About el bee baby

 

el bee baby was conceived in the winter of 2002. 

When I started cloth diapering our first child, I remember looking at his profile as he lay in bed and thinking "he looks like a doorstopper". Bulky and strangely lacking in absorption, the early diapers we tried almost made me give up.
Almost immediately I started trying to sew what I had in mind for him. I spent all Finn's sleeping hours trying out new pattern ideas and drafting endless variations. Just as I knew what I didn't want, I was equally certain of what I did want:

·         organic fabrics

·         trim fit

·         bound edge

 

I began to think, after months of this pursuit that it might be worth building a business around cloth diapers. This was a slow realization, as it had truly never occurred to me that I could actually do something like this.

It wasn't really a leap, as I'd been making things for years. Growing up, crafting was the focus of my life. My mother is an accomplished seamstress who taught me to sew when I was seven. Piles of scrap fabric turned into tiny doll clothes, sleeping bags and pyjama pants for monkeys. I continued on in crafty pursuits for years (making stretch velvet bell bottoms in college that make me cringe now) and eventually did my University degree in Fine Arts.

When I graduated with my BFA, I envisioned a future living in an artist loft, making moody, large scale works and being dramatic. What really happened is the usual chain of events: Meet your love, buy a house, have a baby.  At that point, there was no longer much likelihood that I was going to wear black (doesn't camouflage baby spit up well), move to the city and attend endless art openings. I wanted to do something useful and make something practical while fulfilling some element of artistic pursuit.

I was pretty new to the whole internet scene but having a nursing baby in one's lap really lends itself well to surfing. I was amazed at the resources at my fingertips. Imagine my surprise to see that there actually were other people out there who were making their own cloth diapers, and selling them too.  With this encouragement, I lept.

 

Fifteen (!?) years on and many thousands of diapers later, I still love what I do. 
I still wake up excited at the prospect of making beautiful and useful things as I look out the window at the lake freezing and thawing through the seasons. 
Handling luxury fabrics, corresponding with customers living all over the world, spending time deciding whether banana yellow goes best with cantaloupe or with celery all contribute to the enjoyment I find in almost every single second of this pursuit.

I'm particularly lucky to have such fabulous, creative and enthusiastic customers too.
Thank you so much, my friends....