Prefold cloth diaper to semi-fitted - Tutorial

We use prefold diapers and covers over at our house. I find that I like them a lot better than any other cloth diaper both for use and cost. I've mastered quite a few folding techniques and the covers do a good job keeping the cotton in, but with a boy, getting that just-right-fit is difficult.

Especially, if they're like Max and like to "help" you put the diaper on by taking it off or try and run away all together.

I've been working on this for a little bit, the nice thing is that it doesn't have to be perfect since no one will really see it and if they do, chances are they're poo-stained anyway. Who's going to look closely at sewing lines at that point?

Take your flat diaper, I use unbleached indian cotton, and lay it flat. Measure out approx 5" on one side and 3.5" on the other. The five inches will be the "back" and the 3.5 the "front" when you put the diaper on. Mark these places and draw a semi-circle connecting them like this:

Sew a tack stitch along the line you made. Cut off the semi-circles along the sitch line without cutting the stitches.

Cut off the stitching along one end and "open" the diaper so the outside is now inside ripping the inside seams apart. You might have to work the folds of the middle section a bit. Sew it all the way around the edges and then turn it back right side out.

You may have to sew down the side where the fold of the diaper meets. Sew a top stitch around the whole diaper and on the end you opened sew it closed with a tight zig zag.

Less leg bulk all the absorbtion!

Diapers on the line

Cloth Diaper Experiment recap

The official word on the experiment is that we'll have to start it again...after we inform everyone in the house we're doing an experiment for cyber space. Sorry guys.

CD Experiment DAY ONE

-donning white lab coat - adjusts nerdy glasses - glances studiously at clip board

Day one of our experiment went off without a hitch, or leak as it were. We started with cloth in the morning and ended up using 7 diapers and covers by the end of the day. Not bad by my standards. Of course, with only having three covers it meant I had to do laundry last night and make sure I hung up the covers to dry. That little folding octopus clothes hanger from IKEA works great for it (and it's only $5).

For bed we used a disposable with an additional liner. We get the liners in 30 packs from Toys/Babies R Us. Publix used to sell them for .50 a bag cheaper but they got discontinued. *sigh* The TRU 30 pack is $3.49. Those little eight cent things make a regular diaper into an overnight powerhouse...er, waterhouse. You can use them in cloth diapers too.

This morning (day two) we woke and immediately donned our cloth diapers. Emmy loves them and requested the "poke de dot" cover, the only patterned/colored cover we have. She's quite pleased with her dotted cushy tushy.

My Cotton Babies order shipped so hopefully by mid next week I have a new hanging wet diaper bag and a handful more covers to extend my need to wash every day. So far having almost double a prefold stash has been working out. Also, this morning Max is constipated and having lots of teeny #2's so I've kept the same cover since nothing's touched it and used three of the prefolds. Imagine if I had gone through 4 diapers for him already this morning!

All in all, we're doing well. I'm optimistic that I'll be able to go the 30 days on one pack of disposables.

Cloth Diaper Experiment

I posted before about how I've gone back and forth about cloth diapering and how we've reintroduced CD's back into the household. I was basically just trying to let everyone know that it's not an all or nothing thing.

To elaborate on that post I've decided to do a thirty day experiment. I JUST opened a new small package of diapers for both Emmy and Max. Both packs cost approx. $6 each though Max's are Pampers and Emmy's are Target brand, I'm not sure if that matters but if it seems one is using more or having more issues, we might do a second experiment in more controlled conditions. I'm not a scientist, I'm just playing one on this blog.

We already have cloth diapers on hand but I'll try and break out the cost of what someone would have spent on the same set up. I use prefold diapers, snappi closures and a variety of waterproof covers. I bought everything except the Snappi's from www.cottonbabies.com. I got the Snappi's through Ebay and I think it was like 3 for $7 or $8. I did get some with the beginner pack from Cotton Babies too though. I just put a new order in today but that was for fun stuff and the very much needed diaper wet bag that'll hang on the door to the laundry room. I needed one before anyway.

I'm approximating the diaper covers since I have some fancy ones and some very plain, less expensive ones. They all seem to work exactly the same so far, though i personally prefer the ones with extra gussets around the thighs. Some were $8 and some were as much as $13 so I'll put $11 as the middle range and we'll leave it at that.

