Diaper Diary Woes Part III : Youtube, Fabricland, and the downside to being a Canadian

Thank god for "how-to" videos!  Forums and written instructions, even those with pictures were making my head spin! In the end, it was just easier to watch someone else sew a diaper, and by watching a few different videos, I could match fabrics to lingos and sort out what I thought might work best for us.

I found this video, and its part two sister video very helpful for sewing diaper covers, except I plan to use velcro instead of snaps. 

Yesterday, Taz and I took an impromptu trip to London in the afternoon.  Mom had told me about a FabricLand, the biggest one she has ever seen, near London, and armed with my new knowledge, I wanted to go there, and buy a couple things.  I wanted some:
1. Birdseye diaper fabric
2. Fold over elastic and regular elastic
3. PUL in fun colours
4. and maybe some snaps and a pair of snap pliers.

I planned on being at least an hour in the store, so I dropped Taz off at a nearby restaurant/pub where he could enjoy the patio weather while I browsed, unrushed.  I was envisioning huge piles of endless choices in fabric and elastic, and helpful, knowledgeable salespeople to assist me.  I imagined I would spend the bulk of my diaper budget in one fell swoop, and be ready to sew whem mom and dad got home on Saturday. What I got instead were a gaggle of elderly women who were more interested in gossiping amongst each other and greeting the customers they knew than helping (or even acknowledging) me, no PUL fabric, except in white, no fold over elastic, no snaps, and a storewide search for birdseye cotton, with no help whatsoever, until I located it in a far back corner, on the highest shelf.  Boy, were the old women irritated that I had DARED to interrupt their afternoon gossip sesh when I asked if one of them could help me get it down!  Instead of my envisioned purchases, I left with only ten metres of diaper fabric, some velcro, and binding material, which one of the women assured me would work just as well as fold over elastic.  I hope so....  All of it is white.

Today, I thought I would find some online stores to buy the rest of the material.  It might be more expensive, but I reasoned that it would be easier, and more convenient to use the whole web to find exactly what I wanted.  After all, how hard could it be to find some PUL and some fold over elastic somewhere in Canada? 

Turns out, it can be damn near impossible.  The only two stores listed as Canadian were Celtic Cloths and Wazoodle.   Well, turns out Celtic Cloths is actually located in California, and Wazoodle's website is no longer functional.  I guessed that this is somehow related to the huge number of customer complaints that you get when you google Wazoodle. 

So that left me with only one option: Buy it from the U.S.  Grrrrr.!!!! My purchase of $24 cost $15 to ship, and I know I am going to get dinged with more duty costs when they deliver it as well. I spent $64 at FabricLand, and another $50 online easily, when this fabric.com purchase is all said and done.   At the end of the day, I don't know how many diapers and covers that will make me. I'm hoping to get around 20 flats out of the fabric I bought, and then make a couple fitteds with some white flannel mom is picking up, and the extra flannel t-shirts and sheet sets that I won't be needing once we move to stinking hot humid Australia.

Aside from recycling fabric to make the fitted diapers, and sourcing super cheap microfibre towels for inserts (you can get them in autobody shops and the dollar store), another way I plan on saving money is by making my own laundry soap.  I found a good recipe for it on this awesome blog.  The only problem is, yet again, one of the main ingredients doesn't seem to exist in Canada.  But that's why it is good to have two super awesome trucker parents who cross the border on a weekly basis.  The next time they head down, I will send them with a request for Fels-Naptha soap, as much as they can get their hands on!

That's it for diapers I guess, until mom and dad get home from Florida and explain the scary sewing machine to me. (I have never used one before. This should be....interesting)