Did you ever try 'making' a diaper?

[drynot]

I've known I've been into diapers ever since I was a little kid.  Some of you who know my backstory will know that my folks weren't diaper-phobic back in the 70's when I was wetting the bed a lot so I used baby diapers until I couldn't fit them anymore and then we found Attends....anyway.

One time I got the 'brilliant' idea to make a diaper.  I took plastic and a pillow case, formed a makeshift diaper out of the whole thing and tried to wear that as a diaper.  I used duct tape for the tapes and put it on.  Well...as you might have figured...that didn't go well.  When I peed, the pillow case didn't absorb anything really and it all leaked out the side and down my leg.  Fortunately my childhood bedroom had linoleum flooring instead of carpet so clean up wasn't a big deal but that was the first and the last time I built my own diaper.

Any other similar experiences?

[Goodnitesboi]

I tried to make a diaper once when I was a kid with paper towels and duct tape. It didn't absorb anything either but fortunately I was in my bathroom so clean up was easy. 

[DailyDi]

I tried it with a towel and a trash bag. Results as expected lol.

[rusty pins]

When I was a teen if I wanted a diaper that would actually fit me, I had to make my own.  I did many things but what eventually worked for me was taking a white kitchen trash bag, cutting it down both sides with scissors and then Rolling out paper towels and folding them lengthwise to form a double layer.  I'd do this 3 times, one for the left half, one for the right half and then the last I would put right down the center, tucking the right and left halves between the center layers to make the inner "padding" more stable.  To keep the diaper from leaking I would actually fold each side of the plastic edge over onto the edges of the paper towel  lining about an inch and then use a stapler the length on each side.  Looked good but, of course, it wouldn't hold much at all.  I did that until Attends and Depends became available when I was around 18 or 19 years old.

[diapered charles]

I made a diaper when I was a teen. I used a grocery bag and placed paper towels in it. It was a thrilling feeling.

[willnotwill]

While I could see certain "adult diapers" (back then rectangular pin on cloth things) in the Sears catalog, at 14 or so, I had no way to obtain them.

I used old towels (stolen from the Chez Paris Resort Motel in Miami Beach) and safety pins to form the diapers and then cut leg holes in a garbage bag to make plastic pants.

It was several years later that I got a pair of real plastic pants (after realizing they had them at some pharmacies, but these things had horendous pad things that never worked for me, so I stayed with using towels).

It was when I was in college that I found the early disposable (rectangular fan fold things like the early pampers).

[oznl]

Yes.  I was probably 11 or 12.

I’d diverted a couple of clapped-out bath towels that my mother had put into our rag bag.

With 3 younger siblings, safety pins were in abundance around the house.  They seemed to be everywhere.

In those days (1970s) white plastic supermarket shopping bags were similarly abundant: even the sea turtles were choking on them.

Making small holes in the 2 bottom corners of such a shopping bag before stretching/overlapping them open turned them into something that looked like (and more importantly, worked like) plastic pants.  There was no top elastic but it could be folded back over itself and tucked into the towel-nappy. 

As long as I was careful, it worked quite well although washing and drying the towels was logistically difficult (until my parents discovered religion and I was left home alone for long periods of time). 

[Greybird]

I have made my own terry nappies for ages. When I was young I was broke but very practical and watched my mother sewing. I cannot remember when but I started with old towels and became more adept at sewing. I made a pattern from an old paid of plastic pants and cut them out, stitching the edges. A few years ago I bought an ‘overlocker’ or a surger as I think it is called in the USA. My nappies are made to fit me and I use them every day. They are one layer of thick terry with a terry soaker stitched into the middle, then the whole thing is covered in a brushed cotton fabric (usually in something a bit childish!). They fasten with velcro. I make about 12/15 a year and they last about 4/5 years. They are the best at not falling apart if I am being active and they are discrete enough not to be noticed under some slightly baggy shorts. I wear Suprima 1312 plastic pants over them. I Mix them up with disposables for day and night, adding another soaker layer for night time with Suprima 1205 pants. 

 

[willnotwill]

We call it a "serger" here.  That's way cool.  You're getting quite handy.    I'm kind of beholden to the rectugular diapers as that's what I remember from growing up.  After I cornered all the diaper fabric I could find at stores in the area, my wife made me a couple of dozen prefolds (rectangular with additional layers in the center section) which I used for years (especially after getting laid off and not being able to afford to buy disposables for a while).

