Onesies to Undies: A Tutorial

When I started potty training my twins, I ran into the problem of 1) not having enough underwear, 2) not having enough money to BUY underwear, 3) the underwear I DID buy being too big for my skinny two year olds. So....I decided to make my own!

Undies from onesies are perfect for moms who want to potty train early (before age 2 or so. It is seriously hard to find underwear to fit itty bitty children) or for really small kids (like mine. The boys were swimming in the 2 year old trainers I bought from Wal-mart when we starting potty training last summer).

Here is my super-simple tutorial for turning your onesies... 

 

....into undies!!

Supplies:

Onesie (one one pictured above is an 18/24 month, I believe) And it has a stain. PERFECT!

1/4 inch elastic

Sewing supplies (machine, scissors, thread, pins)

Kid who needs underwear (ok, not really a "supply"...)

First, decide where you want to cut. I used a pair of store bought underwear as a guide. CUT!

Next, cut off the snaps along the seam

Fold the bottom part up and pin. Get creative about putting the fabric under your sewing machine foot. Zig-zag across. If you want to put the material right sides together so the raw edge doesn't show, go right ahead. I wanted to minimize the seam so it wouldn't scratch or be uncomfortable for...you know. Plus this way is WAY easier. 

Next, set your machine to a stretch stitch. It's the letter D on my machine. This is for stitching elastic. (whaddaya know?? You learn something new every day!)

Lay your elastic 1/4 from the edge. Don't cut the elastic to size. It is much easier to use a big long piece and then cut it off when you are done. 

Keeping your child's waist size in mind (hmmm....skinny minnie or buddah belly?), stretch the elastic accordingly. My kids are SKINNY so I pull it pretty tight. (If you are conflicted about how tight to pull it, make a pair, try it on your kid and then adjust accordingly for future pairs). 

See how the elastic bunches up the fabric as you sew? SO much easier than making a casing and threading the elastic through (believe me, I tried this way). And since you are sewing on knit, there are no worries about raveling. 

When you reach the end of your waistband, double over the ends of the elastic and backstitch the heck out of it. Then snip the elastic and threads. DONE!

If your machine doesn't have a stretch stitch, you can use a zig-zag (which is what I actually used here because I was so caught up in taking pictures for this exciting tutorial that I forgot to switch the setting on my machine....). 

There! Wasn't that easy?

I promptly tried the undies on my child--you should too!

 (Yes, he is 3.5 and can wear the 18-24 month onesie underwear. We're skinny like that in the Meng household)

You can even embellish your new undies by using the picture from the top of the onesie! Just cut out the picture and zig-zag around the edges.

Go ahead! Knock yourself out! You kid is going to pee through 25 a day when you start potty training. (ok, maybe that is just my kids....)

By the way, I made these unders last summer and they have held up beautifully. 

Hmm....now what to do with the top....if it WASN'T stained (and I had a daughter), it would be perfect for making the Little Two-fer dress! 

Oh, the refashioning possibilities!! 

Happy sewing! 

Sweet, Sleepy Babies

Does it get any better than this? 

BAM Diapers: August Special!

For this month I will be offering a SPECIAL Offer for BAM Cloth diapers: 

Ten FREE cloth Wipes when you buy...

 ...three BAM All-in-One Diapers!

 Cloth wipes just make sense when using cloth diapers. BAM cloth wipes are made of soft flannel and are zig-zagged to prevent fraying. These sturdy wipes really get the job done whether they are dry, used with water, or with a homemade wipes solution (there are plenty of "recipes" online!). After using, just throw these wipes in your diaper pail with your diapers and wash. Then use again. And again!  More money saved for your family! 

 I currently have plenty of light yellow and light aqua PUL for diapers. I also have a few small (10-20lbs) cuts of PUL in bright yellow, red, and green. 

Want to take advantage of this Special Offer? Email me: bmeng@liberty.edu

(Just want some wipes? 10 wipes for $5) 

Meng Menu

Saturday: Grilled Chicken, baked beans, salad

Sunday: Sandwiches, fruit, chips

Monday: Sloppy Joes, baked French fries, jello salad

Tuesday: BLTs, chips, carrot sticks and broccoli w/ ranch

Wednesday: Chicken stirfry with rice

Thursday: Grilled pork roast, roasted red potatoes, green beans w/ garlic butter

Friday: BBQ pork sandwiches, baked French fries, corn

My grocery shopping budget was under control this week. I spent $117--$8 under our $125 budget! YEA! And I saved over $30 with Kroger plus card savings and a few coupons. 

A friend posted on FB about whether the money I spend is all on food. About 90% of it is. I do all my shopping at Kroger (mostly). I occasionally go to the Dollar Store or Walmart for other things, but pretty rarely. I usually only go shopping once a week so I try to get everything I need--food, soaps, paper goods, etc--in one fell swoop. So, that $125 usually encompasses things like plastic wrap, foil, toilet paper, paper towels, pull-ups, laundry detergent etc. Of course, I don't buy these things every week. Last week I bought paper towels and foil. This week I bought dishwasher soap. Occasionally I go over budget when we run out of the big items all at once but I really try not too. 

