more cloth diapers

I posted here about a cloth diaper I made a while back.  An update on that cloth diaper:  it's not holding up very well.  I partly blame the fabric but I also blame myself.  My professional cloth diapers are washed and dried the same way as my homemade cloth diaper, and they hold up fine, which goes to show you the quality of the PUL is different.  I blame myself because I could have stopped putting the homemade diaper in the hot dryer once I noticed the effects the heat was having on it.  The waterproof coating of the PUL is starting to "chip" and peel.  Fortunately it hasn't effected the absorbency of the diaper at all (yet?) and we still use it.


Some of you may have noticed that Joann Fabrics is carrying a new line of PUL fabric and coordinating accessories, called Babyville.  The designs and colors they chose for this line are adorable!!  A friend of mine asked me to make her a few for the baby she's expecting, so I decided to try out this new babyville line.  I'm hoping the quality of the babyville PUL is better than the other PUL they carry, but either way I definitely recommend air/line drying.  I also purchased the cloth diaper pattern book they sell, which is great!  The book tells you how to make almost any kind of diaper you can imagine, complete with color photos and step by step directions.  My friend flipped through the book and chose the style of diapers she wanted and I got right to work. 

The first diaper I made for her (monkey diaper) is a size medium pocket diaper with offset side snaps.  "Pocket diaper" means there's a pocket in the back where mom can stuff the diaper with an insert(s).  "Side snaps" means the snaps are along the side of the diaper rather than the front, like most diapers.  And "offset snaps" means that rather than the two rows of snaps being directly on the top of one another, the top row is offset so that the snaps are diagonal to one another.  This type of snap placement is especially nice when you have a baby that has a wider stomach than thighs, or visa versa. 

The second diaper I made for her is a one-size pocket diaper with offset snaps and gussets.  "One size" means it has an adjustable rise which adjusts to fit very small babies as well as older, larger babies.  I included a set of crossover snaps so that the waist could be adjusted to fit the tiniest baby.  "Gussets" are fabric that's been placed at the leg openings to help 'keep the mess in'. 

Each diaper is lined with a white micro suede.

I had enough supplies left over to make a third diaper, so I chose to make another one size pocket diaper with offset snaps and gussets.  This diaper is a solid orange color with an owl applique applied to the back.  The main different between this diaper and the owl diaper above is that this diaper is lined with 100% cotton flannel, and this one does not have crossover snaps (although they could easily be added).  I have this diaper listed on my etsy site for anyone who's interested.

AIO cloth diaper

I mentioned in a previous post that we use cloth diapers.  I originally bought 2 dozen bum genius 3.0 pocket diapers from kellyscloset.com.

Now that I sew constantly I decided to make one of my own.  Not because I need another one.  Just because I wanted to.  I used this pattern and tutorial.

I used a fun gender neutral polka dot PUL fabric for the outside, along with pearlized snaps.  The inner liner is micro suede.  The soaker pad is 2 layers of cotton flannel and 2 layers of terry. 

It's the only all-in-one cloth diaper I've used since Claire was a tiny newborn, so it's different from what I'm used to.  It's nice to not have to stuff a diaper!  And while I hated purchasing ($$) the snaps, and they weren't super easy to install (though not terribly difficult either), Claire is going through a phase where she tears her diaper off any chance she gets, but she can't undo the snaps!!  It's been coming clean no problem and I don't have any stink issues with it. 

The only 2 downfalls I've noticed is that there's no elastic at the waist in the back.  That's not a huge issue for us, but if I was using this diaper on a younger baby I would be seriously worried about blow-outs.  Second, the PUL isn't holding up very well in the dryer. 

If I ever make another cloth diaper I will be sure to add elastic to the waist and I would line dry (which I should really be doing right now anyway!).

Overall I am extremely happy with my diaper!!!  If my Joann Fabrics had a better selection of printed PUL fabric I would probably be going overboard crazy making diapers that I don't actually need.