. 

One blonde doll:

And one African American doll:

 

You Asked For It: Sesame Street Cloth Trainers

For sale in my Etsy Shop:  Bert, Ernie, and Elmo cloth training pants!  

First of all, I have to apologize because I promised templates/patterns for the Sesame Street monster faces and I tried but couldn't get them to show up right.  I since lost one of them and will have to re-draw it (which isn't a big deal since I never use a pattern anyway).  But I do apologize if you were banking on those.  I'm thinking of just selling fleece face applique sets on Etsy anyway.  What do you think?  All the fleece pieces of Elmo's face for $3 shipped?  Bert's and Ernie's for $4?

This is all beside the point.  Sufficed to say, I'm sorry about that.

So, I've been neglecting my blog and my Etsy shop for awhile because I was putting my family first and settling my priorities.  For someone who only works part time, I'm SUCH a busy girl!  I'm always knitting something for someone, working with my husband in the church, doing piles of laundry or making dinners for the week, writing my book (it's my secret passion), sewing, writing for Diaper Junction's Cloth Diaper Blog...and on top of all of that I want to be the best Mommy possible.  So, my blog and my Etsy have been on hold. 

Well, our church just realized that they can't pay my husband full time anymore and reducing him to part time is almost worse than firing him because we can't support ourselves on that income.  I know, it seems awful, but it's not.  God's given us amazing peace and we're really okay with it! Now, Dave's looking for another job and I've decided that I should step it up with Etsy again to help supplement his income.  Since the Sesame Street trainers

When I posted my tutorial on how to make these trainers, a couple of people asked if I'd be selling them.  I didn't have plans to up til that point, but they're such a hit with my daughter and really pretty simple to make so I've decided to do so.  I didn't go out and buy fabric for all the monsters--sorry.  I only had the right fleece for Bert, Ernie, and Elmo.  And I have an Oscar in the works, too.

 Oh, and by the way, I also made a new listing for some wool fruit--fruit that I knit AGES ago and then never listed because I kept giving sets away as presents instead :-P

More Knit Fruit

I've been slowly chipping away at knitting a collection of wool play fruit to add in my shop.  This fruit is awesome because it's not only knit in 100% wool, but also stuffed with clean wool so it's all natural and very safe for your baby to play with! My daughter just loves her wool fruit!

I created a pattern for this orange most recently and will be adding it to my apple, and banana pattern.  When all's said and done, I plan on having sets of apples, bananas, oranges, and pears in my shop to start with.  I have also created patterns to knit strawberries, plums, lemons, and grapes--though the grapes are so time consuming I'm not sure I can ever be convinced to knit a set of them again!

Algo Diferente...

So, I'm in the experimenting stages again of my Etsy shop. It's partly because I just bought a new sewing machine and in order to do my diapers the right way I need to save up for a new presser foot and partly because I just want to explore more options.  Not that I plan on stopping with the diapers and soakers, but I do plan on taking a little break from them--except for custom orders, of course. 

You already saw my T shirt tote bag.
I like it.  It's quality and will really hold up well no matter what you put inside.  I've also been experimenting with grocery bags which haven't gotten past the testing stages yet so you may or may not see them in the near future.  In the past I've played around with making sandwich bags but I wasn't really a fan of making them.  I made a couple of different kinds and they may or may not make it into the shop.  But then, I bought all these pacifier clips from Kamsnaps.com and I thought, "What can I do with these other than make paci clips?" Then the answer came to me in a flash of brilliance as I searched for a way to display my work ID-- BADGE/ID HOLDERS!!! Yes, it's great, I know!  But I don't like to look like everyone else in the world so my ID holders are different--until someone else catches on and starts making ones just like mine. They're little animals! (I use the word "they" loosely, since most of these animals only exist in the creative recesses of my brain.  Only one has been born so far)

Here's my first! Currently, they'll be knit, but I can't promise to stick to that media since I'm sort of in love with using T shirt scraps.

My first is this monkey and he seems like just the character to hang from a doctor's or teacher's belt clip or pocket to calm the minds of the little human beings with whom he or she will be working.

