Cloth Diaper Cover Tutorial

It was craft day while my mom was here a few weeks ago and here is what we made.  Cloth diaper covers.  My mom was not at all excited about this project.  She was not thrilled about making a pattern for the diaper and I admit that it wasn’t easy.  But I needed her help, because whether she admits it or not she’s the real pro.  Besides I always work better with someone else, then I can ask ridiculously simple questions.  Poor mom whenever she visits she ends up working her butt off.  Last summer we canned everyday until my sister arrived and put a stop to that nonsense, work I mean.

Update:  After my first diaper I was able to complete one diaper in 1 hour.  I have 3 infant size and 1 large toddler now to add to my collection.  I still have enough fabric left to make at least 2 infant diaper, maybe 3.

Here is what you need:

1 yard vinyl coated fabric, (white preferably)

1 package double wide bias tape (white preferably)

Coordinating thread

1 package Velcro brand  Sew-On Tape, 2 ” x 3‘   Do not use sticky back style, you cannot sew through this to put on your bias tape.  If you plan on making multiple diapers I would buy this larger package but in white.  Each Extra-large sized diaper will need about 12″, smaller sizes will use about 8″.

1 package 1/4″braided elastic.  Can’t go wrong with purchasing a 8 yard roll like this.

Tools needed: Sewing machine, scissors, pattern paper (wax, parchment, butcher, or brown paper bag), pins, pen, pencil and patience

Creating the pattern from an existing diaper

This will definitely be the hardest part because you will need an existing cloth diaper to trace.

• Get a large enough piece of pattern paper (note it is impossible to tape together parchment paper so only use if you are doing a small diaper or you have a giant sheet)
• Recruit a helper
• Trace using a pen or pencil, whichever marks well on your paper
• Have helper stretch out the diaper and hold tight as you trace around the edge.  When tracing near the gussets (the gussets are the extra pieces of fabric on either side of the lower portion of the diaper, their role is to catch the poop from falling out), trace along the interior line, or the line of diaper itself.
• Now trace one gusset.   Each side is identical so you only need to trace one.  This is hard to trace so mainly note the length and then make a freehand drawing.  It should be a symmetrical convex shape.
• Next trace the rectangular front piece, for lack of a better name.  This piece is at the front of the diaper behind the velcro and serves as a double layer of protection for leaks and is soft against baby’s skin if the diaper cover rides up too high.
• Measure the length of elastic needed.  In total you will need 5 pieces.  One for the back top, one for each side of the diaper, and one on the outside edge of each gusset.
• To measure the elastic, let the diaper sit loose and hold a piece up next to the diaper and make a cut to match the length

Cutting the Fabric

• First cut out your pattern
• Pin pattern to fabric.  Look to see if you can position your fabric so that you can get another diaper out of the same piece of fabric.
• Cut out diaper, 2 gussets, 2 rectangular piece (mentioned above)
• Cut 5 elastic pieces (see above).
• Don’t cut the bias tape.  Take it out of the package and leave it all in one piece.  As you sew it can dangle in your lap and you can cut it off as you sew.
• Cut velcro.  Measure size of velcro needed using the actual cut diaper as a guide.  Velcro will extend all the way across the front of the diaper.  This allows the diaper to grow with the baby.

Assembly and Sewing

1.  Gussets first.   Sew the elastic to each side of each gusset.  Don’t worry about seam allowances just make sure to run down the middle of the elastic.  A zig-zag stitch is best when sewing on elastic.

• Make a few stitches to hold the elastic in place, then grasp end of elastic and pull it tight.  You don’t want it super tight but  you do want to have some.  You want the fabric to ruffle up when it’s sewn on.  While holding tight, sew all the way to the end.

I have the elastic pulled tight, but it’s hard to tell from the picture.

2.  Now sew the bias tape over the top of the elastic on only one side of the gusset (either side is fine cause they should be symmetrical).

• Open your bias tape and fold it in half around the edge of the diaper
• Close the bias tape around the elastic so that it is not showing.
• Try to stay near the edge of the bias tape about 1/4″ seam allowance with a straight stitch or zig zag stitch, it’s up to you.  Zig-zag stitches will be more forgiving and easier to guarantee you sew the bottom in place.  Remember that you need to be able to sew the bias tape on the other side of the sandwich you made.  If you go too close to the edge and you don’t have the sandwich folded exactly in half you won’t sew the bottom side closed.  Easy to fix (I did this like a million times) but even better to avoid in the first place.

Okay so this isn’t a picture of the gusset but it’s a great shot of wrapping the bias tape around the elastic.

Here’s what they gusset looks like finished.

