Jena is the WAHM behind Ribbons and Fluff and the Mommy to a 5 year-old boy named Jaksen, and an 8-month-old girl named Ryan. She is married to hubby Mike- who works as a mechanic for Infiniti. She works as a Mommy to her two littles, and business owner during the day, and at 24 Hour Fitness at night. To say the least she is a hardworking Momma!!
Jena loves being able to work from home during the day and spend quality time with her littles. Her son was in daycare from the time he was 11 months old until she was on maternity leave with her daughter (until he was 4). Having him home was such a gift, and she enjoyed every moment of it. She decided then and there that she did not want anyone else raising her children, so she considers herself blessed to be able to stay at home with them.
Jena considers herself a definite Tree Hugger. If there is a sustainable, reusable option she will choose it 100% of the time (with the exception of toilet paper... She says she cannot force herself to go quite that far:) ). Jena tries to buy from other WAHM's for many reasons: She feels that many WAHM products are often of better quality because they are doing what they love. She also spends confidently knowing that her her money spent is supporting a real family- She would rather her money go to putting dinner on a families table, rather than helping a CEO's 4'th international vacation of their year. She recognizes the work, and the love that goes into these products!
Jena started sewing right after her daughter Ryan was born. She found herself in need of more cloth wipes to hold her over so she made some out of some old flannel pajamas and a towel. As it turned out she wasn't too shabby with her sewing machine. After that she decided to draft a pattern for a diaper, and sewed it up. It took some pattern altering to get the best fit, but after her third diaper she had a perfect leak proof fit on her daughter. All of her friends told her she should start her own business, and she could not thank them enough for that support now.
Jena loves making diapers, and also enjoys stitching baby leg warmers. She loves making new things. She would love to someday have her own sewing room/ business office. Right now her work station is in the corner of the family dining room, and they are currently saving to buy a new (and hopefully larger as she says) home.
This year Jena has a lot of plans for craft shows and farmers markets. She would love to see more people consider the switch from sposies to cloth, and getting her message out there is very important to her. To her success for her business is defined by staying busy- She would love to cut her night hours at the gym down to one day (or less!) a week.
Jenna has an album of fabrics that she has on-hand for customers to choose from, however she is happy to search for any specific fabrics that you might be looking for. Prime example of that: She is working on a custom diaper now that has Philadelphia Eagle fabric on the outer, and Dallas Cowboys as the inner to be pooped on! She plans to stock more diapers with rival teams like that very soon. She will search to find an array of fabrics with your theme to choose from when making a custom diaper. Customs are her favorite to make.
Jenna offers two different types of inserts- a Batting and Flannel insert, and a flannel and Zorb insert. Her diapers can be AI2 pockets, or snap in soakers. If a customer does not define a type her default is the snap in soaker (which I love). For her closures she can do snaps, hook and loop, or felt tabs for those who prefer to use a Snappi. If one of these is not specified her default is snaps. She currently offers sizes Newborn-Large; however, she does have a one-size in the works as well as a pull-up style for those potty training littles. She anticipates that the trainer's and the OS will be ready to go sometime in the next month.
Jena does a great job at keeping her prices as low as possible. She makes the equivelent of $2/ hour of diaper making to make sure that her customers get the best deal possible.
Price List:
Diapers-$22+shipping and includes one insert (custom diapers may run more if the fabric is more expensive)
Additional inserts are $5 each
What I thought:
We reviewed a size Medium snapping diaper with the snap in inserts. Jena sent us one of each of the inserts to try out. We loved the diaper! It is adorable! BOTH the outside and inside is super soft. I consider this diaper to be like the fancy comfy pants we all want. It looks great, but seems to be super comfy for Zoey. I loved that it had the snaps that matched the pattern on the fabric. It seemed to hold our daytime wets really well holding up to a four hour leak test. The cleanup was also so much easier with the snap in soaker- I could really get used to not digging a pee pee filled insert out of the pockets! We used both of our inserts equally and they both seemed to hold a really good amount. I think the batting/ flannel did a little better in our night test, but both of them held in the yuckies well. The only downfall to the diaper is that Zoey is really really skinny and tall- my little oddball- so the medium fit her perfectly in the rise, but the waste was a bit loose. I talked to Jena about the waste size and she said that from now on she will be adding an additional row of snaps to accommodate skinnier babies like Zoey. That being said we did have some leaks in the tummy area during Zoeys nighttime wears (she is a tummy sleeper now). I definitely think this will be solved with the additional snaps, and I love the fact that Jena welcomed our feedback, and strives to make the best diaper for every body type. She is very admirable. These are definitely great diapers to add to your stash!!
*UPDATE*
Jena sent me a different insert to try for Miss Super soaker as an overnight insert and I LOVE it!! It is 3 layers of Zorb II wrapped in 2 layers of flannel, and is turned at top-stitched to prevent any fraying. Its also not nearly as bulky as I had expected considering what it is made of! It worked really well for Z's night time diapers!! We still had a small leak in the tummy, but again, that is due to Zoey being a little to small for the diaper and being a tummy sleeper. The insert held SO SO much!! She will be offering the overnight inserts separately fr $5 each, or if you would like this type of insert instead of the ones that come with the diaper it is an extra $3.
*UPDATED INSERT PICTURES*
(you can tell we have used the diaper for a while now!! We love it!)
Up For Giveaway:
Jena is giving away one diaper in your choice of size in any fabric pictured in her fabrics album!!