Adventures in Cloth Diaper Making, Part I

After deciding to cloth diaper and seeing just how expensive some of the newer styles of diapers are, I decided that making some diapers would be a good way for me to save some money and learn how to sew at the same time. Finding materials around the house (old stained towels, tshirts, flannel sheets, etc) has been quite easy, as is taking Joe to the fabric stores and picking out cute materials for the diapers. I decided to try making fitted diapers (100% cotton with the absorbancy sewn into the diaper) and pockets (an open pocket in the back allows for a variety of soakers to be stuffed into the diaper, adding more flexibility to how dry the baby will stay before needing a change). I started with a free pocket diaper pattern that many people have used with success online, and then grabbed my McCall's diaper cover pattern to adapt into a fitted. Although most people say these take about 30 minutes-1 hr to make per diaper, I'm still quite the newbie and it definitely takes me at least twice that long!

Here are the first two I've made so far - the fitted is on the left and the pocket is on the right...


The fitted is a flannel outside and inside, and I sewed an old kitchen towel folded over a few times into the inside layer. The pocket is also flannel outside and inside, and has space to stuff microfiber inserts that I made from car detailing towels from Walmart. They both could close with pins, but I'll probably try to use velcro on the fitted... This picture doesn't do the size difference justice, but the navy blue one is designed to be one sized, where you can fold the back down to fit smaller babies. I don't know that I totally believe that it'll fit before he's 12ish pounds, but we'll see!




I had to compare the fitted that I made in the newborn size pattern with the small sized BumGenius diaper we bought at the cloth diaper store in St. Louis. I've obviously got a lot of work to do before mine look that nice, but not too shabby, for my first time! I think I may try to shorten the wing length and width if I do decide to use velcro, as they appear to overlap quite a bit. My elastic sewing skills are quite rough, but this attempt was much better than the diaper cover I made this past summer!

Here's the picture we took of me with the fetus that was approximately baby Joe's developmental age at the "You! The Experience" exhibit in Chicago. It's crazy how much it looks just like a newborn, just smaller! Only a few more weeks before we meet the little guy, and I get to see who's been kicking me in the ribs all this time!