Austin Mom Reinvents Cloth Diapers
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But you wouldn’t be able to tell they are wearing diapers on first glance.
It’s actually a cloth diaper. Kirsten, Caroline’s mom, started making them out of neccesity.
“My daughter had horrible diaper rash, just atrocious. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong, we couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and finally, someone says, ‘Well, why don’t you try cloth?’” Kirsten said.
She looked on the Internet for cloth diapers but wasn’t having any luck.
“Everybody says, ‘Oh, you have a waiting list of three months to get your product,’” Kirsten said.
So with her husband overseas fighting in Iraq, she decided to start making cloth diapers in her free time.
“I got a sewing machine, kind of taught myself how to do it,” Kirsten said.
After eight test patterns that she tried out on Caroline and her friends’ kids, she created the perfect cloth diaper on the ninth try.
“The outside looks and feels just like cotton woven material because that’s what it is. And then we have a layer of polyurethane laminate. You don’t even know it’s there unless you ripped it open. It keeps the inside wet and the outside dry,” Kirsten said.
It even fastens with velcrow.
However, here’s the question everyone wants to know: what do you do when it gets dirty?
“If you have an exclusively breastfed baby, there’s no need to do anything. You just throw it in the washer, and it all washes out,” Kirsten said.
For everyone else…
“You just shake it in a toilet, and then you throw it in your washing machine and voila,” Kirsten said.
The cloth diapers, which she now calls Poppy Pants, have become a huge hit.
“Low and behold, everybody else saw her diaper and they were like, ‘Wow, those are fantastic! Where do they come from?’” Kirsten said.
They come from an Austin mom taking an old staple and making the cloth diaper into a fashion statement.
Right now, Poppy Pants are only availabe at Kid To Kid in North Austin.
However, Kirsten plans to have a Web site up next month.
You might be wondering about cost. Poppy Pants run at about $20 each. If you think about it, most parents spend around $1,800 on disposable diapers over three years. Cloth diapers will only cost around $800 for the three years.
I can’t wait for the Poppy Pants website to be up and running - I met Kirsten and saw her adorable Poppy Pants at the Houston B.I.R.T.H. fair on Oct. 7, and hope to order some for our new arrival ASAP. Any updates on when the website will be up and running?? Just curious! I’m sooo excited!
is her site up yet? i met her at the BIRTH fair also and fell in love with her diapers. I swear they are the custest I have ever seen and I have seen a lot of cloth diapers!
I talked with Kirsten tonight - she said her website, http://www.austincloth.com, will be up within the next few weeks. Just fyi . . .
thank you!
This sound like a great idea for making your own baby gifts not to mention building a cottage industry!
i am patiently waiting! lol. i hope she gets it up soon.
hi! kirstie is my cousin and i just wanted to say i’m sooo proud of her congrats on the new arrival! luv, michelle
Thanks for the kind words and the web site is up and you can find us at http://www.poppypantsdiapers.com. Thanks!!
We are so excited to carry Poppy Pants. We have some great styles and many sizes in inventory in our store. Please come in and check out these super cute, great fitting diapers.
I am a student of textile and fashion designing. Children’s dresses and flower girl dresses really fascinate me. Sometimes I get small contracts of tailoring small girls’ flower girl dresses, which gives me some sort of hands on experience on tailoring.