Three Things

{thing One} Dirty Irons

Do you have one? I have two. Well, I had two really dirty irons, and now I have two kinda dirty irons after scrubbing and scrubbing with baking soda and white vinegar.

So, do you have any tricks for cleaning irons? Even if it's some special iron-cleaning product that you swear by, I'm all ears. I usually keep it simple with cleaning products, but this is a tricky one.

{thing Two} Cloth Diapers

Did you know it's rather easy to put new elastic in bumGenius cloth diapers? Yep. True. There are oodles of tutorials out there, but basically it just involves turning the diaper inside out and running new elastic through original casings. Once I learned how, I found I could replace elastics in 5 minutes per diaper!

I've been fixing Rora's cloth diapers, which weren't up to the task of staying snug on her wee baby thighs. Our rainbow of cloth diapers are hand-me-downs from Eleni who must have worn them more often than I realized. Look how much shorter the diapers are with refreshed elastic!

So that's mundane, but super useful sewing.

{thing Three} New Fabric!

Don't know about you, but I've been making eyes at the new fabric lines lately. It seems like a bunch of awesome stuff is coming out all at once. I subscribe to newsletters from several of my favorite fabric store sponsors, which alerted me to the new collections in advance. With stunning self-control (wink), I narrowed it down to just two collections: Sleeping Porch by Heather Ross from Windham Fabrics and Friedlander by Carolyn Friedlander from Robert Kaufman.

They couldn't be more different! Sleeping Porch wants to be a pretty, pretty dresden quilt and Friedlander is heading for ruler-free improv. Both fabric stacks have recently arrived in the mail and begun vying for my attention.

I may have narrowed it down to two collections, but with each I wanted the entire range. They are both such complete winners, in my opinion. I know I won't regret it! First up, Sleeping Porch...