goodmama

Backordered diapers are here

Good news!!!  Backordered diapers have finally arrived and Becky started shipping them today!

Also, the February Wish Box and Switch Box orders are almost finished and all that got finished this week are shipping to us today.  We are out of velour again, but more is scheduled to arrive on Monday, so it will be spread on Monday and cut on Tuesday morning, and production will begin again on Tuesday.

They should take a day or two to finish at the most and then I am having them shipped here faster so they can catch up with the first batch that is shipping today. As soon as they are all here, we can start shipping your Boxes! I will keep you updated with news as I receive it.

As soon as those are finished, we will start on the picked-up orders. After these we will do the bonus diapers. We have to get all of the orders done first, and I don't want to make any bonus diapers until we are flush in velour. Right now it is coming in waves, just in time, and just barely enough. I have a very large order coming in a few weeks, and after it gets here we will be set for velour for a while.

Also today we cut out batches of *all* the 2008 prints, so that we will have them ready to go as soon as we get the velours caught up and instock. I'm so excited about these, and I know you are too. Some of the 2008 prints are already retired because I only had a small roll, but I am not 100% on which ones they are so I will not say until I am sure. But fear not, there is more awesomeness coming!

We also got more wetbags including some favorite prints and a few new ones. They are awesome!  Becky asked me not to stock them today so that she can keep her shipping within the 5 business days. Once the weekend hits, I think I can stock them so they have until Friday to ship. :-D

What else? Today's stocking on Hyena Cart (http://www.hyenacart.com/goodmama) went well! It was really fun to have a free and a free-for-shipping item with everything else. I have been requested to stock another you-pick Baker's Dozen to auction, so I will do that again in a few weeks when we have more velour.

I have more shirts that I am stocking on the cart, it's very tedious as many of them we only have one of each size and they must be stocked individually. If these oversell, I will have to issue refunds because these are one-of-a-kind and we are out of most of these prints. The cool thing is that now that we have these great side projects we can do with our leftover fabric, I am having all of our print scraps put in a box and shipped to us whenever we have diapers cut, so 2008 will have a greater supply of these fun accessories.

I will send out an email to the yahoo group when the shirts go live. Again, I will need to wait so that we can stay within our shipping deadline this coming week. We have already shipped most of the shirts that sold on Hyena Cart today. Becky is so efficient! I should make her a PayPal tip jar!

I hope you all have a safe and happy weekend. The weather here is finally starting to stay warm. We won't talk about how it snowed a little on Wednesday! Enjoy your spring weekend and happy diapering! Remember, I still want to see your photos for the contest and with the warmer weather, it's a great time to take your little one outside. :-)

Production

Backordered diapers are almost finished. Production of all original 2/15-2/16 orders begins on Monday, this includes Switch Boxes. 

The big delay has been fabric, which we are still working on, but now we have it coming in at least as fast as we can use it. I have learned to be really creative in my sourcing! (If by creative you mean: begging, spending hours on the phone and emailing!) 

From now on, we will have enough to make orders as fast as we have ever been able to make them, plus we have ordered enough to never run out again, and have it automatically reordering at a regularly scheduled frequency.

Also within the month, we will begin production at a second place, as soon as fabric arrives there. This will also help us keep up with the demand and allow us to open up orders to all who want them. This is also a US company, and also has the family feel and well-run feel that I look for. They are wonderful so far, and I have only heard good things, so I am excited to add them to our goodmama family.

(A little aside about production: I think there is some confusion about how diapers and other sewn products are made in a "factory" vs. how they are made in someone's home. I think some people think that machines make them from start to finish, like watching how Crayons or gumballs are made on Mr. Rogers or How It's Made. The only difference between how my diapers are made now vs. how they were made when I made them is that more people do it, they have better sewing machines, they get paid fair wages for their work and they don't have to stay up all night or neglect their children to do it. But the actual process of making them is exactly the same. While it is cool to think about some huge machine that takes a roll of bamboo velour and turns it into a goodmama one-size fitted, like a Dr. Seuss contraption or something, it just doesn't work that way. These diapers are made by people, with people's hands. They are sewn by people, they are snapped up by people, they are packaged by people, and they are shipped by people. And here, our very cute and efficient Becky ships them out to you. What would I do without her? It may be hard to get our diapers sometimes, but once your stuff is here, she gets it right out!)

Production update

I promised production updates, and then have had such a convoluted adventure that I didn't want to annoy anyone with the minutae and rollercoaster of it all. However, I am happy to say that diapers are currently in production, we are collecting what we need to send your orders. They will ship in this order:

1) All backordered diapers.

2) Original Wish Boxes and Switch Boxes orders, in order of date received; will ship complete.

3) Picked up Wish Box and Switch Box slots in order of date picked up by current customer; will ship complete.

4) All bonus new diapers will ship separately and at once, after actual orders are completed to not hold up paid-for diaper production.

While waiting for diapermaking supplies, and concurrently with diaper production, we are making wipes and wetbags. Not everyone who sews for us can make our diapers, but they can make wetbags and wipes, so bag & wipe production does not hold up or interfere with diaper production in any way.

I am expecting another shipment of wetbags and wipes tomorrow, I will list them in the store as soon as I inventory and photograph them.

Additionally, as soon as our supply chain is smooth we intend to open the store for orders. Additionally we have many, many  more prints we are excited to introduce.

As we work through this list, I will update the blog as to our progress.