Well, cloth diapering has changed significantly from the rubber pants and safety pins of my mom's days and the velcro fitted diapers with rubber pants of my babies' days. After discussing the pros and cons of cloth versus disposable my husband and I used only disposables.
Our granddaughter (born October 2014) is a green baby with cloth diapers and wipes. There is nothing more fun that sewing for grandkids.
Little monsters, monkeys with bananas, owls and elephants.
The
PUL, polyurethane laminate that is waterproof and breathable. It is soft, flexible and comes in lots of lovely colourful prints and solids.
These diapers were made with snap closures and
FOE. The fold over elastic finishes the outside edges and is stretched to gather the PUL at the back and leg gussets.
The pattern pieces were weighted rather than pinned to avoid pinholes in the fabric.
The front and back inside yokes are optional. However, if using the snap closures the snap area needs to be reinforced with scraps of PUL instead of the yoke.
Mark and attach the snaps.
Outside front yoke
I used a 3 step zig zag stitch to attach the FOE (stretched) to the straight edge of the inside gusset.
This is the tricky part, most times when sewing it is rights together stitch and turn right side out. With the inside gusset it is wrong sides together and stitch 1/4 inch seam on right side.
It needs to look like this.
Stitch FOE to outside edge starting one inch from gather mark on back left side. Stretch FOE between gather marks on back and stitch. Do not stretch FOE on sides of diaper tabs and front of diaper. Stretch FOE between gather notches around crouch.
All snapped up without soaker insert.
Open
The two snaps on the back are to secure the diaper insert.
Unfolded the soaker is 30 inches long.
Four layers thick.
White polyester wicking fabric to wick moisture into absorbent cotton away from baby.
Terry towel, I cut up an old bath towel that has been washed many times.
And 2 layers of flannel printed fabric.
Tack all four layers, then quilt together. I did jesters' hats on the elephant in glasses print.
Heart-shaped leaves on the multi-coloured elephants print.
Apply two snaps to attach to PUL cover.
Serge around the raw edges to finish.
The flannel fabric was preshrunk before using.
Toss diaper covers into a hot clothes dryer for 20 minutes to reseal the needle holes from sewing. Use polyester thread as cotton thread will wick moisture outside the cover.
Size small - fits 8 to 20 pounds.
Happy stitching.
