Thursday, February 10, 2011

Sewing cloth diapers...

Only daughter, G., is due to have her first baby in April and so she asked me to sew up a bunch of cloth diapers for Cupcake.  I really like doing this so of course, I committed to it.  So far, I've only stitched up a half dozen, but I have many, many more to make.  I am using the patterns here and here.  I did buy a Quick Sew diaper pattern that is sized (S,M,L, XL), but so far, I haven't tried it.  I figured if I can sew a one-size-fits-all, why mess with sizes?

Tonight G. is going to try the diapers out on her friend's 5 month old baby.  It'll be interesting to know how they fit and if she might have suggestions in sizing.  There are so many patterns out there that I don't mind trying new ones to see which are The Best.

The green print diaper at the top of the picture is made of three layers of flannel.  It is supposed to be a pocket diaper, but G. and I wondered why a person would want to de-stuff a messy diaper and re-stuff clean ones?  So instead, I just made it plain and sewed up a bunch of diaper soaker pads from the scraps to place right inside the diaper next to baby's bum.  The other two diapers are made of cotton knits.  The grey one is knit terry cloth and the blue bunny diaper has the grey terry cloth inside and is a cotton knit outside.  Both are three layers.  None of these diapers have closures, but will be pinned or snappied shut.  It is possible that we may decide to do velcro tabs, but for now, we've chosen to keep the diapers plain.  I have made velcro tabs on other diapers, and they were well-received.

I think these new fitted cloth diapers are just wonderful.  They sure beat the old pre-fold diapers that I used on my kids.  I thought they worked just fine and they were very inexpensive.  After all, they were diapers -- made for messes, not for pretty. These days, the new-fangled cloth diapers are really expensive.  Check out the Fuzzi Bunz and see what I mean!  Yowza!  I knew I could make diapers on-the-cheap. 

Want a quick sample of a good diaper sewing video?  Click below! She is sewing the same pocket-diaper pattern that I made (minus the pocket).




More links for sewing diapers here:
The Diaper Jungle
Sewing Cloth Diapers
Very Baby (fabrics & patterns available here)
Zany Zebra Designs (lots of free patterns)
Fern & Faerie (frugal diapering)
Confessions of a Diaper Fanatic

Don't have a diaper handy?  Use a T-shirt.
Watch Dad diaper his son.

7 comments:

  1. Wow, looks interesting and I am interesed in makinf these for my Shortcake that is on the way. Where did you get your fabric? I am very limited on what I can buy around here.

    ~M~

    I was thinking snaps...I have been ordering from Snap Source and am loving them. They have a huge assortment.

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  2. M,
    We ordered the fabrics from Very Baby (linked in the post) for about $5.95 per yard. Here's the deal though....you don't have to use these materials. You could use flannel sheets, old flannel shirts. I have used cotton knit polos and you could find lots of flannel sheets or blankets at thrift stores. You could use terry cloth towels for diaper soaker pads or for an in between layer. Once you start looking at some of these links, you'll find that lots of people make diapers out of salvage materials. I think that's smart!

    Snaps are very good for diapers, but I don't have those tools.

    Jody

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  3. Look at you, with another grandbaby on the way! These are marvelous!

    xofrances

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  4. I like these! Kelli ordered some very expensive diapers for Birdie and then gave them to a friend. My mother-in-law made some for me and I used them for all four kids. What a wonderful gift!

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  5. Sew sweet! Wraps were just coming on the scene when my youngest piXie was in diapers. Wish I'd had these cuties instead of bulky prefolds. No doubt G. will be blessed by your handiwork!

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  6. Love this post!!!!
    Would like to try some of these myself...well...for my grands.
    :D

    ReplyDelete

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