I have not purchased or used any traditional wrapping paper in years. I love using this method when it comes to birthdays or holidays. Originally I had gone to my local thrift shop and found a few yards of fabric that I could use to wrap some Christmas presents. I simply cut the fabric to an appropriate size so it would fit my gift, made a few knots and voila!

Why Use Furoshiki Gift Wrapping

We have been wrapping gifts in paper for years and old habits die hard. Try thinking outside the box. I know it may seem odd to wrap a gift in fabric but there are a few good reasons to give it a try.

Eco-Friendly

This is a great alternative to using disposable wrapping paper. A lot of recycling centers won’t take wrapping paper so you have to toss it in the trash. If you use a cotton or other natural material it can be composted when it is no longer usable.

Reusable

Unlike traditional wrapping paper, cloth or any fabric can be used dozens of times. Until it acquires any holes or rips it’s endlessly reusable.

Saves Money

Instead of having to go buy more wrapping year after year, you can use last year’s wrapping fabric. Instead, head over to your craft bin, closet or craft room and pull out some fabric and cut it to the size you need. Easy peasy!

Any Fabric Can Be Used

It’s okay if you don’t have a yard of fabric hanging around your house. The possibilities are endless of things you could use.

Have a pretty tea towel you love the print of? Even better, a vintage handkerchief! If you have a pretty large box you could even use a tablecloth.

Years ago I had made a “diaper cake” for a baby shower and I used plastic to wrap the “cake” to keep it together. I wish I had thought to use some fabric to wrap it with. The plastic ended up breaking, deeming useless. Had I used fabric, the mother would then have been able to save that fabric and use it to make clothes if she wanted to for her baby. Multipurpose!

Don’t have a box? No Problem!

You don’t need a box in order to use the furoshiki gift wrapping method. You can simply place the item in the center of your fabric and wrap it as is. Very easily you can wrap things oddly shaped like a wine bottle right down to a pair of earrings.

Once, I gave a jar of my homemade body butter as a gift and just took a small square of fabric and tied a few knots.

A creative idea would be using the item your giving as the fabric. For example, a receiving blanket to wrap the other baby gifts.

Would you like the fabric back?

This is a question I have been asked after I have given someone a gift. I will gladly take the fabric back home and use it for another gift giving opportunity in the future.

I will also offer them to keep the fabric if they like it. Sometimes they may like the fabric or print and want to use it for a project of their own. Then if their curious, I will fill them in on how I wrap it and why I do it. Sometimes they think it’s a very creative idea and want to try it themselves.

Other Ways to Use the Furoshiki Gift Wrapping

• Pillow Cover
• A Lunch Bag
• DIY Shopping Bag
• Wrapping a Potted Plant

How to do Furoshiki Gift Wrapping

For each of these folding patterns you will need your fabric of choice that is at least 4 times the size of your item. If you have an item that is roughly 4 inches by 4 inches then you will want a piece of fabric that is at least 9 inches by 9 inches.

Note: You may want to hem your fabric if it’s something that tends to fray. It will keep your present a bit more tidy and from falling apart.

Here’s a Tip: If you don’t have a sewing machine you could always use some fabric tape instead. This is an inexpensive and easy way to hem your fabric edges.

Wrapping Square or Rectangular Items

1. Lay your fabric out in a diamond shape on your work surface with the print side facing down.

2. Place your item diagonally in the center of your fabric.

3. If you have a rectangular item draw up the corners on either side of the longest edges. With the fabric pulled tight, tie the two corners together tightly.

4. Now pull up the two remaining corners, pull tightly and tie it twice so it makes a knot. *If the item you are wrapping is square, it does not matter which opposite corners you tie up first.

Wrapping long items like a Bottle

1. Lay your fabric out in a diamond shape on your work surface with the print side facing down.

2. Place your bottle upright in the center of your fabric.

3. Pull up on the front and back corners of the fabric and pull to the top of the bottle and tie it tightly.

4. Take the two remaining corners and wrap around the back of the bottle in opposite directions and wrap it towards the front.

5. Tie the two corners together tightly in a knot.

How to add handles to your Furoshiki Gift Wrap

You will want to have your fabric a little bit larger then you may need so that you have enough to make the handles.

1. Wrap your present as usual.

2. When your ready to tie the last two corners, tie one knot then stop there.

3. Take a remaining corner in each hand and twist each one separately.

4. Tie the two, now twisted, corners together in a double knot as close to the ends as possible.

You have now successfully folded 3 different Furoshiki wrapping methods! With Mothers Day coming up you could use some of these folds for any gifts you may be giving.

Enjoy!

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Alternatives to Diapering Your Baby

Diapers are one of the first things you get when your expecting a new baby. In the USA disposable diapers are most commonly used. There is a large amount of people that decide to jump on the cloth diaper train, and it’s becoming more popular. In some countries like China they use cloth diapers more commonly. Then you have countries like Vietnam that practice Elimination Communication (EC) quite regularly. Babies are diaper free and the parent looks for cues of needing to relieve them-selves. When those times come they are held over a toilet so they can “do their business”.

Why I Chose to Cloth Diaper

I had always known I wanted to cloth diaper my children, for years before we had our first baby. My mother had used cloth diapers on me so it wasn’t a foreign topic. There isn’t just one reason why I chose to cloth diaper my baby, there are actually several. I had done a lot of research on the pros and cons and the different methods out there.

