How to Replace Bumgenius 4.0 Leg Elastic

How to Replace Bumgenius 4.0 Leg Elastic

When I first started out cloth diapering, I tried to save money and purchase diapers used. The diapers were in pretty good condition but one thing I didn't really know to look at or think about was the elastic in the legs. A lot of the diapers I purchased came with worn or loose elastic causing the diaper to gap.

Onto needing to replace the leg elastic in a lot of these second hand diapers!

Supplies
scissors
needle
thread
thimble (optional)
small safety pin
1/4" elastic cut into 4 1/2" strips (or purchase the Bumgenius refresher kits which comes with elastic and aplix)   
and of course, the diaper 

1. Turn diaper inside out

2. Chose a side to start on and locate the elastic.

3. Pull a little on the elastic to expose it.

4. Cut as close as you can to where the end of the elastic was sewn down.

6.

5. Put the old elastic on the safety pin so it doesn't retract back into the diaper.

6. Hand stitch the new elastic end to the diaper on the seam as not to puncture the outer shell, either in front of the old elastic piece or after. Tie off with a knot.

7. Give the new elastic a little pull to test out the stitch strength.

8. Pin the unsewn end of the new elastic onto the safety pin. you will now have new elastic and old elastic on the pin.

9. Slide the pin through the elastic hole and pull it out the other end. The opening for the elastic will look the same as the one you started with.

10. Cut off the old elastic near the stitches and throw away. Take the new elastic off the pin and sew down, again either before or after the old elastic piece that's already on the seam.

Repeat with the other leg.

Can you notice the side that has the elastic replaced? It's the side on the right! It looks much tighter and ready to go.

Look how much better it looks after I finished both legs!

Check out some of my other cloth diaper posts:
Cloth Diaper Favorites

*Cloth Diapering mini-series*
-The Beginning 
-Resources
-Stash & Supplies
-How to Start

Cotton Babies: Share the Love Program
15 minute DIY Coconut Oil Stick +Tea Tree Oil
What's in my cloth diaper bag?
10+ Combinations to Store your Soiled Cloth Dipaers +some tips!

Easy Compact DVD Storage Solution

Here is a great way to store your DVD in a nice compact-no-scratch way! 
Adapted from here.
You can fit 120+ DVDs in one shoebox! 

 

This is what our bookcase that houses our DVDs looks like. I know it's not pretty, especially since we had our first child, we had to keep moving movies up up up, out of Christian's reach. It started to get dangerous since there was more weight towards the top of the case than the bottom. We didn't want it falling over on anyone and we couldn't see all the DVDs, so we needed a plan.

Supplies
-Tape
-DVDs
-DVD sleeves (only $5.50 for a box of 60 double sided sleeves, but buying 4 boxes for all your DVDs is like buying a single movie. It's only about $20 and they'll help keep your DVDs scratch free.)
-shoe box
-QR code reader (optional, there are many to choose from)
-QR code generator (optional, there are many, but this is the one I used) 
-scissors
-stock paper (heavy weight paper) or regular paper

1. Remove outer DVD description paper from plastic case.

2. Put DVD into DVD sleeve.

3. Tape the DVD descriptive paper on the bottom, and 3x on the long side to close openings except for the top. This will make a DVD sleeve.
4. Pinch the spine of the sleeve in half so it will lay flat.
5. Insert the DVD into the DVD descriptive sleeve along with any inserts from the case you'd like to keep.

6. File DVDs into a shoe box sideways. 

7. Cut a piece of paper into quarters and label them A, B, C etc. to alphabetize and sort your DVDs.

QR Code
You may also choose to create a QR code. This is to have a list of all the movies that you own, and to get to it quickly. 

1. Create a Google Drive Spreadsheet. 
2. As you change over your DVD cases for just sleeves, enter in the titles of the movies, making sure to leave out articles (a, the) that come first in the title. (ex. The Sound of Music>entered as>Sound of Music, The
3. Once you've entered all your movie titles, alphabetize your list by right clicking at the top of the column (or holding), and selecting Sort A>Z.

4. Get the link for your spreadsheet and enter it into the QR code generator. (Under the blue Share tab button, found at the top right of the page).
5. Print the QR code and tape it to your shoe box.

You can now have easy access to your movie list by scanning the code!

Recycle! Make sure to recycle your old DVD plastic cases! Ask your church, a teacher, art teacher, friends etc. They can be used for class videos, homemade video cds etc. You could maybe even try to sell them at an online Facebook group or yard sale. If nothing else, you can recycle them in your regular recycling bin.

