Confession: I’m a little bit - ok, A LOT - addicted to AppleCheeks! What started as a fairly innocent search for a solid nighttime diapering solution has now morphed into a hobby that invades my dreams, daydreams and social media interactions. Sometimes I feel like I need to apologize to everyone on Facebook and Instagram who doesn’t have kids or cloth diapers…but #sorrynotsorry. ;)
After spending almost 2 years on the AppleCheeks Facebook fan page and the AppleCheeks For Sale or Trade group, I’ve seen certain topics and questions come up over and over again. One of the most recent trending topics has been color variation, which seems sometimes to correlate to PUL type, which varies with the method by which it is applied to the knit fabric.
I have observed three types of PUL (Polyurethane Laminate - what makes the envelope cover water resistant!) in my AppleCheeks stash - I call them bumpy, shiny smooth and dull dimply. If that sounds like gobbledygook to you, allow me to show you what I’m talking about!
The following colors in my stash have more than one type of PUL that affects the outside color: St. Lucia, Cherry Tomato, Forget-me-Not and Dark Chocolate. It’s really noticeable once you flip the covers inside-out, but slight color variation is visible even from the outside!
Possibly the most popular and sought-after “off” color is St. Lucia 2/Too. It was even granted “official” status as a legitimate alternate color in the lineup! It was a batch of PUL that had a significantly different color, but, like many collectible items, something so different makes it more desirable to the collectors!
Here is regular “bumpy” St. Lucia, “shiny smooth” St. Lucia, and “dull dimply” St. Lucia 2/Too. It’s not that easy to spot it by looking at the outside of the PUL, but when you look at the color and texture of the inside, it’s quite obvious!
Another color variation that seems to be popular in waves is Dark Cherry Tomato. It is not an “official” color variation, but many fans love having multiple PUL incarnations within the same color. To me, it’s like the color of the perfect cherry snocone. Is it summer yet?!
Here is regular “bumpy” Cherry Tomato, “shiny smooth” Cherry Tomato, and “dull dimply” (Dark) Cherry Tomato. Again, you can sort of see the difference from the outside, but the inside makes it very apparent!
The next color I noticed having different PUL styles is Forget-Me-Not. The two versions mentioned in for sale or in search of posts are, by fans, dubbed “Light FMN” and “Bright FMN”. Light is a really soft baby blue color. Bright is a slightly deeper, more blue color than the light. It can be hard to tell which is which if they are by themselves, but put them together, and you can spot it instantly!
Here is Bright “bumpy” Forget-Me-not, an almost-Bright “shiny smooth” Forget-Me-Not, and Light “dull dimply” Forget-Me-Not. There’s another variation of Forget-Me-Not I have seen, but do not own - a really light color with an almost green tint to it, that is sometimes mistaken for Coriander in photos!
The last color I have in my stash with different colors is Dark Chocolate. I have to confess that just like real chocolate, I find that the darker is best! I only have one of these in my stash, but I wouldn't mind having more.
Here is regular “bumpy” Dark Chocolate, and “dull dimply” Dark(er) Chocolate. I don’t have any “shiny smooth” Dark Chocolate in my stash - maybe I should add it to my list of diapers to find! ;)
UPDATE: One of the members of the Peace Love AppleCheeks group on Facebook, Amanda M., was so kind to take a photo of her Plum vs Purple Rain, another really tricky color comparison! These both feature a second generation tag (with applecheeks.ca), but MOST Plums come with a vintage tag (a skinny apple without the .ca - the middle St. Lucia in my grouping has a vintage tag), and a lot of Purple Rains can be found with a current tag, which has a fat apple (seen on the leftmost Cherry Tomato, Forget Me Not and Dark Chocolate groupings). So you can't always tell for sure what you have just by the tag - you MUST flip it inside out to check the PUL! The serging color on Plum is also a little more blue than on Purple Rain, but that can be hard to identify if you only have one of them and can't compare to a known quantity. Plum has smooth shiny PUL, and Purple Rain has bumpy PUL. Plum is on top in both of these photos.
I never thought I’d be so crazy about cloth diapers that I would start investigating, photographing and blogging about the different types of fabric, but what can I say? The diapers made me do it. I love having a diverse stash while only using one brand - AppleCheeks!
Stay Fluffy!
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