3.  Sew elastic on the top back of the diaper (using zig-zag stich).

4.  Sew rectangular piece of fabric to inside front of diaper.  Sew wrong sides together.  (I didn’t do this for the infant diapers.)

5.  Sew large piece of velcro to outside front of diaper on the right side of the fabric.

6.  Now you will need to make the tabs that will catch on the velcro.  Cut two small pieces that fit on either side of the top back of the diaper.  Sew the velcro on the wrong side of the fabric.  Instead of a square piece try rounding the corners so they are less likely to snag baby.

6.  Sew bias tape to diaper starting on the sides because we still need to attach those gussets.  I will describe this in painful detail.

• Lay the diaper with the wrong side up.
• To get the correct orientation place the diaper so that the elastic is at the top and the velcro (if you could see it, it shoud be facing the table) is at the bottom
• We are going to put the right hand side gusset on first.
• Position the gusset so the wrong sides are together and the elastic side is lined up with the right hand side of the diaper.
•  Pin in place about 5 inches down from the top.
• Fold bias tape in half and make a sandwich around the edge of the diaper like you did before.
• Start sewing anywhere but preferable not on a turn (cause turns are tricky, work your way up to those)
• As you come to the gusset, match the edges and pull the elastic taught, sandwich it between the bias tape and sew.  Give a few extras stitches to secure the top and bottom of the gusset.
• You will need to pull the elastic tight as you sew on the gusset.  This is important so everything matches up correctly and so it bunches nicely when you are finished sewing.

7.  Continue all the way around the diaper.  When you get to the corners just do you best edging it around and take extra stitches to secure it in place.  When you get to the other gusset put it on the same way as you did the other side.  If you want to cut the bias tape and turn it around on the machine that’s fine.  Just fold under 1/4″ on the end when you start sewing again so it makes a finished edge.

The original infant diaper – Imse Vimse

Here it is unfolded, you can easily see the cutout for the umbilical cord

And the backside, here you can see the elastic at the top back

Update:  I have used and washed the diaper cover a couple of times and it works great.  It didn’t even bleed or fade in the wash even though a used a tiny bit of bleach.  I have also made 2 infant sized diapers.  Those only took me 1 hour each, start to finish, because I already had the hang of it.

Things I will do differently next time:  The diaper was much bigger than the pattern.  This was easy to fix, I just cut my pattern down in all the areas where it fit big.  I did this right away because I knew I would forget the next time I pulled the pattern out.

Thanks,  Courtney

On My Soap Box: Charlie’s Soap

While Robert has a love affair with cast iron pans I must admit that I have a love affair with Charlie’s Soap.  And today while hanging clothes out on the line for the first time in a few months I fell in love all over again and I thought I would share with you why.  So many of you have probably hung your clothes out on a line at least once or maybe just on the back of a chair.  And your biggest complaint was probably that the clothes were so stiff  and scratchy from air drying that you would never do it again.  This was my biggest complaint with line drying until I started using Charlie’s Soap.  With Charlie’s Soap my clothes are not stiff.  I have no idea why, but they aren’t.  My pajamas are soft, my sheets are soft, my cloth diapers are soft.  To be honest once the clothes are folded and in the drawer I can’t tell the difference from dryer dried or air dried (except for that lovely smell of sunshine that still remains in the clothes).  It’s quite amazing.

Some other things I love are that there is no scent.  The bottle says if you want flowers, go pick some.  I love it.  In my previous life we did aroma and flavor testing so we couldn’t have strong perfumes or hair products and I really got used to this aroma free environment.  In fact there was a woman from another department who would drop by our floor and I could literally track her every movement far after she had left because of the scent left by her perfume.  Now I know that I am a special case with a sensitive nose but it sure is nice to have clothes that smell like sunshine.  That’s all, just sunshine.  I find that perfumes just mask odors that detergents can’t get out.  The offensive smell is still there it’s just that there is so much “mountain breeze” you can’t smell it.  I will admit I was a powdered Tide original scent fan and I could tell the difference between powdered original verus liquid original (who did they think they were fooling, they are clearly different scents).  I thought I couldn’t bear to be without my “perfume” as I called it.  Like most new things I hate the idea of change.  But guess what now I am so happy that I made the switch.

When my son was a newborn he had very sensitive skin (still does, but not as bad).  He always had these tiny red dots all over his back.  The doctor said it wasn’t a rash just really sensitive skin.  I was already using Charlie’s Soap thank goodness or it would have been worse he warned.  The scents in soap are usually the culprits for irritation, I learned.  Even though we were using scent free he was just extra sensitive.  All I had to do was add an additional rinse cycle to his loads and the problem cleared up.  When his skin got a little tougher we went back to the regular cycle though and he’s fine.  But we use scent free everything on him just to be safe.

