Happy New Years

So it's been awhile since I've posted. With the holidays it has been crazy crazy busy around this way. Round two testers went our over a week ago and so far so good feedback. I have a few adjustments that I personally want to make but other than that this has turned out a lot better than round 1. Thank you so much to my round 2 testers. They are truly a great helpful bunch. Over Christmas I have upgraded my sewing machine and have also ought a serger. Which will help speed up production. I am crossing my fingers that all adjustments will be made by the end of january and I can get a full stock rolling in February. I definitely do NOT want to rush things. So however long it takes to make sure the diapers are perfect that time will be taken! Thank you so much to my awesome fans. I really appreciate the support! I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years and best wishes!

Round 2 Testers!

So I'm pleased to announce that round 2 testers are complete!! That being said, there are currently 3 spots available.This is first come first serve. In order to receive the spot you must agree to the terms of a tester and be committed to helping us by giving feedback within a timely manner. By purchasing these diapers you acknowledge that these diapers are not perfect but a work in progress. There may be flaws that will of course be fixed once feedback is received. The cost of the diaper is marked down considerably. The only thing you will be paying for is materials and shipping.I cannot stress enough how important your feedback is and I looking forward to working with those who receive the spots!


Please send an email to MonkeyRumpDiapers@yahoo.com if you are interested in the spot. I will take the first 3 emails. The cost of the diaper is $14.00 which includes priority shipping.

Anything is possible!

Round 1 is officially done for! I will continue to take feedback from my testers but I have gotten pretty much all the input that was necessary. It wasn't all good. But definitely wasn't all bad. To all my testers, please know that I appreciate from the bottom of my heart, you taking the time out and giving me the feedback that I needed. That being said I am busy, busy, busy, in my office drafting adjustments. Good thing my husband agreed to redo the office tonight because I am slowly but surely running out of room. What started off as a split office has now grown in to me taking completely over!

I wish I could say the reason behind me starting Monkey Rump,is some incredible story. The truth is, it's truly what I love to do. Being behind my sewing machine has the best calming effect. So I will continue to strive and try my hardest to make Monkey Rump a wonderful diaper everyone will love. Rather they are stocked today, next week or next year. This is what I intend to do. Thank you again everyone for the support it means unspeakable amounts to me!

Lesson learned...

As we start into the new week a lot of plans are being done to finalize round 1 and head into round 2. One thing I didn't anticipate going into round 1 is dishonesty amongst those I trusted to be my testers. Round 1 was provided at no cost. Which means I supplied all materials and labor and only thing I asked in return was for honest feedback. Simple right? Guessing not. That being said going forth with round 2 changes will be made to make sure this situation does not arise again. I see this as an upside, every business has its ups and downs and I take it in stride. I look forward to moving forward and perfecting Monkey Rump so I can get them stocked and ready to go for those who are waiting. Thank you to all of my followers and keep the comments and questions coming!

Nothing better to do on a cold day..

Whats your cold day remedy? Mine, of course, is sewing. A cup of hot chocolate is always great as well. I have a lot of things to work on for Monkey Rump. I am very excited to reveal the new prints. They are absolutely adorable. There are so many great fabric choices available. Its so hard to not buy them all.  I hope everyone is staying bundled up out there. So tell me, what do you like to do most on hose cold days?

Round 1 feedback..

So far round 1 feedback has been great. A little tweaking has to be done but nothing too major. WHEW! A sigh of relief, things are looking great and I'm happy. That being said I have made the few adjustments and after the survey today I will be starting the process of round 2! What this means for you ( the followers) tester spots will be coming available very soon! Also a giveaway is in the works with a wonderful mama, so look out for that. If you haven't already make sure to like us on Facebook :)

Nerve wrecking!! Giveaway question!!

So all the testers have gone out. Nervous wouldn't even begin to describe how I feel. I'm excited to hear the feedback! Thank you, to my wonderful testers. This means so much to the growth of Monkey Rump Diapers. Once i hear some feedback about round 1 testers I can officially start on round 2.
I'm totally in love with that fluffy fabric, I can't wait to sew it up! So I'm thinking I'm going to do a giveaway/contest of some sort in the next week. Any ideas?

Calling all diaper testers!!

Within the next week we will be looking for new testers for round 2 of Monkey Rump Fitteds. Being a tester is fairly simple. You get the diaper at cost, try them out, give honest feedback, and most importantly spread the word about Monkey Rump and how awesome they are ;) You must be active on Twitter, Facebook, Blogspot or some social media outlet in order to be a tester. Word of mouth is the best way to get our name out there, and we rely on those who know the product best. There will be only 3 spots open for this round. Contact via email @ Monkeyrumpdiapers@yahoo.com


Oh and for fun here is a pic of the lovely fabric I will be using for round 2...Lovely right?!?!

