Make Your Own Cloth Diapers: a tutorial

I made these diapers using 100% recycled fabric. I have been picking up anything and everything I thought might work at garage sales. I found beautiful pink terry cloth bath towels for .50 each, recieving blankets for .10 a bundle and also some really cute polar fleece blankets, for a quarter. I had a stash of thread and elastic on hand. If you make alot of these like I did you will find that they use alot of thread so I did have to buy two more spools. I wanted to make these as inexpensively as possible (so I could brag to Dan about how little they cost!) My initial thought was to have them close using a button because I already have alot of those, but you could use Velcro or the more modern name now is hook and loop.


The diaper above is one I made from a polar fleece blanket. My goal is to make 24 small diapers and 24 medium to large diapers. So far I have 17 small diapers. After I got the hang of making them I figure that I can make one in 15 minutes not including the time needed to cut the fabric. Of course I bombed the first diaper but that is to be expected. There are certainly cuter diapers out there but my first goal was to make them cheap! After estimating the costs of sewing them I have considered selling them.

I made my own pattern with the help of a draft your own cloth diaper pattern tutorial from http://dutchgirldiary.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-how-to-draft-cloth-diaper.html I reduced the size of her pattern by two inches in both the width and the length. I kept the crotch size the same as she recommended. Also the picture above does not show it but I also trimmed quite a bit off of the front flaps as once I had sewn them the length of them seemed like overkill. The pattern I ended up with made a diaper that I believe is small enough for a 7-14 lb. baby.

I cut out two of the diaper body. After I had the hang of it I cut out enough at a time to make 5-6 diapers.

This is an old cloth diaper that I bought in a bundle for .10. I cut it and folded it to make the soaker pad. The soaker pad is the middle of the diaper that soaks up all the liquid. Fabrics such as terry cloth, flannel, old cloth diapers, etc...will work fine. Some mom's said they used their husband's old T-shirts, some said they used an old flannel sheet. I have even read about using cut up old wool sweaters that have been shrunk in the dryer, others knit their own wool soakers. I saved the scraps after cutting out the diaper body and saved them to use as the soaker pad and also to use for baby wipes.

All set to sew. You can see the soaker and the front and back diaper bodies here.

I zig zagged each open end of the soaker.

If you have a boy you want to make sure you have the soaker slid toward the front as that is where the liquid goes first. If you have a girl slide the soaker towards the back. After positioning zig zag it onto the wrong side of one of the diaper bodies.

Next put the two diaper bodies together (right sides together) and zig zag them leaving the back side open for turning.

Now it's time for the elastic. I used about 4 inches of elastic for the leg gussets.

Stretch it out as you sew.

Now turn it right side out and put in about 2 1/2 inches of elastic on the back wrong side, stretching it as you sew. If you have questions on this ask and I will post a picture.

After the back elastic is in and you have turned it right side out sew the back closed.

There is the inside of the finished diaper. You may want to zig zag around the outside of the diaper when you are done, I did on certain ones.

This diaper was made from a knit blanket.

Now let's talk about waterproof covers or AIO's (All in One's) or which ever you prefer. The main challenge of keeping these diapers super cheap is the waterproof covers. I refuse to use the old fashioned plastic pants as they do not close at the sides and I cannot imagine pulling all that yuck down the babies legs. I have toyed with the idea of cutting and modifying the plastic pants to close at the sides with velcro. Or if you have one of those expensive snap presses you could use cute plastic snaps. Pretty fabric could then be sewn to the outside of the plastic making them more attractive. I know that would work as I have used cut up old plastic pants before when I needed something to be waterproof. The problem is that is the diapers will most likely be washed every day or every other day and the plastic most likely will not hold up for more than 3-4 months. Regardless I will probably use this idea for some of the covers I make.

The standard in waterproof covers or AIO's these days is PUL fabric which is very cute and also waterproof. It sells for about $9-10 a yard and I read on one site that 3 covers could be made from one yard with enough left over for the binding. Then they commonly close with hook and loop (Velcro). So that's like $3.50 a cover which is pretty good considering that the cover I bought way back when (see first post) cost $15 each!!

You cannot buy pul fabric from local fabric stores, as far as I or anyone else knows you have to order online. I broke down and ordered 2 yards from http://www.acutabovefabrics.com/ but I am keeping my eye out for the old plastic pants at garage sales.

This diaper was made from a recieving blanket. This made a thinner trimmer diaper which I liked even though I will be needing the much thicker and heavier ones made from terry cloth for outings and overnights.

This is one of the terry cloth ones. To convert these to AIO's (all in ones) you can simply cut 1 layer of pul or plastic pants with your diaper body pattern and sew it between your front and back layers. I plan to do this with the next bunch I make. The draw back to this "I have heard" is that they take forver to dry in the dryer. You could easily use this pattern too to make a pocket style diaper by leaving the back open and stuffing the soaker into it each time you use it instead of sewing it in.

These are fun to sew and easy! My 11 year old who copies everything I do made her own for her dolly just by looking at my pattern.

And sigh my satisfaction came when hubby picked one up and said "Wow, and how much did we pay for (insert brand name)?!" mission accomplished.....

As soon as I get my covers sewn I will post pictures and a short tutorial of that. If you want more information you can google make your own cloth diapers and you will get loads of information and how to's.

Happy Sewing :0)!!