Andrea’s Weblog

I’m told I’ve been neglecting my blog lately, which I can’t dispute. My excuse is that I’ve been trapped in cloth diaper land and all available computer time has been devoted escaping it. We’ve used cloth diapers with Elizabeth and I really like them. When I have to buy diapers while we’re on vacation I cringe at how much they cost. Since I’m handy with a sewing machine I decided to look into making some cloth diapers for the new baby.

Researching this prospect has been quite overwhelming, and involved learning a whole new language: PUL, soaker, fitted, sherpa, AIO, Aplix, etc. There are a bunch of diaper patterns out there, some are even free, but choosing a few to try was tricky. Since we don’t know how big the baby is going to be or if he’ll have his sister’s trim build, it’s hard to tell if the diapers will fit. I decided to go with the free Mama Bird and Wee Weka patterns and the reasonably priced Darling Diaper patterns for fitted diapers. I won’t go into the different types of cloth diapers out there, but the style I decided to go with is super-absorbent snap-on underwear, called a fitted diaper, that you put on under a snap or velcro-on waterproof cover. When the baby is bigger, we’ll probably switch to some pocket diapers where the waterproof cover has a pocket for an absorbent pad instead of the separate “underwear” piece.

Now that I’ve decided on the pattern and the type of diaper, I’m left with which fabric to use. It seems that there is no “best combination” of fabrics to use and everyone has her own preferences. I wished someone would just say “go buy 2 yards of flannel and 2 yards of terry towel,” but nobody will. I’ve realized that diaper-making isn’t an exact science and that whatever I end up trying will probably work because there are so many different options.

So I’m trying not to stress about finding the perfect fabric combination to meet the future McPherson’s absorbtion needs. Elizabeth and I went to the fabric store yesterday to see what we have to choose from here in town. We left with a bunch of flannel–some at $1 a yard–and some microfleece.I figure that’ll give me something to work with that I won’t feel guilty about messing up. I’m realizing that you can use just about any fabric that’s absorbent, mostly natural fibers like cotton or hemp and some of the newer fleeces. I picked up some microfleece cloths in the automotive department at Walmart to use where absorbency counts. I’m curious how those will work out!

Oh, and in the midst of all this, I realized that I should make our own wet-wipes. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner since we’re already doing diaper laundry and it’s no trouble to toss in some cloth wet-wipes. I actually end up washing the disposable wet-wipes fairly often anyhow when they accidently get tossed in the diaper pail. So, I went on a two-day wet-wipe sewing binge resulting in about 40 wet-wipes out of cute-patterned flannel. Hey, if they make wiping someone’s bum a little more fun, what’s the harm?

I’ll keep you posted on how the actual sewing of the diapers goes. I’m still reading up on that part…