Susan Sews Love

Honestly, I'm not sure what I will accomplish by starting this site.  Maybe it will just be a place to share my ramblings and projects.  Maybe it will develop into something more.  I suppose I have to start somehwere, so how about here.

For a number of years, it has bugged me to buy products that get used one time, then thrown away.  Why use a paper towel to clean up spill when one an just as easily use a dish towel?  But other than just doing that (using a towel when many reach for a paper towel), I hadn't done much about it.  I suppose I just figured that buying and using disposable projects was just part of how things were done these days.

It seems now that that tide is changing.  More and more people are going with reusable alternatives to the everyday disposable products.  Me included.  Instead of paper towels, they reach for un-paper towels.  Instead of plastic sandwich bags, they reach for reusable snack bags.  Instead of paper napkins, they reach for cloth napkins.  The list goes on.  

So how did I get started on this?  When we were getting ready to welcome our son into the world, I started looking at cloth diapers.  I'll be the first to admit that when I said cloth diapers, I saw the ones that my mother used, large pieces of fabric (flats) with the plastic gerber pants and diaper pins.  I quickly learned that things had changed in the 17 years since my youngest sister had been born.  There was a whole new vocabluarly out there that I had to learn.  All-in-Ones?  Pocket diapers? All-in-Two's or Hybrid's?  I already knew about flats and prefolds.  Once I started cloth diapering our son, it didn't make much sense to buy disposable wipes, so I made some basic cloth wipes.  And the journey continued.

But here is the thing.  I saw moms who were complaining because their husband put the wrong cloth diaper on their child, or heaven forbid, a disposable.  I knew I didn't want that.  I've been deliberate in keeping paper in our house.  We have all the standard disposable products, and we do still use them. We just don't use them as quickly or as often as we used to.  It doesn't matter whether one starts using reusable prodcuts for the money savings or for environmental reasons.  It also doesn't matter if ones home is "paper-free" or "plastic-free"or not.  Everyone has to figure out what works best for their family and go with it.  This is just a little about what I have done that works for our family.

So what will this site/blog be about?  I'm not sure.  Maybe it will be about reusable products.  Maybe it will be about my various sewing projects.  Maybe it will be a mixture.  Want to come along and see?