Style Meets Function: A Petunia Pickle Bottom Cake Cameo Clutch Review

I always thought that I am a practical girl when comes to selecting tools.  When I kept going to the "Clearance" page on the West Coast Kids web site to admire the Petunia Pickle Bottom Cake Cameo Clutch in Mocha Berry Cream, I wondered what got into me.  I meant, European cut velvet and tweed hardly sounded like a baby friendly fabric combination, right?  But the lovely pattern and the fabulous color combination of beige, brown, and pastel blue appealed to my aesthetic sense in so many levels!  So I called the West Coast Kids Richmond location and asked if they have any Mocha Berry Cream Cameo Clutch in stock.  I was told that there was only one left and a ladywas about to purchase it.  Bummer!  Not my luck I guess.  Maybe I will check out the Crosstown Clutch, the "little sister" of the Cameo Clutch as I like to call it, when I go to the store next time.

A few days later, I made a trip to West Coast Kids to pick up some toy straps.  I went to the diaper bag section to adore the Petunia Pickle Bottom bags.  I could not find any Crosstown Clutch, so I asked a sales associate if they had any in stock.  Turned out that their Richmond location did not stock the Crosstown Clutch, but the lovely lady told me that they had a couple Cake Cameo Clutches in store.  And there it was, the Mocha Berry Cream Cameo Clutch sitting in and amongst other bags and clutches from the Cake collection.  I took the clutch down from the display case to check it out, and it was love at first sight.  I own a lot of bags, and I could tell that the Cameo Clutch was very well made the moment I held it in my hands.  The clutch still costed a little over $100 after the discount, but I also believed in "you get what you paid for."  After showing it to my husband and got his seal of approval (it makes me feel less guilty about splurging on the clutch; silly I know!), I brought home the Mocha Berry Cream Cameo Clutch.  I carefully placed the clutch in the dust bag that came with it and neatly placed it on my purse rack.

Coin purse in matching fabric and hardware.

For the next forty-eight hours, I found myself constantly reaching into my purse rack for the Cameo Clutch, taking it out of the dust bag and adoring it like a piece of art.  The Cameo Clutch is a piece of art.  In a clutch roughly the size of a piece of letter size paper, there is a very generous size changing pad, a "Cake" monogramed wipe case (both items are in the pastel blue color that matches the tweed on the clutch), a coin purse in match fabric, and a lot of room for other items.  I have a wedding to attend in two months time; I thought that would be the perfect time to debut this clutch.  After all, I am too fashion conscious to carry a bag that screams "diaper bag" to a lovely affair in a heritage farm while wearing a vintage party dress.  One afternoon, I stumble upon some play kitchen ideas on the IKEA Hackers web site.  My Cameo Clutch sat quietly on my purse rack for days as I was fully engaged in planning an IKEA hack play kitchen for my daughter.  Then I wanted to make a trip to IKEA to check out some supplies for the play kitchen.  I thought, why not take my Cameo Clutch for a test run?  After all, I believed that the Cameo Clutch should be similar to its "little sister" the Crosstown Clutch in function, "perfect for trips across town and back" as Petunia Pickle Bottom put it.

Interior pockets and detachable changing pad.

I put two eco-disposable diapers into the same compartment where the changing pad was placed.  Instead of using the wipe case, I just took my half-full pack of wipes, which is roughly the same thickness as the wipe case.  I put my credit card, ID, and some case into the coin purse which I hooked onto the key clip along with my house key.  I also packed my cell phone, a burp cloth, a sleeper, a soother, and a wet bag into the clutch.  To my surprise, the Cameo Clutch zipped up nicely and did not look overstuffed.  I did found the clutch to be a little awkward to carry; it was a little too big to carry under my arm, and it was a too heavy to carry comfortably using the wristlet strap.  That was when I really wished I pay the extra bucks to purchase the current model of the Cameo Clutch: PPB changed the design of the strap so that it can also be worn as a shoulder strap as well - Brilliant!  I ended up carrying the clutch under my arm.  I was very pleased with the fact that I did not have one single moment where I thought "damn I need something but I do not have it with me because it does not fit into the clutch!"  If nothing else, going out with my baby and the Cameo Clutch taught me how to pack smarter and lighter!  While I did not have to change my daughter's diaper during the IKEA trip, I did make use of the changing pad as well as the wipe case in my next trip out with the Cameo Clutch. (After a successful trip out with the Cameo Clutch, I was hooked!)  I love that the changing pad is bigger and more compact than the one that comes with the PPB Touring Tote.  All in all I really like the Cameo Clutch, and I will have to work on getting a Crosstown Clutch for everyday use!

Wee-Be-Gone!

Cloth diaper laundry day was something that I both really hated and really loved.  I hated it because I could not stand the overwhelming smell of pee coming out of the diaper pail liner when I tossed the diapers into the washing machine.  On the other hand, I loved that there were a few hours in between start of laundry to the next dirty diaper where I did not have to hold my breath when walking into my washroom just to avoid the smell of pee.  I came across the Weehuggers Wee-Be-Gone patch when I was shopping on the Caterpillar Baby web site.  It claimed to be able to absorb the ammonia-like gas presents in cloth diapers; it is also washable and infinitely reusable.  I was curious about how this product works so I check out the Weehuggers web site, and interesting enough the product is not mentioned in their web site!  I read the reviews in Caterpillar Baby which are really positive, so I went ahead and ordered two large patches to give the product a try.

