A Summer In Cloth

[Sarah_Hillcrest]

I posted a few months ago about considering cloth diapers and I decided to switch over almost full time to cloth. I don't have to wear diapers and probably only spend about 20-30 hours a week wearing them.

For diapers I started by trying to make prefolds with heat bond tape and it came apart almost immediately. I broke down and hauled out a freebie sewing machine and got it to work, I've never been much with fabric but I gave it a short. IT was easier than I thought. My next diapers were made from flannel and terry, sewed backwards and then pulled inside out. They've held up very well and grown very soft and comfortable. I have a huge roll of canvas material and used it and terry to make a prefold. THe Canvas didn't work very well at first but after about ten washings its become soft and absorbant. I then bought 2 cheap bath towels and made a super easy prefold by overlaping them and seweing using an extra layer in the center. I also used baby blankets from thrift stores, usually takes about 3 to make one that fits, I even made a prefold out of a yard of flannel and about 5 old T-shirts. Making prefold diapers is very easy and actually fun.

To fasten the prefolds I've tried wal-mart diaper pins, adult baby diaper pins, and a size one snappie. The wal-mart diaper pins are my favorites even though the adult diaper pins look much better, they're big size makes them hard to get through the fabric, maybe if I was using birdseye they would go in better. The snappie works with some of my diapers better then others, but I don't think the rubber is strong enough for an adult and I don't think they hold the diaper on as well.

For covers I started by ordering 2 pairs of plastic pants from an online retailer. Buying vinyl plastic pants is probably a waste of time unless you get some that are better, of the two I bought one started getting hard after a few wears and the other started ripping apart. I bought a nice pair of plastic pants from a medical supply store for close to 20 dollars. They fit good and almost never leak.

I bought some PUL material and made 2 covers. For the first I just used an XL adult diaper for a pattern and did a layer of PUL and a layer of soft fleece, sewed them together upside down, sewed in some elastic and turned them inside out and attached buttons. They work great, but are a bit too small, should have allowed more seem. The second pair I followed an online video, and basically after doing the same thing as my first pair the instructor turned them right side out and sewed the leg opening together again. I did this without thinking but now they leak around leg bands but only when my diaper is soaked.

So I have 8 diapers and 3 covers. ALl the covers but the leaky one can be used many times between washings. I have yet to run out of diapers. plus storing all these takes alot of room so I don't need to make more.

Over the last 3 months I have worn almost nothing but cloth, I wore disposables a few times when traveling and going out to the store and a few times when I wasn't in the mood to mess with laying out a cloth diaper and pinning it on. Here's what I've discovered.

The cloth diapers offer impressive absorbancy and under regular conditions can usually go 4 hours or more. Each diaper has its own characteristics, but of course the thicker they are the dryer they stay. Usually after a couple of wettings I'm just starting to feel only a bit damp.

I initially thought I'd never go out wearing cloth, but I have two thinner diapers and with the thinner plastic pants I can wear them under clothes pretty well. When bending over you can notice though. They are still thicker then a thick disposable.

Washing diapers isn't too bad, but its very difficult to get out the urnine smell. I've tried Borax and vinegar, but really the only thing that has worked well is to soak wet diapers in vinegar. I bought a 6 gallon trash can to keep wet and soiled diapers in between washings. Wish I could use a much larger pail.

Messy cloth diapers are a pain, I really try to avoid messing as much as possible, but just a few days ago I had a diaper pinned on tightly and couldn't get it down without unpinning it, and after a minute of trying to get is slid down I just went. Getting the poop out of the diapers before throwing them in the diaper pail is not fun.

The cloth is much more economical and environmentally friendly, I can't notice a difference between my water bill and electric bill, but I have noticed a difference in basically one less bag of trash each trash day. If I hadn't been wearing cloth I'd have probably used almost 150 or more disposables, even if I'd bought cheap ones that's still 75 bucks.

The cloth diapers and covers look much more babyish to me, which is what I'm going for.

One downside is that I always enjoyed the way a wet disposable feels when its all swelled up with gel, also good disposables feels dry much longer, but its not that big of a deal.

Perhaps the ultimate diaper is a thick cloth, a disposable soaker and a thick disposable diaper. The Cloth tends to spread out the wetness which is slowly absorbed by the disposable and spread out. I went all day drinking heavily and never needed a change, looked like I'd been swimming.

If you are considering it, I'd say take the leap and switch to cloth.