He's got such character that what little kid wouldn't be set at ease with just one glance?  He measures 8" tall from hands to the tip of his tail and is made of 100% wool yarn stuffed with polyester fiberfil and he dares you not to smile back at him.  We'll see what other cute badge critters my hectic Spanish Teacher/SAHM/WAHM schedule will allow me to create in the next few months!

And keep on the lookout because I'm also creating a batch of fruit that will be listed as soon as it's complete! I want to make a bunch before I list them so I can list some individually and then offer a price cut if you get a set. I've knit three oranges and two apples so far.  I plan on knitting one more apple, three bananas, and three pears before putting them up.  It takes about a day to knit each one if I were to stick to that type of crafting exclusively, but I jump around from one project to another like a kid on sugar and caffeine--and I try to do it all while my daughter naps or when my hubby is home.  Yeesh!  Sometimes I wish I didn't need to sleep and eat.  That would make things so much easier! Ha ha!

Have a blessed day! :-D

New in the Shop

Another diaper...

I made this one with my new machine and I don't have a walking foot yet, so there are puckers in the inner layer of fabric.  Because of that, I lowered the price of this one $.50.

And I'm trying something new:

...and it's also made from upcycled Tees.

Wool longies with Four Wheeler applique

These are a custom order I've been working hard on for the past two weeks. Considering I didn't know what a four wheeler looked like before starting this project, I'm sort of proud.

New in the Shop

Just listed two more diapers.  I'm getting them in there slowly but surely!

 This Sunflower diaper wasn't supposed to have a royal blue inner layer--that was supposed to be hidden.  Oops! But I kinda liked the way it looked and I was too tired to rip out the stitches and start over, so here it is--accidentally. 

I particularly like this teal diaper with the orange snaps.  Such a great colorful feast for the eyes.

I'm wide awake at 5:30, which wouldn't be unusual except for the fact that I woke up at 3:30 to my daughter's vicious screams and couldn't go back to sleep, and the sour deal was sweetened by the discovery that while I slept I earned money from not one but TWO sales! I've never had two sales happen in one night.  I'm super excited because I'm saving up for a sewing machine! Actually, I've already earned enough for the machine (thanks to Etsy and my posts at Diaper Junction's the Cloth Diaper Blog) but these sales give me back some money in my account.  Yay!)

New in the Shop

I am in the middle of finishing the diapers I posted the other day.  Three of them are done and in the shop--two mediums and a small.  They are more absorbent than my other diapers because they have 9 layers instead of 8, including some blue jeans. 
Here they are:

And this one is just so sweet it will be really hard for me not to keep it for myself if someone doesn't snatch it up soon!:

Cloth diapers on Etsy

Hey guys!

I feel like I've been a bit absent again for a few days.  There is a good reason.  I was away at Creation where my daughter was learning to rock out with Christian bands like Switchfoot, David Crowder, Tenth Avenue North, and Skillet!  I know, I'm away a lot! When this summer is over, we will have gone away a total of 6 times.  That's what happens when your husband is both the youth pastor and the young adult pastor.  Lots of retreats, conferences, and missions trips :-)

Anyway, while I was in and out of my house, I was able to get more things up in my shop AND I was able to join the Etsy Cloth Diaper Team! It's pretty sweet, actually!  Check it out here.

Also, since I've been on Etsy, I've gotten a chance to really look around at what others are selling and man, guys, let me tell you, if you want to cloth diaper for less, there's nothing like buying it directly from the source! Some of these WAHMs sell their diapers for about the same as big brands like bumGenius and Fuzzi Bunz, but others sell them for half the price!

For instance, check out HippieMade.  She sells newborn AIO diapers for $7.  THat's pretty good for a diaper you might not get lots of use out of.  I'm interested in her NB AIOs because I'm always trying to fill other people's stashes.  Currently, a friend of mine is expecting and we're throwing her a baby shower and I've asked everyone to bring her a cloth diaper OR to give me the money and I'll buy them (since lots of people aren't comfortable shopping online).  I look forward to buying some of HippieMade's diapers.  They're so cute!

Then, there's Austin's Mom who has some of her pockets on sale for as low as $13!

 Bum Joy sells her pocket diapers for around $14 apiece. 

