Cloth diapers

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Yesterday I recieved this comment:

Can you tell me what you use to make the diapers. And also, how often do you change your little guy?

First, we change him when he is wet. ;O) I don’t really keep track of time. It’s probably every couple of hours or so. I highly doubt it’s much more than about two hours in one diaper.

The diapers we use during the day are all from the Rita’s Rump Pocket pattern. I like it because it’s easy to sew and is a good all-around pocket diaper. It’s also a great one-size diaper, but personally I think it’s a bit too bulky if the baby weighs much less than 10 pounds or so. For a baby under 10 pounds, I use the Mama Bird pattern, but made with the same materials and stuffed with the same inserts.

To make them, I use fleece on the outside and flannel on the inside. The pattern I linked to shows it made with flannel both inside and outside, but I prefer it with fleece so it doesn’t need a separate cover.

Fleece is not waterproof, but it is water resistant. Eventually, if the diaper gets wet enough, it will leak. But I’ve found if you’re changing the baby often enough in the first place, the diaper won’t leak. It’s also more prone to leaking or wicking when it’s compressed like on a long car ride, but we’ve used them with few problems even while traveling.

The first batch I made I went out and bought fabric. It was wintertime and flannel was $1 a yard at Walmart, so that’s what I used. A year and a half later, that flannel is getting pretty thin. Granted, these diapers get washed every two days, but it’s still wearing out faster than I’d like. This time I went to the thrift store and found some thick flannel sheets. The quality of the fabric is much higher, and I got a lot more fabric for a lot less money. The fleece I’m using this time is also from the thrift store. $.75 for an entire blanket gets a lot more diapers than $6.99 a yard at the craft store!

The flannel sheet I bought wasn’t labeled, but by the measurements, I think it was a queen-sized sheet (it was 88 inches wide). My table is fairly small so I cut the sheet in half, and then doubled each piece so it would be easier to maneuver. By turning a couple of the patterns sideways, I was able to get 20 pieces out of the one sheet.

Inside the diapers we use two pieces. One is a microfiber cleaning cloth folded in thirds. I found these in the auto section of Walmart. Right now they’re $5 for a pack of 8 cloths. The microfiber is VERY absorbent, and nice and trim as well.

The other piece is a washcloth, folded in thirds, inside a flannel casing (like a pillowcase). That is all sewn together in one piece. When baby is tiny, the washcloth is often enough. Once Caleb got older, he needed the added absorbency of the microfiber layer. I’ve toyed with sewing the microfiber layer to the washcloth insert, but after reading how microfiber can get stinky after a while, decided not to.

It comes out sounding a lot more complicated than it really is. I really like the Rita’s Rump Pocket diapers. They really are pretty simple to make and work really well for our family.