What I really want is something like a  bubble romper scaled up to my size.   I have one that I bought years ago off ebay/etsy but the current available designs are a bit more frilly than I like and very expensive (we've got a decent sewing machine, but a serger is probably out of our price range.   I've got a friend who has one, but I'd not really like to explain what I would be doing with it if I were to borrow it, even if I knew what I was doing with it).

 

[Greybird]

1 hour ago, willnotwill said:

We call it a "serger" here.  That's way cool.  You're getting quite handy.    I'm kind of beholden to the rectugular diapers as that's what I remember from growing up.  After I cornered all the diaper fabric I could find at stores in the area, my wife made me a couple of dozen prefolds (rectangular with additional layers in the center section) which I used for years (especially after getting laid off and not being able to afford to buy disposables for a while).

What I really want is something like a  bubble romper scaled up to my size.   I have one that I bought years ago off ebay/etsy but the current available designs are a bit more frilly than I like and very expensive (we've got a decent sewing machine, but a serger is probably out of our price range.   I've got a friend who has one, but I'd not really like to explain what I would be doing with it if I were to borrow it, even if I knew what I was doing with it).

 

Ha, that is really funny. I lent my sewing machine to my neighbour and she came up to my ‘sewing room’ to collect it and all the cut, but not sewn, nappies were on show, with the ‘sharks’ brushed cotton fabric also on display. “That’s fun fabric” she said. As I am sure they know I am incontinent she must have realised what it was for!! She did not ask!!!

You should try sewing again, it is not that difficult and the great joy, apart from them being very comfortable etc is that no-one can see them or how well/badly they are made!!!

[Slomo]

I also tried making one once. I used a bath towel and plastic shopping bag. I made sure to tuck in the edges and it actually did work, but only for a sgirt wgilr. Eventually my dad came knocking on my bedroom door and I had to take it off in a hurry.

[FullyLoaded]

Before I had access to real diapers I perfected improvised cloth diapers. I would put on a pair of normal briefs then fold an old hand towel or small bath towel in half and then thirds then put it in the middle of a second pair of briefs and pull it on. For plastic, I would poke leg holes in a kitchen trash bag and pull it up, making sure I had a good seal around the legs then I rolled the top down and tucked it into the first pair of briefs.  When going out with this combination on I would pull on a third pair of briefs it help hold everything in place and help keep the plastic quiet.   This set up held a lot. The tight plastic kept odors in and the first pair of briefs held the poop so it didn’t all get smashed into the terry towel (which is harder to clean and cotton briefs)

[Badbunny]

I did the makeshift cloth diapers by folding and pinning on bath towels and using plastic bags as covers in the past. They worked well enough until my bedwetting started getting worse from me abusing alcohol almost daily. Its just one of the many many reasons I quit alcohol. 

As my control slowly got worse both during the day and night I switched to pull ups and then ended up back in diapers. 

[Little Sherri]

I'd spotted diaper pins at the local pharmacy, in the baby aisle that I always tried to sneak a walk down, when I was in there with my parents. I was about 11, so old enough to ride my bike back to the pharmacy, by myself. I saved up my allowance for a week or two, until I had about $5, which netted me change - I think the blister pack containing 4 safety pins with the latex-dipped heads on them, had set me back about $3. However, I was shaking like I was trying to buy narcotics, when I walked up to the cash register with them, thinking that the lady behind the counter would know what I was up to, for sure, but I realize that, in retrospect, she probably didn't know, or care, what some 11-year-old wanted with safety pins. 

The next phase of the operation was to find something to use as a diaper, and this part, I may have mixed up - I can't recall if I'd spotted the pins first, and then came up with my idea, or if I'd noted that the white pillow cases my parents had in the linen closet, looked a bit like cloth diapers, and then I realized I would need pins. I do recall trying to use safety pins from my mom's sewing kit, at least once, but they were way too small to do the job, quickly springing open. In any case, I took a pillow case, put a towel inside of it, folded the result like a cloth diaper, and pinned it onto myself. I experienced bliss mixed with abject terror, putting that thing on - up until a year or so previously, I'd had "legitimate" access to disposables, as a bedwetter in the 1980's, but I'd stopped wearing diapers to bed, so if I got caught in that contraption, everyone was going to know that I liked diapers. It took me a few days to figure out a trick similar to what @oznl described, with shopping bags, which were constructed from wonderfully heavy plastic, back then. The only problem was that the grocery store up the street from us painted a gigantic D (for Dominion) on the bags; there was a fruit store further down the road that gave out the pure white ones that made the most convincing diaper covers, but they were thin on the ground. Whenever they came into the house, I stole them - diapers, in my mind, were not supposed to have a giant red D on them. 

