Living on the beautiful Isle of Lewis has made us really appreciate the beauty of the environment. We overlook The Minch, which is the wild and unpredictable stretch of water that separates Lewis from the mainland of Scotland. The fact that as a smallish island there is limited land-fill facility coupled with having five children in a six year period and living on only one income made cloth nappies the obvious choice for our babies bottoms for both environmental and economical reasons.

All our babies wore the humble terry square and old fashioned rubber pants …which weren’t perfect, but they did the job. Our first home computer and a sortie onto the internet opened my eyes to all the different nappies out there!

Four and half years ago, not long after the birth of our fifth child, I started making a cloth nappy that I had designed myself for our son. When friends saw the nappies that I had made they asked me to make some for them and then their friends saw them …and so it grew. An initial Ebay sale of one of my nappies made me realise that perhaps there was a market for a range of brightly coloured, fun, functional nappies.

The business, Nappies by Minki, has grown over the years and I now have six women sewing the nappies and accessories that were developed along the way…mostly in answer to problems and needs that I encountered myself as a mother.

The Isle of Lewis doesn’t have a lot of opportunities for paid work for women with kids, and although the nappies could be made much more cheaply abroad I don’t believe that would be ethical, I think that an Island business should provide work for the Island and that a fair rate of pay should be paid for the work. My sewing ladies are all mums that work from their own homes around the needs of their children.

I believe that the future looks bright for cloth nappies. More and more hospitals and local councils are promoting the benefits of using cloth nappies. Nappy ‘fashion’ and new, modern, easy to use styles has given the nappies a “Wow” factor with new mums as opposed to the “Ewww” brought on by terry squares and pins.

Michaela Smith
Nappies by Minki