The Cost of Diapers

This was a BIG one for me and my husband. The cost of buying disposables versus cloth diapers is ridiculous. On average per child you could spend over $2,000 from birth until they are potty-trained. With cloth diapers you buy them once. Typically you could spend about $500 on a good size stash of diapers. It is a larger cost upfront but that is a one time deal. Now if you end up deciding you no longer want or need to cloth diaper you can sell those diapers and get a good amount of your money back. Win Win!

Eco-Friendly

I like the option of using natural fibers against my babies skin. I wouldn’t like wearing plastic underwear all the time, so why make my child. Not to mention that these plastic fibers can irritate a babies sensitive skin constantly rubbing against them. Also if a cloth diaper ends up getting so damaged that you are unable to use it, you can recycle/compost most of it. Sometimes even all of the diaper if it is made of natural fibers.

No Chemicals

There are chemicals used in disposables to make them extremely absorbent. These chemicals are also used to wick away any moisture away from babies skin. The reason it is needed is having that all that liquid in the diaper with a plastic cover can cause a rash because there is no air flow. Not to mention that the chemicals themselves against the skin can cause irritation.

Reusable

The idea of buying something just to throw it away bothers me. I’m basically just throwing my money in the trashcan. I love the idea that I can buy diapers once and be able to use them for years. With proper care, cloth diapers can last years. I may only have one child at the moment but my husband and I plan to have more, so I will then be able to use these diapers on my next child and so on.

No Blowouts

Yep I said it, No Blowouts! Before I had my baby, there were many other moms in cloth diaper groups that have stated that they did not have this issue. I wanted to believe that it is a true possibility, to not need to deal with poop flying all the way up my child’s back.

My Concerns About Getting Cloth Diapers

For years I knew the brand that I wanted to get. Then came the time to get diapers and I had second thoughts.

I wanted to make sure that I was getting the right diapers. That they would fit my baby well and I wouldn’t have issues with how they are put together/used. I was also concerned about getting them to clean well.

Then, I wasn’t sure if I would be going back to work after having our baby. If I did end up going back to work someone would need to change her diaper other then me of course. So for whoever would be changing her diaper I wanted to make sure that it was straight forward and simple.

I also wanted to make sure that it was something that my husband would feel comfortable using. I worried that if it was too complex he may not want to use cloth diapers on her or at least when he was changing diapers. For example: Use a certain insert with this cover or if you use this one, double up with this for night time”. As well as: “Make sure you wrap it tight enough around here and no gaps but not too tight”.

So I did a lot of research on that brand again and asked people in my cloth diaper groups and only found good reviews and I even talked to the woman that created them.

So I got the diapers because you can’t know if you’ll like them until you try them.

Using Disposable Diapers

When she was born I had yet to figured out if I wanted to use them for the first couple weeks or not. I was hesitant because of the meconium that is deposited in the first week or so. It tends to stain and I hadn’t decided if I wanted to use disposables or clean them the best I could.

We had been gifted a package of disposable diapers and we ended up just using those for the first couple weeks. I didn’t like using them but it made things easy at the time. Considering I was stuck in bed for a couple weeks with limited trips up and down the stairs. It was also easier at this point because I would then have had to show my husband the cleaning routine of the new diapers. Not that he was not perfectly capable but it would have been one more thing he needed to do and I wanted to keep it simple for him.

Six Months into Cloth Diapering

Now after 6 months and many very messy diapers I have never had a blowout. Everything stays contained in the diaper making it an easier clean up and staining on the inserts is minimal. I’ve been using diapers that are referred to as All-In-Two. They have a removable cover with body formed inserts that snap into place on the shell. Some inserts are made with hemp and the others are made with bamboo-cotton blend.

Though a downside to these diapers is they take a long time to dry. It wasn’t an option to put them on the clothesline since it was fall/winter, they would take forever to dry. I ended up putting them in the dryer and it shrunk them a bit since they are a natural fiber. At this point they probably won’t fit her once she is a year old. I will then need to use a different diaper method when that time comes.

Now I’m sure your thinking, hang dry them in the house! Well, at the time I didn’t have many inserts and shells. I was trying to be minimal about how many I had and save on cost. There wasn’t enough to create a good size load to wash and leave some extra for me to use. Then hang drying them would take 6 + hours in the house typically, because they were so thick.

Alternatives to Diapering Our Baby

So I’ve recently started using flats and covers since these are more customizable. I will be able to use these when she is older and may be too big for what she currently has. Once again, I’m only doing this because I accidentally shrunk the diapers I currently have because I dried them in the dryer on high heat. Oops… lesson learned.

I also want to mention that a couple weeks after she was born we started using the method of Elimination Communication (EC). We wanted to give her the option of doing her Number 1 and 2’s somewhere other then her diaper. I had done a lot of research on it and learned how it is she was telling us she needed to go potty.

So far it has been great! There are many days where we catch all #2’s in the potty and only wet diapers. Other times it’s the opposite but she’s growing daily so I can’t expect her to be in a regular routine so young.

What I Wish I Knew – Alternatives to Diapering Your Baby

I wish I had known that I would be staying home with our baby for the foreseeable future. I think I would have gone with just flats and covers instead of the diapers that I got. There are two reasons, firstly, because it takes a very long time for the inserts to dry. Secondly, because they shrink so easily, to about half the size they’re suppose to be (my fault, I know).

This does not mean that I do not like this brand or style of diapers. They are fantastic and the quality is great. Not to mention that the prints on the shells are adorable! Though had I known the above reasons, I believe I would have chosen a flats over thick inserts.

More on Alternatives to Diapering your Baby

Stay tuned for a follow up. I plan to go over in a bit more detail about the different types of diapers, Elimination Communication and washing methods.

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