Monday, November 28, 2011

Diapers!

A few weeks ago, I went to Omaha for a baby shower my family & friends were throwing to celebrate my little guy.  I stuck around an extra day and a half so my mom and I could whip up some diapers.  I had picked up this pattern a while back for making all-in-ones.

Diaper Fabrics
I dug through my stash of fun fabrics before I left Kansas City & my mom dug through her stash.  The pile of fabrics shown above are what we ended up using from my stash.  I didn't take a picture after she added her fabrics to the mix.  :(

Us working 1

Mom cutting
Cutting things took FOREVER.  I hate cutting.  Have I mentioned I hate cutting?  It's my least favorite part of sewing. 

Us working 2
I love that the dogs are never far from any possible action. 

Mom sewing
Our babylocks got to play together again. 

Us working 3
We spent about a day and a half at the dining room table.  We cut fabrics.  We sewed parts together.  We attached elastic.  We topstitched stuff. 

Finished Diapers
This is what we ended up with.  20 diaper shells & 21 of the soaker pad inserts.  Some of the outer shells are from flannel & some are just quilter's weight cotton.  I think the next time I make some, I'll just use the cotton; it seems to form a little better than the flannel. 

Finished Diapers 2
Aren't they adorable?  They're super soft inside.  I think little guy will like wearing them.  How could he not like wearing such fun panties?

A suggestion I would offer for the pattern making people... I wish the pattern would have said how much fabric and other supplies was necessary for each diaper, not several.  I found a fat quarter was enough to do one of the outside shells, so that may help you pattern following people. 

How we did them:
We used either flannel or cotton for the outer layer.
The inside layer you can't see is a white PUL.
The lining is a white fleece.

The soaker pads are all fleece.  I serged the edges of each of them.  The serging is a little tricky to do with 4 layers of fleece, so be careful.  My soaker pads aren't the prettiest things, but we must keep in mind what is going to be done on them.  I think they'll do the trick.  :)

I'm really excited to give cloth diapering a try.  Currently my stash consists of:
  • 20 AIO's that are a size small
  • 21 soaker pads for the size small AIO's.
  • 36 newborn chinese prefolds
  • 6 small prefold covers
  • 20 regular sized prefolds
  • 1 medium prefold cover
  • 5 size 1 snappi's
I need to make some prefold covers to fit a newborn, so if anyone has some suggestions on good patterns to use in a newborn size, I'm all ears.  I'll also need to make or obtain some larger prefold covers, but I'm planning to hold off a while on those and see how this cloth diapering thing works out for us. 

Also, I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to work the pail system.  I picked up a lidded trash can to use as my diaper pail & was planning to go with a dry system.  Anybody have suggestions on how to work that?  I have to carry my diapers from one end of the house and down the stairs to the laundry room, so I'm liking the idea of a dry system to avoid spilling a heavy wet pail. 

Is there any diaper stuff I will absolutely need that I'm forgetting?  I'm open to suggestions!

4 comments:

Vicki said...

Cute diapers! I CDed all 3 of my kids and used an 8 gallon garbage can for my (dry) diaper pail. I used a regular (13 gallon I think) garbage bag for a liner and would carry that bag to the washer in the basement. I reused each bag a few times, too. Make sure once you are past the early newborn stage (after the poop changes) that you scrape/dump/or rinse poopy diapers.

For washing I would do a cycle on hot and an extra rinse, using my normal detergent. I think sometimes I did a prewash cycle, too.

And for wipes I kept them dry under the sink and wet them with warm water when needed. The changing area was the floor of the bedroom doorway right next to the bathroom. :)

I think a lot of CD advice online is overly complicated...it is cloth, holding in baby messes. You will figure it out just fine!

Anonymous said...

Very cute!!

Do the dry system. A lot easier! I just hang a pail liner on my bathroom door and wash every 2 to 3days. Once baby starts solids a diaper sprayer becomes handy. You need special detergent like EcoSprouts(this is what I use) or Rocking Green. Normal detergent will build up over time and will cause your diapers to repel water and/or stink.

Its easy once you start! Happy diapering!! Let me know if you have any other questions!

Harlem

mjb said...

I just use a fabric pail liner, too. It's a lot lighter than a bucket, and I have 2 so I can throw it in the wash with the diapers. I like prefolds w/covers the best.

Unknown said...

Good suggestions, ladies! mjb, what kind of covers do you use?