Cover lovers, come on in

Let's start with the free stuff. There are two free-for-shipping giveaways this weekend at fishnoodles - a pink hippos cover for girls and a yellow garden bugs cover for boys. Size small, so if you are expecting or have a new baby, put your name in and see if you win!


On the new baby theme, 12 newborn covers are available Friday the 26th at noon over at Bitty Fluff.


And finally, 12 new solid covers and 16 side snap print covers at fishnoodles, noon on the 26th.

A note about future stockings ~ If you are thinking of picking up a cover, this may be the last stocking of covers for some time. Also, if you have been thinking about a custom Solo Flyer stash, I have left 1 small, 1 medium, and 3 size large slots (for a minimum 10 diapers each slot), with customs being phased out by the end of March. As I mentioned previously, joint pain in my hands and wrists is going to take me away from sewing as a primary activity. I will be looking to have all fishnoodles products made for me, and the process of getting covers made might take a while, especially with my goal of offering top notch fit and quality.

Stay tuned as fishnoodles evolves!

My visit to the sewing factory

Well, folks, since I have no new stock this week, thought I'd share my recent trip with you. Most of us rarely if ever get to go inside a factory anymore (liability, terrorism and all), and probably most people have no idea how sewn products are actually made. I had some idea from doing lots of research on getting diapers made but still had never seen a sewing factory in person.

The sewing factory that is working on the Solo Flyers is located in the US, and the workers are proud of what they do. The company president is a woman, and she was familiar with cloth diapers too! Let me show you around...

First, fabric is spread on long, long tables (like maybe 50 feet...I'm bad at estimating), and it is spread multiple plies thick. They work on several different orders on these long tables at any one time. Then the cutters use a vertical electric blade to slice through the thick stack of fabric to cut out the pattern pieces. I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but the gentleman in front is wearing a chain metal glove to protect his hand from the blade - that's how sharp it is.


Next the cut pieces are loaded into tubs (those brown containers in the pic below) and sent to the stitchers. As you can see, they work in a large, airy, well-lit space, and each stitcher has her or his own station. No child labor here!


Finally, the sewn goods go to a quality control table for inspection and packing.

It was a lot of fun to meet the good people who will be working on my project. They will be starting a small run of diapers next week, to learn this new-to-them product before scaling up to a larger batch. I like this careful approach and attention to detail and I will be so excited to share these diapers with you!

I'm alive :)

So glad to be home from the hospital! Nothing makes you appreciate your family like a major illness - it's been said a thousand times but really is true. I know I need to give myself time to rest and recover. Right now, I don't know when I'll be stocking again but I do know it will be at least 2 weeks (doctors orders) which puts us into March already! I'm really grateful for everyone's kind comments and well wishes.

I'll tell you a bit of what happened with me. I went in Monday morning for a gyn exam - I had been having some problems and the doc decided to do a uterine biopsy there in the office. No biggie, I was fine, but that night started having cramps. By 4 am the pain and chills were so severe I had to ask dh to take me to the ER. It felt like the last stages of labor. They gave me morphine - I didn't know morphine and I don't get along. It made me so nauseated. Later, the next pain med they tried did the same thing, so I was vomiting up everything for a whole day.

The results of all the testing was that the biopsy had, oddly enough, introduced a vicious intestinal bacteria into a nice warm environment where it could grow and try and take me over. I had IV antibiotics for a few days and that brought it under control. I have a couple different antibiotics I'm taking several times a day and other then that I just have to rest. And believe me, not a problem. I am super tired. It's taken me long enough to write this, so I'm off.

Just one more thing - hug those kiddos, they'll pull you through in the worst moments. My husband stopped by the hospital with cards my kids had made, and it was like, wow, they really do miss me :) Take care everyone!

Dawn has been in the hospital since Monday with a pelvic and abdominal infection. She has been on IV antibiotics all week and responded well. We will be shipping orders starting Friday 2/12. There will be no new stock. Doctors say recovery will be at least 2 more weeks. Thank you for patience.

Solo Flyer Friday

It's another Solo Flyer Friday this week, stocking at noon eastern at fishnoodles. This is the last of my stash of certain PUL prints - the last lator gator, pink skully, black skully, and space aliens. (I may have a couple covers cut out in some of those, but the last of the AI2 cuts).
You may notice a small price increase. My supplier costs keep going up and I've held out as long as possible. For Friday only, use code "Friday" for a little discount - just for my mailing list and blog subscribers.
I am still waiting on getting the Solo Flyers sewn for me. The last two items needed - elastic and tags - haven't come in yet and my nice little factory will not start cutting and sewing until everything is in place. Maybe (fingers crossed) next week. I am so looking forward to having lots of AI2s to offer.
There may be a bit of a delay before Solo Flyers stock again, waiting for the first batch to be made up. I do not know yet if I will be able to do another (made by me) stocking. I hate to admit it in public, but I have early onset arthritis, and some days like today, typing and sewing are painful. I am not going to quit sewing entirely, but I definitely need to cut back. Thanks to everyone for their patience in waiting and stalking for my items.