The thing about Etsy is, that if you're going there to find cloth diapers, you often come up with lots of things that may or may not be related to cloth diapers but aren't and you end up sorting through lots of other things to find only a few cloth diapers among thousands of burp cloths and bibs.  If you want to find quality cloth diapers on Etsy, just search under this tag "etsyclothdiaper" and you will find everyone who is on the team!  It's that easy!

Of course, while you're browsing Etsy, you can always check out Clothdiapermommy.  I've heard she sells her T shirt fitted diapers for $7-$8 and she has awesome knit wool soakers ;-D

So, happy Etsy shopping guys! I know you won't be disappointed with what you find :-D

New in my Shop: Fishies Wool Soaker

Okay, so the more I get into knitting, the more I love it and the more bored I get with the basics.  Boredom was the reason that this wool soaker is so amazing!!! If you love it and want it, I'm listing it for only $27 in my etsy shop which is a fair price, I feel, for the huge amount of work that went into the aquarium on the butt.   If you like it an it's the wrong size, let me know and I'm sure I can make a custom order for you.
Here are a few other angles:

The octopus is my favorite.  In fact, I like him so much that I think I might have to dedicate a wool soaker to him alone!

Let me know what you think. I'm still so new that I haven't made a single sale, so I could really use your feedback :-D

Starting up my Etsy Shop

Okay, guys.  So after months of sewing, giving things away, then sewing some more, I finally feel like I have enough product to actually start my own Etsy shop.  That, and summer vacation starts for me tomorrow when I finish tying up loose ends at school so I'll have lots of time to sew and knit.

So, I was all ready, today, to put some items up for sale when it occurred to me that I'm not sure how to price them! I looked at similar items selling on Etsy to see what they sell for but the prices varied from $10-$35 and I just don't know what would be best!

Here are samples of the things I'm currently selling (in various sizes).

Front:

Back:

Top row--two different wool soaker patterns.  
* The one on the left is a triangle that is sewn into a cover once it's completed.  It's the simpler and easier of the two patterns I currently use.  I'd say it takes me about 2 hours to knit if I were to knit it in one sitting.  It's hard to really know, though, since I never sit down and knit continuously. 


*The one on the right with the leg cuffs is knit as a whole piece--there is no sewing that takes place--and it's slightly more difficult to knit and more time consuming.  I'd say it takes me about 4 hours to knit if I were to knit it in one sitting.  Again, it's hard to know since I never sit down and knit continuously.

I don't think a single soaker will pass by me without some adorable applique added to the butt.  Here I've added a simple smiley face and some ruffles.  I also have some with polka dots and one with stripes.

Then, there's the matter of different sizes.  Should I vary the price from S-M-L?

Bottom Row--two fitted diapers with different closures.

*The diaper on the left has velcro closures with laundry flaps so they will never catch in the wash due to tired laundry tabs.

*The diaper on the right has snap closures (thanks to Kamsnaps.com!)

Should I vary the price between velcro and snaps?

Should I vary the price from S-M-L?

So, I need to know what price you think I should ask for each:
1) Triangle  soaker
2) Circular soaker
3) Velcro fitted
4) snapping fitted

Thanks for your time!

And yes, I will probably do a giveaway soon. I'll probably give away one of my fitteds.   Maybe after the Kamsnaps giveaway ends.  I don't like to do more than one giveaway at a time :-D.

My T-shirt fitted diapers

I now officially have a Small, Medium, and Large pattern for my fitted diapers.  A friend of mine has the large for her baby so I don't know if it actually fits well or not yet--especially since her baby is at the very SMALL end of a large right now.  But that's okay.  The patterns have been drafted.  Now, all I need is a newborn pattern and I'll be covered!

As for an Etsy shop.... I'm working on it, guys.  I am.  I'm slowly growing my "to sell" stash.  Maybe come summer, when I'm not teaching.

Waldorf Inspired Doll Givaway.

Saskia, one of my favorite bloggers is giving away some of her adorable little dolls!  Check it out at the Nifty Nappy Blog.  They're so SO cute!!!

Don't you just want one for your little precious to hold onto? I know I do so I already entered!!!