The patches arrived looking just like the way it was shown on the web site; there was no fancy wrappings which was good since they ended up in the garbage anyway.  I placed one patch into my half-full diaper pail liner (I do not have a pail; I just toss the liner on the washroom floor) to see what's going to happen.  Amazing enough, the pee smell significantly reduced in just 20 minutes or so.  I washed the patch together with my diapers the next day, and I put my second patch in the bottom of my second pail liner.  When I walked into the washroom the next morning, I could smell really strong pee stink again.  I was a little confused as the patch was working just fine yesterday.  I went to the Caterpillar Baby web site again for more instructions and found this right in the description of the product: "For best results in diaper pails, sew or otherwise attach patch to the top of the liner."  So I carefully dig through my dirty diapers to retrieve the patch and placed it at the top of the line, and whoa the pee stink was gone in less than half an hour!  Since then I sewed my patches to the top of my liners, like so:

Weehuggers also make wet bags and laundry bags with the Wee-Be-Gone patch built inside it.  The wet bag has two compartments: a smaller one for clean diapers, wipes, and other supplies, and the larger one for soiled diapers.  It is a hobo-style bag with a non-adjustable strap and it is fairly generous in size; it is great for day care or even an overnight trip.

I can see myself taking this bag to swim or to the gym to hold dirty outfits as the Wee-Be-Gone patch "will also help to eliminate stink from gym clothes (perspiration), wet bathing suits (fungi), or even decomposing garbage" according to its product description.  I did not purchase the laundry bag, but according to the picture it also has a handle which is quite convention for carrying or hanging up.

Overall, I am very happy with my patches and wet bags.  I found that these patch and wet bag tend to run out of stock fairly often; if you find a place that carries it make sure you get enough of them!

"Adaptation" Soaker

I haven't made a blog post in a long time.  Not that I think you cared, but I had a baby in March and she has been keeping me really busy!  One of the advantages of being on maternity leave though is that I can spend a lot of time to knit; I was able to finish up a few projects that had been sitting around for a while.  I have been looking for soaker patterns recently as I purchased some fitted diapers for my daughter.  I found this pattern called "Adaptation" by Connie Stults on Ravelry which looks really cute AND does not require short rows!  So I decided to give that a try.

For those who are not familiar with soakers, they are wool pants that go over cloth diapers; simply put they are diaper covers!  The amazing thing about wool is that it can absorbs liquid 30% of its weight before starting to feel damp, and the lanolin in the wool is anti-bacterial (think nipple cream for breastfeeding moms).  In order for soakers to work, you have to use 100% wool.  For this project, I used a skein of the Malabrigo merino worsted in Oceanos from my stash.

My first challenge was to determine the size of soaker I need.  I am using AI2 diapers on my daughter right now; I figured the fitted diaper is going to be as big (if not bigger) as the AI2's so I simply measured her hip circumference with a AI2 on her.  I ended up with 20" which is approximately size medium.

The pattern is very easy to follow.  I used 3.75 mm needles for the waist band ribbing and 4.5 mm needles for the body and leg cuffs (will need double point needles for that).  The pattern did not provide instructions on making the eyelets for the draw strings and I was too lazy to figure it out, so I just knitted 1x1 rib for the entire waist band.  I did increase the length of the waist band to 2.5 inches since I wanted the soaker to stay on my very squirmy baby properly.  The diaper did not take very long to knit up; what really slowed me down was joining the seams.  If you look at the projects on my Ravelry profile, you'll noticed that all my projects are knitted in the rounds or do not require seaming at all. (I work really hard to avoid joining seams!)  I made one baby sweaters that required making up, but it was a disaster.  To make sure I wouldn't ruin my soakers, I watched the videos on mattress stitches that was noted in the pattern.  The videos were really helpful, but as a first timer I was really slow and had to watch the videos a few times.  (Note: If you have never done mattress stitches before, I do not recommend doing it at 1 AM in the morning with a little reading lamp as your only light source!)  After a few tries, I finally got my mattress stitches right and made up the diaper; I decided to work on the leg cuffs after I get some sleep.

I tried the soaker on my daughter before I stitch the leg cuffs; it fitted over her AI2 nicely.  It should fit over the fitted diaper nicely according to my plan!  Picking up stitches is another thing that I have been actively avoiding.  I've only done it for my Featherweight Cardigan and it was quite painful (I made the cardigan full length and that was a lot of picking up stitches to do).  Picking up the stitches for the leg cuffs of the soaker is not nearly as bad; I only have 46 stitches to pick up on each leg.  I knitted 12 rows of 1x1 rib on each cuff, weave in ends, and whoa the soaker is done!

I washed the soaker with Eucalan wool wash and soaked it in the same liquid for 15 minutes to lanolize the soaker.  The soaker is drying now; I am looking forward to putting this pair of soaker pants in action!