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2010My Handmade First Cloth Diapers
This blog that started mostly as a crafting blog has evolved into a twins and dairy-free eating blog with a huge side dish of thanksgiving (not the holiday, silly, the verb). It’s slightly schizophrenic, but I don’t mind too much since the chaotic variety is a good representation of my day to day life.
But in any case on this blog it seams like I haven’t touched the crafty side of my life in months. I’d been working on a couple commissioned quilts for my college hall mate since about 3 weeks after the girls arrived. I vowed that I wouldn’t work on anything else until they were finished. A couple weeks ago I fought through the sleep deprivation and procrastination and finished them. Whew!
My next project started when I met a sweet momma named Ashley on the tile aisle of Home Depot and we bonded instantly over cloth diapers (I promise I couldn’t make this up). The girls and I were able to hang out later with her sweet daughter Claudia. Ashley was just learning to make her own cloth diapers and I thought: Surely, I could sew a diaper and the 36 diapers I currently have just aren’t enough. Here they are:
I made them with the Tighty Whity Hipster Pattern from Little Comet Tails and, though I mastered the fit on the second diaper, I learned a few very important lessons.
- It’s better to top stitch your pretty outer fabric to your inner waterproof PUL and then sew the diaper up so that only the PUL and inner layers touch directly around the legs. (Directions for putting a cute outer fabric on a PUL diaper the proper way are found here). Otherwise, as soon as your sweet girly wets the diaper it will wick straight to your outer layer. This my friends was a fun lesson to learn (sarcasm).
- For my skinny girls with somewhat chunky thighs, high rises, and itty bitty little waists, the velcro or snaps must go all the way across the diaper middle. It fit their legs but wouldn’t close small enough around the tummies.
- Most importantly: Velcro that you can buy at the store is not the same as the Aplix used on purchased cloth diapers. Nope… they are different creatures altogether. A diaper made with Velcro… well it won’t make it through the wash 😉
Oh well. I’ll order some Aplix soon and give it another try, but for now I have other crafty plans to attend to…
Chelsea P
What about snaps? That’s what we had on ours and they held up great (3 kids for four years).
TOLIVER FAMILY
wow…impressive!
Melissa Ann
A snap press is expensive (like $60 without shipping) 🙁 Aplix is cheaper (about $1 a diaper). I’d invest in a snap press if I thought I’d make diapers to sell, but diaper making is a little tedious for me…
Jessica
Ditto what Toliver Family said…very impressive!
Chelsea P
I really like the gathers around the legs and it looks like at the waistband too. Your diapers have really good shape- they look like they would keep everything in.
I had to look up a snap press because I didn’t know what that was. :o) $60 would be a huge amount to invest! My grandfather owned a sewing store in the 70’s and my mom made her own clothes so she still has quite a collection of sewing stuff. I just knew she puts on snaps sometimes and has this tool about the size of a hand held hole punch that she uses. I never thought that snap technology had even greatly increased since then! I agree, you could replace the Aplix if needed for cheaper than getting a snap press.