Making your own cloth diapers?

[musicaddict]

Hey all,

I've been looking into (finally) moving out of the family home and as such might finally be able to look into cloth diapers to save some money on disposables. That and the bulk of them seems hot. I was also wondering though about making my own rather than spending around $20 a pop. Does anyone have any experience with this? What skills are needed/how good do you need to be with sowing since I've never done that before?

[3bsg3]

I just use towels, they're the same thing and much cheaper.

[BabyJune]

I use diaper flannel. It costs about $9 a yard. I line it with a layer of. (10" X 36") terrycloth and then make soaker panels (10" X 18") out of Zorb3. Four yards of diaper flannel, one yard of terry cloth and one yard of Zorb3 yields 4 diapers and 6 soaker panels.

I buy 27" diaper flannel, but you can get wider sizes if you need it. I have a 36" waist, and 27" works fine for me.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Here are two for you, one is mine

https://littleab.com/ABcare/diapertypes.html

 

[ValentinesStuff]

You can make simple flat diapers with a serger.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overlock This will keep the edges from unraveling.

 

Flannel, terry cloth, diaper cloth can all be found for sale online or in fabric stores. 

 

More complex diapers would require a regular sewing machine and more practice. Sewing isn't hard, it just takes patience and practice. 

 

What's even better is that if you get good enough, you can sell them or make your clothes or other stuff.

[Cottontail]

On 2/21/2021 at 5:28 AM, Little Christine said:

(illustration of baby prefolds being assembled into an adult diaper)

That T-shaped "original" arrangement is one I use and enjoy.  Easy to audition without any sewing, too: Just pin them into that shape with a few extra diaper pins.  I grew up wearing Curity prefolds, and have been collecting them from eBay for a while.  A few years ago, I hired somebody to sew me some "Curi-Tees," as I call them.   First batch was sewn edge-to-edge, but I found that to be a little fragile, possibly because of the lightweight gauze fabric.  Second batch used about a half inch of overlap between the diapers.  I was worried that I'd feel that when I sat on it, but as I almost always place a couple of extra diapers down the middle, the overlap can't be felt.  That second batch has been in my rotation for a few years now and is holding up well.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

That design was not my origina, but used in 1951, when prefolds first came out, by a lady we knew who haed a little girl who was a bedwetter

[le Hollandais]

On 5/12/2021 at 1:57 PM, BabyJune said:

I use diaper flannel. It costs about $9 a yard. I line it with a layer of. (10" X 36") terrycloth and then make soaker panels (10" X 18") out of Zorb3. Four yards of diaper flannel, one yard of terry cloth and one yard of Zorb3 yields 4 diapers and 6 soaker panels.

I buy 27" diaper flannel, but you can get wider sizes if you need it. I have a 36" waist, and 27" works fine for me.

If I understand this right, your flannel outer layer is a rectangle 27" wide X 36" long, right?

[BabyJune]

12 hours ago, le Hollandais said:

If I understand this right, your flannel outer layer is a rectangle 27" wide X 36" long, right?

Yes. You can get wider flannel if you need it. I usually order four yards at a time and cut it into four sections and hem the ends so it won't fray.

[le Hollandais]

The reason I ask is because I've gained a bit of weight during the pandemic, and my 30" X 30" diapers don't fit like they used to. And my new jeans are 38" waist. I must be folding my diaper differently, or something else.