Sleep? What's that?

Now that I am just about done with my testers, I find it hard to sleep. I just really want to get them done and out there so I can get some feedback. I guess you can say my dipes are like my babies. I think they are great and awesome and fantabulous. Not everyone has the same view. Reason why I've decided to do testers in the first place. That being said, im actually pretty nervous. There's always that chance that Monkey Rump diapers are not received well. The clients can absolutely hate them. Better yet I could get so much negative feedback that I have to start from scratch. These thoughts rush through my head making it hard for me to get any sleep.

Though it may not seem like it from previous statements, I'm actually confident that they are a great solution. I have a round of testers for baby Z, in the dryer now. That way I can test the exact same diapers that clients wil be recieving. I will be starting my own testing sooner though. Starting a new endeavor is definitely nerve-wrecking but I'm definitely up for the challenge. So until theses dipes are out and about, who needs sleep??? Not this gal :)

What's the difference?

I have many people ask me why cloth and not disposable which is easier. My answer to that is who said parenting was easy? Maybe disposable is a tad more convenient but realistically speaking cloth isn't as hard as one may think. Once you have your stash the rotation kind of just happens. Now I'm not a green mama by far but the statistics behind disposables are alarming. So I figured I'd post a few factoids and give a good reason to at least consider the option of cloth diapering.


* You can expect to spend an average of $2500 Or maybe quite more on disposables by the time your child is ready for potty training. With cloth start up cost are minimal, especially if you make your own.

* Americans alone dispose of over 5 billion pounds of diapers in landfills each year. It takes over 500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose.

*It takes Over 200,000 trees and 75,000 pounds of plastic to make all the diapers Americans use.

* With disposables, the risk of diaper rash is higher because of the absorbent materials used.

I am in no way saying one is better than the other. What it comes down to is what works best for you and your family. This is just my viewpoint and a little info that I've read that helped me make my choice for cloth. I used disposables for T & A. That is what worked for me then. Now that I've found a new option I am happy to spread the word..

The birth of Monkey Rump

So, this is my first, hopefully of many blog posts.

Welcome to The life of a Swom blog. This blog most importantly, will follow me through the journey of starting the cloth diaper process, with hopes of growing a WAHM business. I've never done anything quite like this before but I wanted a way to document this process. Therefore,here we go!

I guess I should start with a little background info. Well my name is Mary, I am a Stay at home (swat) mom. Hence the name "Swom". My lovely other half works hard for the Police and Swat team here in town. I have 3 young ones. A is 6, T is 9 and Z is 1. Obviously, my hands are full, but I love my life and couldn't imagine it any different. I've done the corporate world and restaurants and blah blah, but being mom is one job that I think fits me and I'm honestly fairly good at it!

So what made me cloth diaper? When I became pregnant with Z, I went a little, mmm "crunchy". I wanted everything natural. Yes some may think I'm crazy, but with T&A, I did the whole modern route and I wanted something more. I gave birth to Z, in a birthing center. 100% drug free, 24hrs straight of hardcore pain. Guess what? I would do it over again a million times. Painful? Yes! Hardwork? Indeed! I see it as what my body was meant to do. I seriously could talk about this all day because darn it I feel like superwoman still 1 year later. Anyhow, I also breastfed Z and made all of her food at home. Completely opposite of the jars and packages that I fed the older two. I was totally what many nowadays would say is unconventional. Not by far in my opinion.

Around the 8 month mark we became completely fed up with the diaper rash after diaper rash Z kept getting. We tried brands after brands to no avail.
Finally, after much research and just as much A&D, I decided to try cloth diapers. So I went to my local Target and got a few prefolds. On the way home I grabbed fabric from the craft store and set off to make a few dipes. Boy oh boy was I in for a surprise. This whole cloth world is amazingly overwhelming. There is a true science behind using the right fabrics. I hadn't sewed anything since high school and it would be loads of fabric trashed before I came across a few great online patterns. Finally I had made a few for my stash and was a proud member of the cloth world.

Apparently, that wasn't enough for me! I wanted to create my own pattern. I had already caught back up with my sewing skills by this time. I even opened an online boutique, Zmarieboutique.com. I wanted to be able to say this is mine and tweak the issues I was having with other patterns. Thus, Monkey Rump Diapers, was born!!
The name was a no-brainer. Z, is known by monkey butt at home so it was pretty simple.

Today, 4/5 mths after starting my cloth journey I am now in the process of completing testers and perfecting my pattern. This blog will serve as a timeline and also I will upload info about the cloth world for those interested. I will soon be looking for more testers so look out for that. Thank you for reading this lengthy post. Now on to more sewing:)