I'd cut the corners of the bag out, and if I carefully pulled it up my legs, not rushing, it would end up as form-fitting plastic pants, with only the weird waist being out of place, but I'd cut the handles off and tuck it in. They even held a bit of pee, if you put a couple of decent towels in there, although I, like most of us, had many leaks, over my trial-and-error development cycle. My homemade diapers worked swimmingly - I even wore one to school a couple of times, which was ill-advised, but probably makes sense, considering what I've been up to for the last 7 years or so. I was laying the groundwork, I guess you could say. 

It all game screeching to a halt, when my stepdad found my diaper stash under my dresser, and yelled at me in front of my family about it. After that, I didn't put another one on for about 20 years, but I'm back baby! And, ironically, my stepdad is now also in diapers, well okay, pull-ups, but still...

[Amixofthings]

During my teenage years I learned about the trick of putting on multiple layers of underwear. I think I did try some improvised plastic pants from a grocery bag. But otherwise I had to settle for just pooping in them, or not peeing enough to soak through all the layers.

Some time later, in my mid to late 20s I tried a setup where I had folded paper towels between two pairs of underwear. I wore a  kitchen garbage back for plastic pants, since grocery bags were a bit small for that purpose by that time. I found a solution of starting a small hole in the corner, enough to poke by big toe through, and carefully slide it up my legs. If it worked well, it would be a little bit taut around my thighs, enough to stop leaks.

[drynot]

1 hour ago, Little Sherri said:

 

It all game screeching to a halt, when my stepdad found my diaper stash under my dresser, and yelled at me in front of my family about it. After that, I didn't put another one on for about 20 years, but I'm back baby! And, ironically, my stepdad is now also in diapers, well okay, pull-ups, but still...

You should gather your family together in your step dads room and proceed to berate HIM about wearing diapers in front of family.  Revenge is a dish best served wet...and smelling like pee....

[diaperguy85]

Huh, sounds like my makeshift diapers have been done before many times! I also used a trash bag with the corners cut out for the outer shell. For the inners, I flip-flopped between old towels, large pad looking things out of toilet paper (not paper towels!), and multiple layers of underwear. At the time, I was wearing the white briefs, so if felt.... kinda diaper-like? Lol. Usually I just folded and stuffed a few towels into my underwear and that made me happy enough. 

The toilet paper pads were huge! And pretty absorbent. I could get a few wettings in them before I would toss them and make new ones. The towels were used mostly when no one else was home, or at night and not wet in.

Then one day I happened to find, buried in the bottomless disaster zone that was our linen closet, a pack of diapers from my little sisters! I started to use them! They were too small for me to tape up, but I used them and liked them. This was only at night when everyone was (hopefully) asleep. I would go into the closet, grab a diaper, and head into the bathroom for the better part of an hour lol. I will happily go on believing for the rest of my life that no one else in that house ever noticed me slinking into the bathroom late at night, hanging out in there for a while, then going back to bed some time later. 

But anyway, eventually the diapers ran out, and I went back to towels and toilet paper pads for some time. Eventually I did get actual diapers (obviously), and haven't looked back!

 

[Alyeskabird]

Oh skys, been sewing sense I was pretty young. I was trying to make cloth diapers sense I was a kid, plastic pants, not so much, could not quite figure out how to make something that fit right. Did figure it out later. I also had to be super carefull about having stuff around.

 

[Squishy69]

On 6/10/2026 at 4:52 PM, diapered charles said:

I made a diaper when I was a teen. I used a grocery bag and placed paper towels in it. It was a thrilling feeling.

I used a towel and a trash bag 

[Spanky]

Homemade diapers were my first diapers when I was younger,  but old enough to be left home alone.  I made them with plastic garbage bags,  paper towels and duct tape.  Folded them up the way the old original Pampers were a taped them on.  

I did this whenever I could,  until I got my driver's license and could drive and buy Attends.  It felt so amazing to put on a real diaper. 

