I have thought before that I could make something like this, but it seemed there are so many of every kind everywhere that there is no point competing with mass production.
Thanks to a client's hint, though, it turned out that everything on offer is made of synthetic materials: plastics, nylons, PVC and so on. Cleaned with a damp cloth or the like. They cannot be washed. She, though, wanted one precisely of natural material, and there were none to be found anywhere.
That is entirely my subject; I prefer natural fabrics and waddings myself wherever possible. Especially when it comes to children's things or any clothing worn next to the skin.
When my children were small we did not travel. Still less could you do it with children. Everything abroad was far away, even Finland, and getting there was every man's dream. There were no large shopping centres where mothers with small babies now spend their time. In those days you could not drive a pram in through a shop door. There simply was no room to move with a pram in a shop; you had to leave your baby outside the door and dash in to buy the food. If the child started crying in the meantime, some passing stranger would soothe them and stuff a dummy into their mouth (with unwashed hands, and you were lucky if they did not pull a dummy that had fallen on the ground through their own mouth first).
Those were the days.
Yes, there were none of the supplies to take along either, such as disposable nappies or wet wipes and the like. I changed my children at home on a flannelette blanket and there was certainly no problem with them soiling it. If it happened, the blanket went in the wash, nothing dreadful. That is why I wonder why they should be made of plastic or some other plastic substance. You just wipe it with a cloth and leave it to dry? I would rather wash it if a child lets something go on it.
So now such a lovely thing has been ordered...
For several days I puzzled over how big the mat should be, what shape, what materials to use, including whether to put wadding inside, what size and how many pockets there should be so that they hold the essentials, what fastening, whether and what kind of handles... and so on. And now they are finished.
A changing mat measuring 75x75 cm, folded 25x25 cm.
Linen fabric, cotton wadding and cotton flannel as the lining. The linen is pre washed. The surface of the mat is quilted through, so that the wadding stays in place in the wash, and the edges are bound. There are 5 pockets: for nappies, for a packet of wipes, for a bottle, one small one for spare socks or the like, and a small zipped pocket for dummies, for instance.
The mat is folded first lengthways into three and then into three again. The fastening is combined with the handles: you put the handles together and fasten the flap round the handles with hook and loop tape. That way it makes no difference how many things you put in the pockets; the fastening still reaches.
The changing mats are in the web shop, among the children's products.
