The Etsy shop has been up and running for a little over three months now, and it's been busy with a newborn baby, and an online shop!  It's fun, though, and as I learn about my daughter, I am also thinking of ways to improve my products for LiliEcoCloth.

So far the most popular item has been the Bamboo Hankies!  I actually ran out of my original stock of 6 yards of baby bamboo terry cloth.  So I've decided to update the item a bit and provide a variety of colour choice beyond the original blue and red.  Now you will have 7 different colour choices:

The cloths will now be in sets of 8, at 7" x 7", instead of sets of 7, at 8" x 8".  I use them myself, both as hankies and as baby wipes.  I have found the smaller size to be easier to work with, and can fit more easily into wipes cases for on the go.  You can find them here.

How exciting!  Check out A Sunny Side Up Lifestyle Blog for a little review of my baby wipes!  Jessica is a product review blogger based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and as she is expecting a little one of her own, she reached out to me for a sample of wipes.  

It was nice of her to also mention that my packaging is also recyclable and compostable.  It was an important decision for me to make sure if my products are supposed to be eco-friendly, that my mailers and packages were too.

You can also find Jessica on Twitter.

And, of course, all my 1-ply (bamboo terry) and 2-ply (bamboo terry and cotton fleece) wipes can be found in my Etsy shop!  Remember, for the month of September, you can get everything for 20% off when you use the discount code: GRNDOPEN20

As a person with environmental and food allergies, Kleenex, or facial tissues, are a necessity in every room in the house.  Every morning before getting out of bed I would be found sneezing, and subsequently blowing my nose several times before even getting out of bed.  

I thought I was doing a good thing by throwing these out into our municipal compost bins.  I mean, they're being composted, right?  Returning the fibres into the environment?

BUT where do the tissues come from?  They are a paper product, so they come from trees.  Many brands have "Sustainable Foresting" seals on their packaging.  However, trees take many decades to grow to full size.  I personally think that a tree that stands, providing homes for wildlife and oxygen for us to breathe is far better than being reduced to a small cardboard box and pieces of soft fluffies that we use for 15 seconds before throwing away.  Not to mention the chlorine and bleach that are used in the processing of the wood pulp and going into our waterways.

When I was in the process of sourcing fabrics for the various baby bibs and wipes, I had settled on Baby Bamboo Terry cloth as the absorbent material.  One day as I was cutting some of the fabric for wipes, I thought to myself, what if I just used these as single-ply cloths instead of Kleenex? After all, for centuries we have been using handkerchiefs to wipe our noses, why not?

 So I cut up a few 8"x8" squares and serged the edges, and placed them beside my bed that night.

Some other facts about Bamboo:

1. Bamboo has antibacterial properties and is odorless and chemical free (requires no pesticides to grow).  The fabric I purchase for my bamboo products carries Oeko-Tex 100 certification.
2. The bamboo plant matures in 2 years, as opposed to the 90 year old trees that are clear cut for facial tissues.
   
3. Bamboo produced for textiles is not the same bamboo in a panda's diet.

For more information on bamboo fabric, you can go here.

I do still keep a box of Kleenex out for guests, but personally I have saved so much in the waste I produce!
Give them a try!  You can purchase your own set of 7 here :)  

What do you use for napkins at dinner at home?  Growing up my family used Kleenex.  Since I've been married we mostly used paper towels (that would usually mean my husband; I'm a really neat eater so I rarely needed a napkin!) and on special occasions (when guests come over, or a big holiday like Easter or Christmas) we used pretty printed or quilted paper napkins.  A few months ago, I had a hankering to sew something and I had a bit of old leftover fabric I had kicking around, so I made these:

It was this little project that got me thinking about creating Lili Eco Cloth in the first place!

Reasons for Cloth Napkins:

1. Save money - Ok, this one needs a caveat, I am not comparing this to the packs of 9000 for $42 at Costco!  I mean the generic white napkins you might find at your supermarket at 100 for $4.  Let's just say a family of 4 eats dinner at home 6 nights a week and 1 lunch at home a week, so 7 meals.  That's about 28 napkins a week. 52 weeks in a year, that's 1456 paper napkins.  That comes to about $56 a year.
   
   Now I know that good quality napkins are not the cheapest out there, but they pay for themselves after about a year.  And they are good for years to come!
   
   
2. They're eco-friendly - Using cloth napkins, you are creating less waste, using fewer trees, not to mention the bleach, glue and water used in the process (see a YouTube video here). Paper napkins are generally a one-use (maybe 2) item, and even in the compost bin, they sure fill up fast!   I was finding that the amount of paper towels in the compost was more than actual food waste!
   
   While the argument can be made that cotton is a water and labour intensive crop, you can opt for organic cotton napkins and low-impact dyes, or other materials such as hemp or linen.  As for increased laundry, from my own experience it has been negligible, since one napkin can actually be used for 3 or 4 meals, unless we have guests, or we are having a really messy meal like wings or tomato sauce.  We just keep our napkins at our places at the table to keep track of whose is whose. Another suggestion is to create napkin rings with family members' names on them, or even something as simple as labeled wooden clothespins to mark whose napkin it is.
   
   
3. They work better than paper napkins - As I said before we use ours for 3 or 4 meals because they absorb better and they're bigger than paper napkins, They really make mealtime more enjoyable, and if you have a fun set for the kids, it gets them involved in the saving process too!
   
   
4. They're prettier!  Need I say more? ;-)
   

How to transition into cloth napkins?

I know this can feel like a bit of an investment, but I do advocate for getting good quality ones.  

What to get: Get some in thicker material for utility, everyday use, and then a set of pretty ones for special occasions!  Darker or colourful ones work better because they are less prone to stains.
 
When to get: Build up a collection slowly.  You don't have to get a full stack of 30 right away.  Start off with 4, if it's just 2 of you, or 8 for a family, and as you learn how often you use them, add to your stash, so you don't find yourself getting more than you really need.

Give them a try!  I think you'll find them amazing to add to your lifestyle!

Oh, and (shameless plug) did I mention I have some in my Etsy Shop?  There are organic and non-organic cotton options for every member of the family!

I am SO excited to announce the big launch of Lili Eco Cloth!  

About 10 years ago I was given an old vintage sewing machine by my new in-laws, and my love for sewing has grown ever since.  At the start I mostly I made clothes for myself and my husband, which was really fun, but as a novice it was a slow process of learning.  Then I got a serger.  Oh the possibilities!  As I practiced, I learned more about the different techniques, and types of fabrics.  I loved the tactile handling of beautiful textures in my fingers and piecing them together to make beautiful things for my home and my friends.

In later posts, I hope to share more with you about the company,  my family's own journey towards using less paper and less chemicals (still in progress :D ), and different research and stats about paper usage.

Also, check out the Etsy shop (here or here)!  At the moment, I have a selection of cloth napkins, bamboo hankies, baby cloth wipes, and baby drool bibs.  I am still tweaking with the fit of my scrundies pattern, and when I'm comfortable with that I'll also be taking custom orders for organic scrundies!  For the month of September everything in the shop will be 15% off with the discount code GRNDOPEN20.

GRAND OPENING DISCOUNT CODE ON ETSY: GRNDOPEN20