I am always curious whether $125 is greater, lesser, or average to most families of our size. We rarely eat out (once a week, usually after Aaron's softball game, if at all. Aaron eats lunch from home every work day) and we hardly ever get snacks out (coffee, soft drinks, ice cream, etc) so I have to think about 21 meals for 4 people plus usually 2 snacks a day for the little people in the house. Whew! That is a lot of food! So, for me, $125 is pretty good. 

This week for lunches I bought sliced turkey lunch meat and a few cans of tuna. I already had cheese and PBJ stuff at home. I like leftovers for lunch. 

For a few special breakfasts, I bought a tube of cinnamon rolls and a packaged mix of blueberry muffins. I also got ingredients to make banana chocolate chip muffins, which will be good for breakfast or snacks. I bought a ton of cereal last week (Kroger had a great sale) and our usual eggs. Toast, yogurt and fruit are also part of the breakfast menu.

What are you planning this week? How do you save money and keep on a budget? Is a $125 budget a lot for your family or a number that you aspire to stay under? 

Job Chart for 3 year olds

I have been wanting to try a job chart with the boys for a while and I *think* they are finally ready. There are tons of free printable job charts online. I googled a little half-heartedly and didn't find anything I really liked (why do you have to "like" something on Facebook just to get a free printable? Oh, advertising...). I decided to make my own.

 These are my mad Excel skills at work (ha!). I basically drew lines to make boxes in Excel and then typed the boys' names at the top. Then PRINT!

Then my mad drawing skills came into play. This is where the online printable were not cutting it for me. A lot of them had prescribed jobs already written down; but I have specific jobs that I want the boys to work on.
From top to bottom:
Set table for dinner
Put dishes in the sink
Put dirty clothes in the laundry basket
Help Mommy Sweep (this is a brand new thing...we'll see if it works)
Brush teeth
Put toys away

Each time they do a chore, they get a small sticker to put in the box. There are seven boxes after the chore picture so, in theory, if they do them every day we can fill up the chart and get a treat in one week.

And the treat of choice is a trip to SWEET  FROG (our local frozen yogurt shop). The boys LOVE Sweet Frog and are pretty excited at the idea of filling up their charts so we can get some "ice cream" (though understanding this concept took several explanations).

Some of my reasoning is a little flawed on this chart. The boys take their dishes to the sink several times a day so there is the potential to fill up these boxes very quickly. Conversely, I don't sweep every day (though I probably should...hmm) so it might be more difficult to fill these squares up. I guess it's all about being flexible with the goal being, of course, to teach the boys responsibility and how to clean up after themselves.

What do you do to help motivate your children toward greater responsibility?

Meng Menu

Sunday: Chicken quesadillas, Tortilla Chips and homemade salsa (salsa didn't turn out so well...I'm going to keep trying when some more of our tomatoes get ripe)

Monday: Hot dogs, Cheetos, Carrot sticks

Tuesday: Broccoli Cheese Soup, Herb and cheese biscuits (Aaron thinks it's too hot for soup but I was trying to be really frugal this week...so we'll see...)

Wednesday: Spinach cheese roll ups, Homemade French bread (I've been making this a lot. It is such a cheap and filling side and I love it left over too. French toast anyone?)

Thursday: Pan Seared chicken, Roasted Red potatoes, Green beans

Friday: Breakfast Bake (1/2 pound sausage), Toast (French bread), Apple Sauce

Saturday: Lasanga (1/2 pound sausage), Salad

So, before I went to the grocery store I was all pumped up that this was going to be a low grocery bill week. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to work out that way. A few extra things (splurges or forgotten essentials) made their way into the cart and my bill ended up OVER budget by $5. I did have to buy laundry detergent and drier sheets (I actually bought stuff to make homemade detergent....will post about this later...wow, I feel crunchy... :P) so that was included in my final tally. Still I felt so depressed when I went home. Seems silly that such a little thing can get me so down but I really try to keep our grocery bill low, especially this summer as we still have a few more months till I get a paycheck. Sigh. 

Better luck, planning, and food aisle self control next week. 

Family Fun: Putt-putt and MORE!

It's Saturday! That means Family Fun day for the Mengs! This summer we have been trying to do a fun activity with the boys every Saturday morning. Last week we went canoeing for the first time and then went to Arby's for lunch. Sadly, I didn't take my camera with me. After being chastised by my sister, Chelsea, for "not taking enough pictures!!!" I duly took the camera with us today--I am so glad I did! We had a wonderful time and here are the pictures to prove it. 

 The boys love to play putt-putt and even had their ball colors picked out before we got there. 

Micah = green. Benji = Blue

(My favorite part of this video is when Micah says "Good job, Benj!" Love their encouragement of each other!)

Putt-putt is hilarious when you have three year olds. They love to whack the ball as hard as they can... 

