Cloth Diapering Beginner

I've had the roughest weekend. The pollen had gotten to me so badly that I haven't been well on and off for a few weeks. Speaking to my PCP about my health is on the very top of my list. Being sick has been such a frequent thing that I put aside some projects I intended for my family. This almost bummed me out but I didn't let it stop me. 

Back in February I realized that I had a toddler still in diapers, and another baby on the way. This would be the third time we did this! Buying 1 box of Pampers from the store was one thing, but buying 2 boxes for 2 children is another. I wanted a way to preserve our budget. After spending about $80 on 2 cloth diaper bundles that included the 6 covers, 6 liners and bamboo inserts, about $25 on a wipe solution kit plus some more. I realized this journey would be very expensive to start out. Just to get situated I would need at least $300 or more.

At the last minute I look on YouTube for anything about cloth diapering. I found a few videos telling me cloth diapering 101, and a few video tutorials on how to make some from scratch. After saving a few videos into a Playlist and planning for another time to sew these things I decided to find a template for a cloth diaper. 

One of the benefits of being a patternmaker is that I can easily see how to modify a simple design into what I want. The first set of diapers I bought I accidentally bought girl diapers. This was okay because my Toddler is a girl. I was trying to prepare for our son but it worked out anyway. The second set of diapers I did buy were for boys. These diapers were One size pocket diapers. After comparing these two sets of diapers I realized that my daughter's diapers had leg gussets on them but still had the one size design. I loved the leg gussets so after finding a one size diaper template I went on to modify the cloth diaper pattern I created to accommodate that. 

This is the pattern I downloaded.  

This was my pattern after i added the wings for the leg gussets. 

I will admit that I did this wrong at first but that was because I was watching a tutorial for a regular one size diaper with the leg gussets. So to get the look I wanted I took out one of my daughter diapers that I loved. 

I realized to make this design they followed the regular one size pattern. However to make leg gussets I had to detach the wings I'd drawn into the design and make that a separate piece. In my case I'd already cut out my fabric in this shape. So all I did is pin the original template to cut off my wings. So now I have 6 pieces in all to make one diaper with 2 leg gussets. The tricky part was attaching the gussets to the one size diaper after inserting the elastic in the sides already in the base piece but I did it. I even did some hand stitching to fix the inside. 

I actually realized after that I should've placed the design side on the inside and let the diaper utility fabric show. On the inside of the diaper. I have a few more to make to complete a total of 6 diapers. 

I finally made another one and this diaper I had a dream about making the night before. In this dream I saw myself sew on the gusset first before I installed the elastic. I decided to give this a try and I must say that I am very impressed with how it came out. 

You might be looking at the last picture like, what is that pink stuff underneath? Well...I have a lot of burp cloths. Mostly girly ones. I've learned to fold them and use them to substitute liners. I bought some separate cotton liners but I realized I didn't like the quality because they were paper thin. I'd have to stack at least 3 for better absorbancy and that made me unhappy because I bought them in a pack of 10. Thankfully I have a ton of burp cloths in various colors and these actually work better to fold them. So after I make the other cloth diapers I'm just going to fold up the burp cloths. I realized this was better anyway because baby boy pees a lot. 

The cost of my diaper cloth utility fabric cost 11.98/yd at Joanns Fabrics. The cat and mouse themed PUL was 10.70/yd and my snaps and tools came as a kit from Walmart and probably cost about $25.99 at its original price but was marked down to $17.99! So if I do the math. I am getting 6 cloth diapers I created by myself for $40.67. Considering the fact that I paid 35.99 for 6 diaper covers, 6 bamboo inserts, and bamboo liners plus a wet bag. I'd say that was fair, and plus I needed to get an idea of what I liked and buying 2 different brand cloth diaper kits product helped with that. So I really paid 35.99 twice. So that was $71.98 that I probably could've used towards my project if I'd known what I know now. I'm not angry, because I was able to explore what cloth diapers worked to fit my kids needs. Even though I prefer folding up burp cloths and using them as inserts because baby boy always has a full bladder it was nice to be exposed to bamboo inserts. Eventually I can make my way into 

1making inserts. 

Doing projects like this is a therapy for me. It makes me feel like my skills are being put to good use. I was explaining this to my husband because he was saying fixing hems and zippers is a project I could be doing for the family too. While I understand what he means I would NEVER consider this a project. That's fixing stuff! I'm going to go ahead and put out a disclaimer. My husband doesn't always understand what it means to fix a zipper or basically replace it. He doesn't think about buying materials. Explaining this to him helped him realize that maybe he was asking for things to be fixed all the time without understanding how to support that notion. He told me I should've been more open with him about the materials I needed. Knowing me I observed the issue. I saw what was needed and I stressed out about it before I told him. If I did tell him, it was so long ago that we forgot that conversation. There are a lot of things we have to have delayed gratification on. This cloth diaper project was one of them. 

I plan on making my entire family's wardrobe in the future. I know this is a process and I know I don't have it to buy tons of fabric but I can prepare. I've already taken everyone's measurements and I'm ready to move forward with that at a later time. 

For me delayed gratification is fine as long as I can see myself going in a specific direction. To do this I have to plan things out in a project plan. It helps me budget out money to buy new materials as well as set a time for when I want to do it. It also just helps me remember, and that's always great. 

Cloth diapering this far has been okay I'm going to say. Making my own cloth diaper just opened a new chapter in that journey. Most people do this to save the planet and have less waste. As heroic as that sounds I felt I needed to save my family before I save everything else. Making more laundry might be a strain on the water bill but with a family of 7 you have tons of clothes to wash anyway so I don't think there's a huge difference.  Believe me there were times I wished I had a spare disposable somewhere to cheat every now and then but I haven't given in. So far I've done well with 12 now 13 cloth diapers. I haven't spent a dime on disposables since my son came home 2 months ago and i gave up disposables for my Toddler back in February. I am bent on that! I'm transitioning my Toddler to training panties and at night a diaper so she's on her way to freeing up 6 diapers for her little brother.