How to make an Animated GIF with Photos in 3 steps!

I wanted to be able to create an animated GIF for my toddler quiet book page post, to show how the pages were interactive.

If I would have known that it was SO EASY, I would have done it sooner!! It can be done in 3 easy steps.

Before making your animated GIF
Have your pictures ready to go by:
1)having them uploaded to your computer 
and 
2)make sure your pictures (combined) are 2 MB or less. 

If you need to resize them, like me, you can use think link to help with that. All I did was open up both of my pictures up in Microsoft Office Picture Manager (right click on a picture>Open With>Microsoft Office Picture Manager). Mine came standard on my computer. At the menu bar, click Picture>Resize>Percentage of Original width x height: 100%. I chose to lower both pictures to 40%, clicked OK and then 'saved as' for my new picture.

When taking your pictures for the animation, make sure that you use a tripod! This will make sure that the camera stays in the same position while shooting your photos. Also try to not to move the item you are shooting. My animations aren't perfect and you can see a little movement between the two pictures.

Creating your animated GIF
1. Create a free account at Make a Gif. This way your GIF won't be watermarked with their logo! Then click 'create a gif,' or 'add pictures.'

2. Upload your pictures, using the control key to select more than one. Select your settings (order of pictures, speed {I use slower} etc.) You can also make these private if you don't want to share what you've created. Score!

3. Click 'create your gif' and you're done! When it's finished you can chose how to share it: direct, message board, website or markdown. I always use the website embed code, copy it, and paste it into my blog's html box.

Didn't I say it would be easy??!! What animated GIFs have you made? I'd love to see them!

DIY Quiet Book Pages for Toddlers

I found a new love of sewing, especially embroidery, this past year and wanted a chance to embroider more. Since we have a trip coming up that involves Christian's first flight (eeek!), I thought this was a great opportunity to make him a quiet book.

I loved picking out all the different fabrics, felt, beads and other materials that would go into making this awesome quiet book. The catch: I only had 3 weeks until our trip and I've never made anything like this. Not to mention all the other chaos that goes on with an international trip: passports, packing, shopping for the right size of seasonal clothes for C, etc. You know, the usual vacation stuff. All that takes up time and brain space too. I wasn't sure if this book would really happen or not (and still am not 100% sure), but I hunkered down and got to work.

What to do before sewing
-Brainstorm ideas of the pages you want to create. If you're super organized, you can make a list of all the colors of felt you'll need and materials. I just bought what I saw that I liked and knew I'd use.
-Have an idea of the size you want for you quiet book pages. I stuck to having one page of felt be one quiet book page. 
-Know how you will bind your book. VERY important, because you'll need to leave a margin on the side of your page to connect them.
-Decide if you will have one sided or two sided pages. Leave a margin on every side to accommodate for finishing stitches.
-Layout your design on the page so you can see where everything will fit. Even pin things in place if you'd like.

I learned a lot of these after I already started, like leaving space for binding and a margin for a finishing hem. Oops.

First thing I started with awhile ago, was getting ideas together on the pages that I wanted in the book. You can see everything I've collected so far on my Pinterest board here. Then I made a list of all the pages that I liked the most.

I then went shopping and purchased lots of different things, picking out what caught my eye, and deciding what I could do with certain materials. So far I've only purchased through JoAnn Fabric and used their coupons on everything! 

Many of the pages I've made, or will make, are recreations of pages I've found online. I've thrown in my own ideas here and there, with a few original pages, but I felt I was able to crank more pages out the less creative I was. :o( Since these are so fun to make though, I'm sure I'll be making more after we return from our trip when I have the luxury of brainstorming and creating original pieces!

This was the first page completed! It took me a few days because I didn't keep myself to a hard deadline and I had not yet decided what I wanted to put under the cloud. An umbrella? No. But a duck was perfect. Can you see what I mean about leaving space for a finished hem?? D'oh! {Enter picture of Homer}

I hand stitched everything, starting with the ribbon and pearls to make sure they were secured. Then I stitched the cloud over them.

My next page was a lion.

The lion was a little trickier because of the fuzzy mane. I first made the outline of the face and sewed on the mane by attaching it with a whip stitch in orange floss. Then I attached the button eyes and sewing on its face and whiskers. Before attaching the entire head to the felt page, I sewed the ribbon on.