 ...and then they run up to the ball, pick it up and put it right next to the hole and "tap it" in! HOLE! Actually Micah got a hole in one with one of his putts. :)

 Love my Meng men

 After putt-putt we rode the go-carts! WOOT! It was blazing hot (100 degrees at 11am)

 It was a perfect day to try out the bumper boats! We rode around, slammed into each other, and squirted water at each other and everyone else who was trying to cool off on this July morning.

Benji drove the boat with me (in fact, he kept saying "Let me do it!" The kid is itching to be 16 already!) We had such a fun morning but were really glad to get back into the AC (the slushies we got at DQ helped cool us off on the way home too). 

Brotherly love (?)

....or hate, I should say.

The majority of the time the boys are best buds. The love to be together, laugh together, play together and wrestle together. There are certain things, however, that really get on each others' nerves and then all violence breaks loose!

I am not sure what happened this  morning (I was in our office doing some printing) but all of a sudden I heard the TERRIBLE CRY. Every mother knows that cry. It means your child is really hurt and need mommy NOW! I ran to the living room and Micah was clutching his back saying over and over "He bit me!" Benji confirmed that a yes, he did bite. I was horrified when I looked at his back--not bleeding or anything but a nasty looking bite! I am not even sure how the bite was provoked, if at all! Benji spent some quality time crying in his room while I hugged Micah.

Rest of the morning = twin love and friendship

While I was making lunch I hear the TERRIBLE CRY again, this time from Benji! Just a moment before, both boys had been singing the Veggie Tales theme song at the top of their lungs. Apparently, Benji had been singing too loud and to solve that problem, Micah threw a plastic hanger at Benji's head. Benji's singing frequently annoys Micah but the hanger throwing was a first. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of that reaction.

And hopefully there will be more love and less TERRIBLE CRYing this afternoon.

BAM Diaper Cover: An Experiment

I wish you all could see this diaper cover in person--it is seriously the cutest thing I have made in, well, maybe ever! It is so tiny!  

Here is a comparison between this little cover, to fit a newborn up to 10 lbs (maybe?) next to a 20-30 lb AIO diaper

The reason I wanted to experiment with making a cover is that I recommend covers to people. All-in-one diapers can be expensive (even mine, though at $16 they are at the bottom of the price range as far as All-in-one diapers go). Lots of families (including mine, when my boys were under 15 lbs) can't afford to buy AIOs when their babies are little. 

 Enter the diaper cover! A diaper cover is a waterproof shell that you use with an absorbent inner diaper of your choice. This is a prefold diaper folded in thirds (this is the system I used when my boys were tiny). A fitted diaper could also be used (a fitted looks like a regular AIO but without a waterproof layer)

 The BAM cover is made out of two layers of durable waterproof PUL for extra protection. The shiny inside layer wipes clean--if the prefold is only wet, the cover can be wiped dry and a new prefold can be used. See the genius of the cover? you only need a 3-4 covers per dozen diapers (such as prefolds or fitteds, which are much more economical than AIOs)

 The BAM cover has laundry tabs, just like BAM AIO, so that there will be no snags in the washer or dryer

 Here is the real clincher on how tiny this thing is--my model is my American Girl doll! Good ol' Molly!  Like I said, this cover was an experiment and would only fit a tiny newborn. I would normally sew on a strip of loop so that the tabs can double over but what baby would ever be that skinny? (ok, maybe a preemie, like my own kiddos...but any full term babe wouldn't need the double over tab)

 Like the BAM All-in-one, the cover has gusseted leg and back elastic that rolls in to keep  wetness and messes inside

The BAM Cover
(Thanks for modeling, Molly!)

I often encourage pregnant moms who are looking into cloth diapers for their babies to go with covers and prefold diapers at first or use a combination of prefolds/covers + AIOs.

Here is a breakdown of cost:

1 Dozen Chinese Prefolds (one of the best brands) = ~$24

4  BAM covers = $32 ($8 each)

Total = $56

I used a cover and prefold system when my kiddos were little because we were going through dozens of diapers a day. All-in-ones just weren't practical or affordable at this stage. When my boys got a little older and were going through fewer changes a day, we switched to a combination of prefold/covers and AIOs. 

Now, back to the "experiment" of this cover--I have never used this type of cover before (unlike the AIOs which I used on my own kids) so I don't know how it works or if it needs improvement. If you or someone you know would like to be a tester for me, I will make you one cover for FREE in your choice of size in exchange for an honest review of the diaper cover as well as improvements that could be made.

Interested? Email me: bmeng@liberty.edu

UPDATE: (Tuesday July 18 2011)
I currently have 5 testers! Thank you so much for your willingness to try out the BAM cover! I will blog about the reviews in a few weeks to let everyone know how the new cover works. 

Meng Menu

Sunday: Chicken Fajitas (with a pepper from our garden!)
Monday: Grilled Country Style pork ribs, baked beans, garden salad w/ homemade Ranch dressing
Tuesday: Bacon, eggs, biscuits, fruit
Wednesday: Pork chops, rice, green beans
Thursday:  Italian Chicken and Pasta, French bread (didn't have this last week)
Friday: Sloppy Joe's, oven fries, carrot sticks
Saturday: Who knows? I am out of ideas....