Premium sized unbleached Indian prefolds  $2.00 ea. x  22  = $44
Snappi diaper closures $3.95 ea. x 8 = $31.60
Waterproof Diaper Covers $11 ea. x 11 = $121

Remember, I'm diapering a 9 month old and a 2 year old with these figures. If it sounds scary and you have one kid; divide. I do not buy special detergents, washers, sprays etc. I make my own laundry soap which I'll post about later. I also stay away from the all-in-ones which can run up to $25 a piece, four changes a day and you're looking at a richer investment.

So basically, for one month I've spent $12 on disposable diapers and $196.60. What I usually spend in a month on disposables? About $72 on 4 cases of diapers (rounding to $18 a case, 2 cases per mo. per child using coupons, sales or store brands). Plus the odd $10-12 pack of pull ups since Emmy is trying hard to train, and $6 for 2 bags of disposable doublers to get me through nights.

First month disposable/cloth hybrid = $208.60
One month disposables = $90

Remember this is for TWO children. I'll be posting more about wipes, cleaning costs, storage and useage, links for folding and more.

So breakdown: We're taking a thirty day challenge to introduce cloth diapers more than half time and see if we can get buy using only ONE SMALL package of disposables. If this works I should be able to reduce our diaper use the following month by at least $75 a month, reclaiming our investment price within three months of use.

Stay tuned and sign up to follow our Diaper Experiment.

Back on the cloth diaper band wagon

I've been using cloth diapers since pregnant with my third babe, Cordelia. I started because Alex and Olivia would get diaper rashes and terrible yeast infections (yes, boys can get yeast infections). I lived in the Orlando area at the time and a great gal Jan Z. introduced me to cloth. I can still remember the feeling I got when she told me about cloth; it was like a switch was flipped. Could it be that easy?

The funny part of this story is that Jan and I talked about this outside Chili's one mom's night out and I inadvertently stood in a red ant pile. If that wasn't enough of an attention grabber, as I drove home I started to feel funny. I ended up with the paramedics coming out to the house twice that night. One to give me benedryl and one to take me to the hospital. I had a terrible allergic reaction to the two dozen plus ant bites all over my legs and lost feeling in my mouth, arms and legs.

After I recovered, I talked to everyone that used cloth diapers and did a ton of research online. I ended up using the most expensive all-in-one diaper - Fuzzi Bunz. These come in great colors and were easy enough to use. They resist staining well and hold up over time. They also had a great resale value if in good condition. We used these exclusively and miracle of miracles, the rashes and infections went away. I'm not sure how they've changed over the years, it's been a good five years since I bought mine and they may have changed. For the better or worse, I don't know.

At the time we had a tight budget. Fitting in an order for cloth diapers and still maintaining 'sposies while I waited for the package, then get comfortable using them, was a little tricky. But we managed to get about 12 diapers, 6 for each child with washing every other day. I supplimented with disposables at night. This both cut down trips to the doc for meds and treatment of rashes and costs on buying disposables.

I had a love/hate relationship with cloth diapers since. Selling my stash when it was too difficult to maintain or we needed the money, buying it again when we found out we had a child with super sensitive skin and back and forth.

Max in his whisper wrap.

We're now on our fifth child, Max, and have two in diapers again; Emmy and him. While Rob's away money isn't as tight but he'll be returning soon and spending $50 or more dollars every couple of weeks on diapers just dosen't make much sense. So, I'm back to cloth but have changed things up a bit.

We're now using prefolds, which look like the Gerber baby diapers. I use unbleached indian prefolds. They're far superior to the Gerber ones, they fluff up very soft and are super absorbent. Folding can be tricky but there are lots of great informative sites and video's on YouTube.

To hold them togetherI use Snappi's. They're pricey but there's no way to poke a hole in you or the baby and you can reuse them after each change. I use one a day unless it gets gross and disinfect them in the dishwasher. You can find good deals on ebay for these too.

To hold it all in, I use a diaper cover. These aren't the same things you'll find at Babies R Us. These are polyurathaine laminated cotton or PUL matterial with velcro closures. They can come in a variety of colors and styles. We prefer the ones with leg gussets as it's easy to tuck in stray diaper pieces.

Emmy playing piano in her polka-dot Bummis.

I use some deliciously wonderful baby wipes from BatikBags on Etsy. She specializes in mama pads, cloth wipes and reusable breast pads. Excellent quality!

I also found another great Etsy seller Respire. She makes some wonderful pocket prefolds which take the work out of folding, great to leave with the sitter! She also sells handmade wool covers and patters for making your own cloth prefold fitteds.

I love the prices, service and selection over at Cotton Babies too and have bought almost exclusively from them this last run. They have some great diaper packages too.

So, now we're back in cloth diapers and I stay away from the ants.