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Noonee Wilga
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About Us


Established 2002 and located in Thornleigh, near Hornsby in New South Wales, Australia. Contact us by email:  marnie@nooneewilga.com

Custom made eco-friendly products for women, babies, toddlers and children, specialising in:

  • cloth pads for menstruation and mild incontinence
  • A swirl of cloth pads
  • training pants for EC babies and toilet learning toddlers,
  • EC gear and EC clothing such as open and split crotch pants and more
  • tiny underwear for babies and petite children

Everything is custom made for you - in your choice of fabrics and colours, to the size and specifications that you provide.

OneWet PantsI love a challenge, so if you have an idea for something that you can't find anywhere else, let me know and we can work together to design it.

Recent challenges have included extremely fast drying menstrual pads, a placenta bag for a lotus birth, cloning an impossible-to-repair wool nappy cover, making teeny-tiny undies for a premmie baby, creating a mermaid outfit, sewing a Jessie dress up costume for a 3yo and making a wool wrap night cover in a size larger than the largest available in the only brand that worked for a particular child...

I ship world-wide - recently my products have gone to England, France, Germany, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Canada, Norway and the US. I know my local post office staff very well!

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to email me.

Noonee Wilga uses green power

Noonee Wilga products are made using power from renewable resources. A 1.5KW/hr array of solar panels on our roof covers the majority of our electricity needs.

Most items are sewn on a 1956 Singer 201K sewing machine named Betsy who came to me through a Freecycle transaction. She used to have an electric motor with period wiring. I was concerned about the safety of the electricals and removed the motor and popped her into a treadle base.  Here is Betsy in her resplendent pink(!) treadle table.  I choose this machine (which does only straight stitching) over my others because of her character and also the direct control I have over the stitching for detailed items like cloth pads.

Because one sewing machine is never enough, I also have a variety of other treadle, handcrank and industrial machines that share our home with us!

To reduce the carbon footprint of your purchases, they are  delivered to the post box by foot or as part of carrying out multiple errands if we go by car.

Noonee Wilga uses treadle power for custom sewing!

Betsy, my treadle powered Singer 201K sewing machine



The History of Noonee Wilga

Noonee Wilga began shortly after I started making tiny training pants, known as OneWet Pants, for my small daughter in 2002. Others asked me to make some for their babies and soon I was making and sending custom made OneWet Pants all over the globe. I have gradually expanded the range of items I make to include baby carrier slings, tiny undies, fitted nappies and cloth menstrual pads, as well as a variety of clothing for kids. I have many more ideas than time to make them and love the challenge of creating something to fulfil a particular need.

I make all items myself in our smoke-free, pet-free, chemical-free home. Both my daughters help with some parts of packing and production and consider the sewing area to be their own work area as well.

Selin sewing

This is my younger daughter using a 1950's Singer 99 sewing machine that I converted to handcrank. She now prefers to use Betsy, my treadle machine!

In addition to providing details about the products I make, this site is also intended to provide information and inspiration for others about elimination communication, baby wearing and to encourage you to "do it yourself" to make nappies, little underwear etc for your own family.

But what does "Noonee Wilga" mean?

Well, 'wilga' is an aboriginal word for a particular type of tree and 'noonee' is another aboriginal word with family significance. As I recall the story as told to me by my father, early in the 1800's my great great grandfather had a property in the upper Hunter Valley and, unlike many of his neighbours, he got along very well with the local Aborigines and they honoured him by telling him many of their stories and legends.

The Legend of Noonee

One legend was the story of Noonee, a little girl of the tribe of that area, who loved nature. She went out with the women each day to help collect food, but often she would wander away, enthralled with looking at a lizard or following the flight of a butterfly. On one particular day, Noonee went out with the women as usual. She drifted off from the others and gradually made her way up onto the local mountain which was sacred to the great god of Thunder and out of bounds to women.

The god was annoyed that a mere girl was treading on his mountain and sent a gust of wind to drive her away. Noonee was following the darting path of a dragonfly and took no notice. So he sent a crash of thunder, followed by a scurry of rain. She looked up and, seeing the rain, sought shelter in a rocky overhang on the mountain. The god was incensed that she did not immediately leave the mountain and threw down a bolt of lightning, which killed her where she huddled.

He was then terribly sorry for what he had done, and changed her into a small greenhood orchid, which grows to this day on that mountain. And now, if you see any one of these beautiful little native greenhood orchids and you look very carefully, you can see the rocky overhang that she sheltered under; and hidden inside, is the dark figure of Noonee.

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My logo is based on this bobbin lace picture of a greenhood orchid that I designed and made many years ago.

Bobbin lace greenhood orchid


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