Cloth Diapering Reviews

Lily’s Dreams Upcycled Wool Wrap Review

Cloth diapering mamas know that reducing our environmental impact is a major reason for our fluffy love. And that’s a big part of why I was so happy to review this upcycled wool wrap from Lily’s Dreams. I don’t have a whole lot of experience with wool, so I was extra excited to try it out!

Lily's Dreams wool wrap review | This West Coast Mommy

Wool has some pretty amazing properties. Did you know it’s naturally breathable, water resistant, mildew resistant, antibacterial, and fire resistant? I know wool has a reputation for being hard to care for, but I think it all depends on how you look at it. Yes, it does need to be handwashed, but only if it gets soiled or if it starts to retain smells. Depending on how often you use your wool, this could easily be two to four weeks! In between washes it requires very little maintenance. Just hang it up to dry and air out, and reuse it again and again! Lanolin (the natural oil that creates wool’s water resistance) doesn’t necessarily need to added every time you wash your wool either – just when the wrap starts to leak. Your wool may only need to be lanolized every second or third wash.

Kayla is the owner and creative mind behind Lily’s Dreams. This Canadian mama makes beautiful, eco-friendly, upcycled wool wraps, soakers, longies, and puddle pads. Kayla searches for 100% wool sweaters that have lost that loving feeling and upcycles them into super cute diaper wraps. Then she adds an adorable applique on the bum made from scraps of other repurposed sweaters. Talk about eco-friendly!

Kayla began working on her wraps at night after oldest daughter Lily had gone to sleep, hence “Lily’s Dreams”. Now she has two sweet girls, and she’s expecting another baby in May! Both her heavy wetting girls have been cloth diapered since birth, and she chooses mostly wool for them because of its breathability. 

Ordering my custom wrap was super easy. I sent Kayla an email with the colours I wanted, and she sent me back pictures of all the wool she had in those colours for me to pick from. Kayla regularly goes sweater shopping and loves hunting for just the right sweater to match her customers’ requests. I was able to pick the colours for the outside, inside, snaps, and the applique. Kayla sent me a picture of the completed wrap for my approval before shipping it out.

Anatomy of a Lily’s Dreams Upcycled Wool Wrap

Here’s the custom wrap Kayla made for my baby. The outside of this wool wrap is a bold grey and black striped merino wool, and the inside is fuchsia cashmere. This is seriously the softest wrap I have ever felt. If you’re peeing in your pants, you might as well be sitting in luxury while you’re doing it!

The back is elasticized to fit snugly on baby’s waist. There are 4 rows of 2 snaps on the front to adjust the rise and size, and 8 snaps across the front to adjust the waist. Each wing has 2 waist snaps, plus crossover snaps for the skinniest babies. I’m in love with the beautiful tree applique on the bum, also 100% wool.

Lily's Dreams wool wrap review | This West Coast Mommy

And here’s how the sizes compare. To adjust the diaper to its smallest size, snap the top row of rise snaps into the bottom row. Snap the second row of snaps for the next size up, and the third row for the next size after that. Leave the snaps undone for the largest size.

Lily's Dreams wool wrap review | This West Coast Mommy

Fit & Performance

The first thing to understand is that the wrap I received is intended to fit over flats or prefold diapers. I folded my prefold diaper into thirds, just laid it in the wrap, and snapped the whole thing onto Keira. The wool is very stretchy and the elastic is very gentle around Keira’s legs. There was room for another insert if I wanted to add more absorbency.

Keira was easily able to wear it for a couple of hours without any leaks. I didn’t test this wrap overnight as the lightweight unfelted wool in this particular wrap was designed for daytime use or naps, not a 10 hour stretch overnight. Having said that though, one afternoon Keira fell asleep just as I was about to change her and ended up wearing the wrap for four hours. That’s way longer than I would usually leave her in any daytime diaper. I thought for sure she’d be soaked and even tucked a towel under her just in case, but when she woke up I was amazed to find her clothes were still dry! The outside of the wrap felt just barely damp to the touch, even though the prefold inside was almost completely saturated. I find it so cool that this non-plasticized and completely breathable fabric can keep the wetness in so well.

Lily's Dreams wool wrap review | This West Coast Mommy

Remember when I said wool was fairly low maintenance between washings? Well, I haven’t had to wash or lanolize this wrap despite using it more than half a dozen times. Not bad at all!

Nobody’s Perfect

When I first picked it out, I didn’t realize that this wrap was designed to fit over padfolded flats or trifolded prefold diapers.  The crotch is on the narrow side as are the wings which made it too trim to fit over my fitted diapers. But not every mama wants to use flat or prefold diapers. I personally find padfolded flats and prefolds shift too much and bunch up between chubby legs, making them my least preferred cloth diapering option.

When I contacted Kayla to let her know my fitted diapers didn’t fit inside the wrap, she immediately went to work adjusting her design with wider wings and a wider crotch to accommodate. I haven’t had a chance to test the new design, but here’s a picture showing the difference so you can see that they should fit nicely over a typical fitted diaper now. I am so impressed with Kayla’s commitment to continuously improving her items!

Lily's Dreams wool wrap review | This West Coast Mommy

The other thing I noticed was that the snaps on my wrap were not perfectly spaced apart, but the stretch of the wool is very forgiving and the functionality of the wrap is not affected at all. This is a handmade item, and you can’t see those snaps when the wrap is on so it’s not a big deal to me.

My Recommendations

I don’t normally use padfolded flats or prefolds, so next time I would select the newer wrap design with a more generous cut to accommodate my fitted fluff.  However, mamas who do appreciate the simplicity of just laying a flat or prefold in a wrap and snapping it up can always request the original design. Either way you’ll get all the benefits of natural, breathable, eco-friendly wool and a beautiful one of a kind wrap handmade with love.

Take a look at some of the other wooly items at Lily’s Dreams!

Lily's Dreams wool wrap review | This West Coast Mommy

Connect!

Connect with Kayla at Lily’s Dreams on Etsy and follow on Facebook for the latest news, specials, and discounts.

Shop!

Go shopping at Lily’s Dreams for a custom, one of a kind wool wrap or have Kayla custom make a soaker or pair of longies just for you. Soakers without an applique start at $18.00, longies start at $23.00, and plain wraps start at $26.00. Trust me, go for the applique. It’s totally worth it!

Lucky you! Kayla is offering a special 10% discount code to my readers. Just enter code BLOGHOP10 at the Etsy checkout. The code is only valid until November 30 though so don’t miss out!

And here comes the best news of all! Come back next week for my giveaway in the Ditch the Disposables Hop where you could win any in stock wool wrap or diaper cover (longies too!) from Lily’s Dreams.

Disclosure: I received a sample item for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are completely honest and my own, based on my personal experience. Your experience may differ.

Leave a Comment

73 Comments