I use Charlie’s Soap for everything too.  It washes my son’s poopy diapers, delicates, dark colors, white socks (all in seperate loads of course) all with no problem.  I am even planning on washing some quilts in it.  I know it will be more gentle than any specialty soap I can buy.  Plus more affordable.  I have even read that you can use it in your dishwasher.  We’d like to try that one for sure.  I am not sure what the stuff is made of or why it works so well.  But I do know that it is natural and free of many of the bad chemicals that other grocery store brands have in them.

Be brave and go give it a try.

Cloth Diapering: Getting started

Are you interested in saving money and switching to cloth but scared about how it all works?  Here’s a summary so you can get started.  I have a lot of my mom friends ask me about cloth diapers and after a quick explanation they always say “Wow that doesn’t sound too bad”.  Plus you can save your family thousands of dollars.  Check out my other posts on diapering.

Diapers

You can purchase cloth diapers from a variety of sources on the web but I get mine from Tiny Tots.  They are a diaper service in the San Francisco area that we used, really liked and trusted.  You can find everything you need from them, definitely check them out.  They sell used diapers (from their service) and new diapers.  We have bought both but suggest the new for the sizes you will be using for longer.  For example, the newborn size we used for about a month so they are a good used option, the toddler size we have used for the last 10 months so it makes sense to get these new.  The diapers come in many different sizes and they are usually color coded with contrast stitching on the edge so you can keep them all separate.

Our baby went through 3 different diaper sizes, infant, regular and toddler.  We used Tiny Tots diaper service for the newborn diapers (thank heavens since we were in a fog that first month).  Then we purchased 36 used, regular diapers and they fit our son from about 6 weeks until 8 months.   After he outgrew those, we purchased 20 new toddler diapers and he is still using that size with no end in sight.  They are huge.

Keep in mind when ordering diapers that you will use slightly more cloth diapers than paper diapers cause those paper ones just keep expanding and expanding.  As the baby gets older it will seem to average out.  On days where I am forced to use paper I use about the same number as cloth.  You will know when you need to change diaper sizes or cover sizes when the baby starts leaking through.  I always call Tiny Tots and they help me figure out which is the problem.  They are great.

Covers

Diaper covers will also need to be purchased or borrowed.  Try to find a friend who has used cloth diapers and see if you can use the sizes she isn’t using.  Covers are easier to come by than diapers because it seems more people use a diaper service so they never have any diapers to loan out.   With a service you own and launder your own covers.  I borrowed them from a friend or bought used covers, we never bought a single new one.  It sounds kinda gross but just think in a diaper service the same diaper is used over and over for different children.  Try looking for a mother’s group in your area or even some websites have used diaper exchanges.  To give you an idea I bought a giant bag with dozens of covers for $20, they sell new for about $13 a piece.   I don’t have any experience with these though.  If you do purchase new check out the Tiny Tots website for more choices and sizes.  You can also set up a registry through the store.  In the end we have used a bunch of different brands and liked them all.  The ones we have the most are polar fleece.  Apparently polar fleece is water proof and the baby doesn’t seem to mind the added bulk or heat.  On hot, hot summer days I would try and use paper diapers (disposable diapers we call paper) to keep him more comfortable.

You will need about6 of each size, depending on how often you wash.  Try buying a few at a time to see how they fit and then add more as needed.  If the baby doesn’t get them dirty I reuse them for each changing.  I go through maybe one a day.

Other equipment you will need:

A trash can with a lid, doesn’t have to be fancy ours cost like $15 at Wal mart.  The diapers really don’t smell that much, and I have a sensitive nose.  Another really great set up I have read about it to set up the changing table near the laundry room and just toss the diapers right into the machine tub, shut the lid and wait until you have enough to wash.

Snappi Diaper Clips:  These Y-clips to keep the diaper closed.  No one uses diaper pins anymore.  I think you would need nerves of steel to put that pointy pin near a wiggly baby.  We have about 8 and that seems like too many.  I thought I would lose them but haven’t lost a one.

A pail for next to the toilet, preferably one with a lid.

Wipes: I use disposable but you can buy or make your own.

Plastic bags:  Throw some supermarket bags in your diaper bag if you don’t have one of those waterproof sections on your diaperbag.  These will be necessary because unlike everyone else you have to take your dirty diaper home with you.  They do sell some cute little waterproof reusable bags that work well.

Now check out how to clean those dirty diapers.