Of course with spending the last 3 years making nappies for friends and rellies, I have developed quite a supply of various fabrics suitable for nappies. In my internet travels to find more fabric (she who dies with the most fabric ….. wins), I came across this American site, Wazoodle, and I am very interested, specifically in the new fabric they advertise.
DiaperMaker Zorbâ„¢ is a specialty textile designed to reduce cost and improve performance of reusable cloth diapers and accessory products. ZORB absorbs 10x it’s weight in less than half a second — that’s 20x faster than cotton, bamboo or hemp. Zorb is made with a combination of wicking fibers and highly absorbent fibers which reduce compression wickling.
Of course, purchasing from America can be an expensive exercise, so you need to be canny with your choices. Wazoodle however, have a fantastic service, that allows you to buy pre-cut blanks in a number of shapes, including nappies (or diapers) and boosters.  This works in your advantage, since you only pay postage for actual usable fabric, not the scraps you would throw away if you cut out yourself.
Now as you can imagine, anything that makes a nappy more absorbent and less bulky is of great interest.  I have held off until now, but with the AU$ as good as it is right now, I just couldn’t resist any longer.   I worked out that if I purchase 36 ZORB booster blanks (making 18 two layer boosters), the surface postage is $20, meaning that a 2 layer booster would cost $1.79 ……. Oh My God! Any more and the shipping jumps to $35, so I will stick with that number for now. Oh and that is in american dollars, so it will be slightly less in aussie money.  Since I only sew for gifts now, 18 boosters will make a number of gift sets.
I will reserve opinion on the quality of the fabric, along with the performance, but at the moment the cost is quite attractive, compared to bamboo fleece or microfibre boosters.   I will post more detail when I get them.
***Note:Â Wazoodle don’t know me, didn’t give me anything to say this, and so can’t be seen to be sponsoring me in any way. *****
Did you get the zorb yet? If you have, what do you think?
Do you still use Zorb & do you still get it from Wazoodle or have you found an Aussie supplier please?
I’m thinking of using it for guinea pig bedding/cage liners however like you said the US Postal Service shipping costs are ridiculous. 🙂
Overall I haven’t been overly impressed. The fabric has a distinctly artificial feel to it, with a hand that resembles synthetic feeling felt, but stiffer. While it may be absorbent, its also stiff and unyielding. My sister tells me that she has used it in nappies, and found that while it is absorbent, its not the dramatic improvement that the manufacturer would have you believe. Overall, I don’t think the benefit is balanced by the cost. I only tried Zorb I ….. there is a new Zorb II which may be better, but I haven’t bothered with that.