Yummy soft diaper set

The baby's new diaper set, made from one super-soft flannel shirt and some t-shirts.

The baby has a yummy new diaper set today thanks to my purchase of a 25 cent flannel shirt (huge and the softest flannel shirt I've ever felt) and a few t-shirts this weekend and a sewing marathon of sorts last night.

He's got a prefold diaper, a flat diaper, two pocket diapers, and two inserts, all with a yummy soft green flannel pattern.

I did a couple of slightly different things with this set of diapers. For the PF, I used two different color t-shirts for the body; black on the outside and white on the inside. That was because I ran out of enough t-shirts. For the pockets, I used three layers (two flannel and one t-shirt) instead of just two layers of flannel. That too, was improvising because I wanted to make two pockets with the two sleeves, but didn't have enough flannel for two inner layers. Well, I should say boyish flannel. I have a bunch of flannel with little green rosebuds on it that my mom gave me. So I put the rosy flannel on the inside with the plaid flannel on the outside and a layer of t-shirt next to the baby's skin. That extra layer makes the diapers so much softer. They only take slightly longer to dry as they are a tad damp at the elastic coming out of the dryer.

I have another piece of flannel for another PF but I thought I was out of t-shirts. I have a few thin white ones but one of them might work. Who knows what I might find if I go digging around in my fabric box.

I washed diapers yesterday morning but had to do another load last night to get all these clean. They are ready for him this morning!

So cute!

Some of the pocket diapers I've made.

The pocket diapers I've made using the Rita's Rump Pockets pattern are just so stinkin' cute! I made a baker's dozen with these fabrics, mostly plaid since that seems to be the pattern of men's flannel shirts! The green plaid on the bottom left was a sheet, and the off-white gender-neutral fabric on the top left was a sheet. I used the off-white fabric inside all the plaid diapers except the green one.

Now I need some more shirts and sheets to make some more. Not only are they cute, they are easy to sew, easy to use, and they work great!

My diaper stash is finished!

Our diaper stash! Inserts (clockwise from top left), flats, prefolds to use as inserts, pocket diapers, and prefolds!

We now have a complete diaper stash, and almost all of it I made!

We have a dozen prefolds made from flannel shirts and sheets and old t-shirts.

We have a dozen pocket diapers made from two flannel sheets and a couple of flannel shirts.

We have two dozen inserts/doublers, made from flannel and t-shirts.

We have a dozen and a half flannel flats. Half of them I made from flannel and the other half are flannel baby blankets.

To round things out we have eight or so cheap prefolds that I use for inserts/doublers.

We also have a few other assorted things like fitted diapers, covers, and all-in-one diapers that I bought from a few mamas on DiaperSwappers.com.

I am going to make a few fleece covers for when it gets colder but I'm not worried about that right now.

I'm proud of our stash and glad I started doing this. We will be saving money by cloth diapering and we have saved even more with me making everything from recycled materials. It's also nice to know that I've made something practical for the baby.

More pocket diapers

Aren't these precious?

We now have a dozen of those adorable pocket diapers I posted about a few days ago!

I have been sewing on them the past few days and finally have them finished.

I used two different sheets I bought at Goodwill for $3 each to sew them with the FREE Rita's Rump Pocket pattern. I got tons of diapers out of those two sheets plus lots of doublers/inserts.

These diapers are two layers of flannel with elastic around the edge and an opening to insert doublers. The pattern calls for pinning the wings but some mamas put snaps or velcro on them. We are still pinning them but I may put velcro on a few to make it easy for daddy.

Savings with cloth diapering

We haven't cloth diapered very long and our stash is small and simple on purpose because I'm determined to save money with this. Not counting the sewing machine fiasco, I've done pretty well.

I've spent $111.

$36 for a few things from FSOT (For Sale or Trade at DiaperSwappers.com)
$10 for materials to make diapers (two flannel sheets from Goodwill and a few really big men's t-shirts from yard sales)
$10 for sewing notions (scissors, thread, pins, measuring tape, etc.)
$35 for used sewing machine at Goodwill
$20 for a new bobbin case for the machine

And a lot of my time, which is priceless!

I got most of my materials for free from my mom and she has a lot more for me to make some more diapers if I want.

I have made sure that all of the materials I've used are being recycled with nothing bought new for this project. Of the few things that I've bought from Diaper Swappers, they were all mama-made and had a life before coming to live with us.

We have enough for 3-3.5 days right now but I wash every two days because I can't stand dirty things laying around even if they are well contained in my presoak buckets (also recycled, they are one-gallon ice cream buckets). He still wears disposable diapers at night and sometimes on the weekends when his dad changes him.

These will last him through the next few months. At 18 months, he's got at least six more months in diapers, but being that he's a boy (they are hard to potty train) he may be in diapers longer.

If we'd started this earlier we could have saved more money but you can't think of everything.

Our cloth diaper stash

A dozen t-shirt/flannel prefolds (mama-made by me out of old t-shirts and flannel shirts, and the green plaid is a sheet I bought from Goodwill)


Receiving blankets used for flats and flannel flats cut from the back of men's shirts


Pocket diapers I just made with the Rita's Rump Pockets pattern out of sheets I bought from Goodwill


Cheap Gerber prefolds and t-shirt/flannel inserts/doublers

We have a few other assorted things, a few fitted diapers and AIOs (all-in-ones, they have a cover on them) we don't use a whole lot, and of course there was the dirty flat and doubler, and the flat and doubler on the bum while I was taking these photos.

I'm going to make a couple more pockets to make it an even half dozen and then make a couple of fleece covers.

Our cloth diaper stash is small on purpose since I'm trying to save us some money with this.

New diaper style

The four pocket diapers I've made. Made of two layers of flannel and elasticized legs, the fit is great!

I've been sewing t-shirt prefolds and went through all the t-shirts I had on hand. I had the Rita's Rump Pocket pattern that I wanted to try. It's a diaper made of two layers of flannel and elasticized legs. You stuff it with prefolds, inserts, etc. for absorption.

I haven't had time to sew in a week, and then when I sat down to do it late last night I had scissor issues (very dull all of a sudden) and my very old sewing machine was having no parts of sewing any elastic or anything else for that matter. It hadn't sewn in a week and so it had to warm up, then the needle broke, and then it just plain hated the elastic. But I kept going and ended up with two pockets. I didn't make any more last night because I wanted to try the fit to see if there needed to be any adjustments. They fit perfectly so I made two more today.

The pattern calls for longer back wings and using pins to close. I made the wings not quite so long because of the size fabric I had. We are pinning for now but I think I'm going to try putting velcro on the next one I make. That would make diaper changing so fast!

My sewing is rudimentary at best but it's working and the second diaper looks much better than the first.

The elastic is kicking my butt on these. My sewing machine is old and cantankerous (like an old cat) and she hates elastic. The thread breaks repeatedly while I'm sewing elastic. I think I'll make a couple more to make an even half dozen of these and quit this, and find something else to sew that she likes better.