*A New Lease On Life

I was looking at one of Jericho's fancier cloth diapers the other day. They are called "pocket diapers". A pocket diaper has an inner layer, which is what is against the baby's skin, and an outter layer, which is waterproof. There is an opening somewhere on the diaper, typically in the back, where you can slide in an absorbent insert that will soak up all of the moisture. It's a diaper that we only bought one of because they happen to be quite expensive. Which is a shame, because I like it so much. It's exactly like a disposable diaper... only... it's cloth. No prefold, no cover, no pins or snappi to deal with. Just a diaper with velcro or snap closures which are really cool. Pocket diapers are advertised as being "dad friendly". They are so easy to use at night and when you're out and about, but for the cost, it's just not worth it.

Unless..... oh yes, you just knew I'd have a way around it, didn't you?

Unless... You make your own.

After spending WEEKS researching how to create these diapers on my own, looking at designs, patters, fabrics, and other diapers, I was ready to begin.

Firstly, I had to invest in a material that is both waterproof and able to be run through the washer and drier. Polyurithane Laminate is the perfect solution. It's a knit fabric with a waterproof laminate coating across one side, thus making it waterproof. Obviously, that is important when creating a cloth diaper that is one piece. It can't leak of you'll be changing baby clothes an awful lot. Sadly, you can not buy this in the fabric store. It has to be ordered online, and costs around $9.00 per yard. Not too bad considering you can probably make seven diapers out of a one yard piece, and use any left over to make mama cloth if you're interested in that. The other sad thing is that they don't make this in very exciting prints. I ended up buying plain old white, you'll understand why later.

The other thing I had to buy was something called Aplix. It's a velcro-like closure that is a lot more durable than typical velcro. Obviously, it has to stand up to an awful lot of washing. This stuff is surprisingly inexpensive. It costs about $1 a yard for either hook (the scratchy side), or loop (the soft side). You need to buy both, so it's at least two dollars. I ended up buying 3 yards of hook and 9 yards of loop. Why? Because you use more loop than hook, and the standard when you're making cloth diapers is 3 yards of loop for every yard of hook.

I needed to pick the fabric that would be against the baby, and in my search I found that the best fabrics to use are 100% cotton. I decided to use cotton flannel. Nothing fancy from the craft store. But a receiving blanket that was never used. Waste not, want not, right?

I figured that since this was a trial diaper, it would be silly to chop up brand new fabric only to do something wrong and ruin it, so I looked through my closet and found an old vest I got from the thrift store that was fleece (which is another great diapering fabric!).



Both the blanket and vest were washed with Charlies soap, which is an all natural-no additives soap that leaves no residue behind. This is important because anything that leaves a residue on cloth diapers will ruin their ability to absorb moisture. If you look at most any detergent ingredient list, you'll see things like 'softeners' and 'brighteners'. That translates into 'film left behind on fabric'. Cloth diapers need to be able to absorb moisture while being waterproof. So no fancy detergent, no fabric softener.

So anyways, I decided that the blanket would be the fabric against the baby, then would come the layer of PUL, which would be hidden by an outer layer of repurposed vest fleece.

I spent last Saturday morning creating a pattern based on ideas I got from other diapers I looked at. There were features on a number of diapers that I wanted to recreate on my own. I thought creating a pattern would be the easy part. Thus far it has actually been the most difficult! After a few hours, I finally had what I wanted.



Yes, my pattern was created on a Cheeze-It box, but it was the only thing in the house that was big enough to put the entire pattern on.



Here are all three layers: PUL, Flannel, and Fleece-



It took me a while to figure out how to pin the diaper so that once it was turned right side out, everything was where it was supposed to be. You see, the flannel is supposed to be separated from the PUL and fleece by the absorbent inner liner. So I had to pin the fabric together for sewing in such a way that it would be layered appropriately once finished. Flannel, then PUL (Laminate side facing the flannel) then the fleece. I FINALLY got everything pinned together properly.





Now, since I am not so great on a sewing machine, we are just waiting on my mom to do the actual sewing together. **Hint Hint MOM! I know you're reading this. Get moving lady!**

Hopefully, within a few days I will have the finished product and will be able to report on it's success or failure. Stay tuned!