My lovely little giraffe! Christian is obsessed with giraffes, and this page was also a lot of fun! I cranked this page out in 2 hours while Christian napped. I think I've finally gotten the hang of what I'm doing. :o) I love how it turned out! There are so many things to play with on this page: the mane, ribbons, ears and buttons!

I know already that Christian loves to stick his hands in these mittens! I needed to make sure they fit his hand before putting the finishing touches on them, and thank goodness I did! {Note: when tracing a hand (any hand) make sure not to trace down to the wrists. They will have trouble getting their hands into a tapered opening!} To fix this I pulled the stitches from the bottom of each glove, on each side to make the opening bigger. Whew. I also sewed a back onto these gloves so that when putting his hands in, C wouldn't get any fingers caught in the back of the stitching.

This camera page was fun to make too! It was my first time sewing vinyl and it wasn't bad at all. I've heard that machines can have issues with vinyl putting hand stitching was a cinch. I love that I can switch the pictures out compared to other pages I've seen where the picture is sewn in completely. I did have to bend the photo a little to get it in and then lay it flat, but since there were no creases, it was unharmed!

This page was the most fun to sew! We are BIG Doctor Who fans, so I decided I had to make a page with the Doctor. I purchased some awesome galaxy fabric that I found, stitched a TARDIS on it, and completed it with an iron-on-transfer of the 10th Doctor, David Tennant. Awww, love it!

This garden page with pull out veggies was a lot of fun too, but it was also the most time consuming! The veggies are 3D and stuffed, making them extra fun to play with. :o) I didn't want to use my machine to make a button hole for the veggies to sit in, so I simply cut lines into the felt, and whip stitched around the openings so that the fabric would stay held together.

That's all I have so far! I'm nervous and anxious to get some more pages finished! I want this to be more of a book rather than just a few pages. I'm really hoping it'll all come together in time! Only a little less than 2 weeks to go before it has to be completely finished!

15 minute DIY Coconut Oil Stick + Tea Tree Oil

This is an easy way to apply coconut oil and have a convenient way to carry it around with you (plus it only takes 15 minutes)! People have been using coconut oil for thousands of years for many different reasons. It has antibacterial/antimicrobial properties, and also moisturizes so you can use it for lotion (great for Eczema), diaper rash cream, make up remover, you can cook with it etc. The list goes on! Give it a try! (Not sure which coconut oil to buy? Check out this article.)

I wanted to have some coconut oil for on the go, especially since we'll be traveling in a month or two. I use it with Christian's cloth diapers for diaper cream, and on his skin for his Eczema. It's quick, easy, natural, and you don't have to worry about getting it in anyone's eyes or mouth!

Supplies 
-travel size deodorant stick
-Coconut Oil
-Tea Tree Oil, optional
-spoon
-little bowl
-glove, optional

1. Get started by removing all deodorant from the case and cleaning it out with warm water and soap. Mine came apart in 4 sections: lid, inside cover, case and deodorant lift.

2. Have the rolling deodorant lift all the way up to start with so you can spoon in your solid-like-butter coconut oil. Pack it down into the little holes, preferably with a gloved hand. Put it in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes to set up.

3. During this time, take a spoonful of coconut oil and mix it in a little bowl with a drop or two of Tea Tree oil. (It's a jack-of-all-trades oil that has many benefits: an antiseptic, antifungal, heals skin issues like acne and insect bites, treats lice and much more.)

3. Now that the bottom has set up and has made a solid base for the rest of the oil, start to roll the lift down all the way down, squishing the oil back into place as you go. Try to touch it as little as possible so it doesn't become runny! 

4. Then spoon in the oil mix! I left mine as a heap on top so that I could mold it with the inside cover that came with the stick. I can also get more "in" the stick that way too. (Keep your left overs in the fridge for next time!) Let it set back up in the fridge again for another 5 minutes.

5. I smoothed mine over with my finger and filled in any dents with more oil mix and refridgerated once more. Then I peeled off the labels, and it was ready to go!

The first time I used this stick, it glided on sooooo nice. No oily fingers, no chunks, no mess... I thought "where have you been all my life?" I'm definitely going to make a second one to keep at home (and the other in my diaper bag for diaper changes)!

Also, don't forget that this is OIL, so leaving it in a hot area, like a car, will most likely make it melt and drip. If you're cautious like me, carry this is a little bag during the warm months. :o)