[drynot]

7 hours ago, Spanky said:

Homemade diapers were my first diapers when I was younger,  but old enough to be left home alone.  I made them with plastic garbage bags,  paper towels and duct tape.  Folded them up the way the old original Pampers were a taped them on.  

I did this whenever I could,  until I got my driver's license and could drive and buy Attends.  It felt so amazing to put on a real diaper. 

When I first found adult diapers I thought I died and gone to heaven.  Man....that was such a wonderful feeling to tape on an actual disposable diaper that fit properly.

[Spanky]

1 hour ago, drynot said:

When I first found adult diapers I thought I died and gone to heaven.  Man....that was such a wonderful feeling to tape on an actual disposable diaper that fit properly.

So true.  I knew about adult diapers long before I bought any, but it was still such an amazing experience to finally put one on and use it. 

They've come so far since those Attends and Depends that I started out with in the mid 80s 

[drynot]

10 hours ago, Spanky said:

So true.  I knew about adult diapers long before I bought any, but it was still such an amazing experience to finally put one on and use it. 

They've come so far since those Attends and Depends that I started out with in the mid 80s 

We're the same age from the same era.  You are absolutely right.  The diapers we have today....could you imagine if we had these back in the day?  Just imagine if we had a Trest or a Rearz Inspire+ in the 80's.....

[rusty pins]

1 hour ago, drynot said:

We're the same age from the same era.  You are absolutely right.  The diapers we have today....could you imagine if we had these back in the day?  Just imagine if we had a Trest or a Rearz Inspire+ in the 80's.....

Yeah, and only paying about $7 for a package instead of the $40 they cost now days!  Of course, back then minimum wage was maybe $4 an hour....

[Squishy69]

On 6/15/2026 at 9:30 PM, Little Sherri said:

I'd spotted diaper pins at the local pharmacy, in the baby aisle that I always tried to sneak a walk down, when I was in there with my parents. I was about 11, so old enough to ride my bike back to the pharmacy, by myself. I saved up my allowance for a week or two, until I had about $5, which netted me change - I think the blister pack containing 4 safety pins with the latex-dipped heads on them, had set me back about $3. However, I was shaking like I was trying to buy narcotics, when I walked up to the cash register with them, thinking that the lady behind the counter would know what I was up to, for sure, but I realize that, in retrospect, she probably didn't know, or care, what some 11-year-old wanted with safety pins. 

The next phase of the operation was to find something to use as a diaper, and this part, I may have mixed up - I can't recall if I'd spotted the pins first, and then came up with my idea, or if I'd noted that the white pillow cases my parents had in the linen closet, looked a bit like cloth diapers, and then I realized I would need pins. I do recall trying to use safety pins from my mom's sewing kit, at least once, but they were way too small to do the job, quickly springing open. In any case, I took a pillow case, put a towel inside of it, folded the result like a cloth diaper, and pinned it onto myself. I experienced bliss mixed with abject terror, putting that thing on - up until a year or so previously, I'd had "legitimate" access to disposables, as a bedwetter in the 1980's, but I'd stopped wearing diapers to bed, so if I got caught in that contraption, everyone was going to know that I liked diapers. It took me a few days to figure out a trick similar to what @oznl described, with shopping bags, which were constructed from wonderfully heavy plastic, back then. The only problem was that the grocery store up the street from us painted a gigantic D (for Dominion) on the bags; there was a fruit store further down the road that gave out the pure white ones that made the most convincing diaper covers, but they were thin on the ground. Whenever they came into the house, I stole them - diapers, in my mind, were not supposed to have a giant red D on them. 

I'd cut the corners of the bag out, and if I carefully pulled it up my legs, not rushing, it would end up as form-fitting plastic pants, with only the weird waist being out of place, but I'd cut the handles off and tuck it in. They even held a bit of pee, if you put a couple of decent towels in there, although I, like most of us, had many leaks, over my trial-and-error development cycle. My homemade diapers worked swimmingly - I even wore one to school a couple of times, which was ill-advised, but probably makes sense, considering what I've been up to for the last 7 years or so. I was laying the groundwork, I guess you could say. 

It all game screeching to a halt, when my stepdad found my diaper stash under my dresser, and yelled at me in front of my family about it. After that, I didn't put another one on for about 20 years, but I'm back baby! And, ironically, my stepdad is now also in diapers, well okay, pull-ups, but still...

I love this story it brings back memories