Under the Green Umbrella is run by an awesome couple. They make a variety of items: wool cloth diaper covers, hair accessories, dresses, jewelry, hats, wooden toys and more! Everything they make is done with loving care, great imagination and creativity, and often with recycled materials.
Such a variety of covers to choose from! Photo courtesy of Under the Green Umbrella.
What a cute little dress! Photo courtesy of Under the Green Umbrella.
Mens vest upcycled into a headband. Awesome! Photo courtesy of Under the Green Umbrella.
I bought my first wool cover from her because I absolutely adored the applique! I was so impressed that I bought three more covers in the following months. I have never needed to look elsewhere.
My first UTGU wool diaper cover.
Baby J in his Shamrock wool soaker.
I had a few questions about Under the Green Umbrella and Shauna was willing to take the time to answer!How did Under the Green Umbrella Get Started?
UTGU originally started from my mom buying my daughter a plastic kitchen for Christmas. I happened to discover on healthytoys.org, just before opening the box, that it contained high levels of lead. It was a very popular name brand toy company kitchen so I was kind of surprised (naive and trusting at the time, boy was that a long time ago!) and didnt even realize that lead was in plastic. I always thought of it being in old painted toys from the 70's. I got curious and researched some more and it was then that I discovered this was all too common in all sorts of products. My husband decided to make my daughter a wooden kitchen instead. I fell in love with the idea of her having handmade toys from us or others that I trusted so I started making her dolls.
At this point we were already cloth diapering but had some leak issues. I made her a couple pairs of longies and could not believe how well they worked. It completely solved our bedtime leak issues instantly!
We wanted a name for our company that encompassed all the different branches of a common theme in our lives; eco friendly, handmade, whole living, the importance of buying local, etc. When coming up with our name I was making a list and kept saying things like "handmade" yep that falls under the "green" umbrella, "recycled" yep that falls under the "green" umbrella...and then it sort of hit us.
Do you use recycled items to make your products?
I try to use recycled items as much as possible, not only because it's important to reuse but also because it makes for a one of a kind feel. And it's more fun to look at something and see what I can make from it. I use sweaters, of course, but also a lot of other materials and try not to let anything go to waste. I keep bins full of zippers, buttons, etc. and I'm always "filing" away pieces to come back to later. My 16 year old bought a dress off of Etsy last week and came into my sewing room with the little ribbons that are attached so you can properly hang a dress and said "lets be honest I'm never going to hang this right...but I thought you could use these for something". It was nice to see I've made an impression on her.
Why do you recommend wool for cloth diapering? In my own experience wool is without a doubt what kept us cloth diapering. My daughter was such a heavy wetter that it was really discouraging. I felt so strongly about cloth diapering but felt like we were giving non cloth diapering people a bad impression with the constant leaks! Beyond being leak free wool is naturally anti flammable and anti bacterial. It breathes. And the fact that our wool is recycled - It's good for both baby and the environment, hard to not love that. It's a great conversation piece as well. We often got asked about my daughter in wool and it was a great segway into sharing the "cloth comeback" with others.Just a quick story before I get to the giveaway (wahoo!).
We had bought a wool cover for Baby J and went to Shauna's home to pick it up. We got back out to the car and decided we should probably try it on him before we left (he was going to be on TV the next day advocating cloth diapers, so it needed to fit well). We found that it was too big! We walked back in telling Shauna the problem and she got right to work fixing it to make it fit correctly! This is something you wouldn't get buying from a big company. The kindness of people is what keeps me buying local (and from Under the Green Umbrella, of course).
Now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Under the Green Umbrella has generously donated this way too cute wool cloth diaper cover (size large) for one of my awesome readers to win! The retail price of this cover is $24. To enter, use the rafflecopter below. The random winner will be announced on September 11, 2012. Good luck!
Enter to win this handmade wool cloth diaper cover!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclaimer* - A couple of my covers were given to me at a discount for review purposes only. I did not receive any monetary compensation and all opinions are my own.
