Make cheap cloth diapers!

Super cute and SUPER easy!!!!!!

I have decided I want to cloth diaper my baby I'm cookin. When I decided this I of course started looking online for cloth diapers. Holy crap their expensive!!! So I decided I'm gunna make em!!! I found a few tutorials on how to make them and used ideas from them and a few ideas I threw in myself.

I am not a seamstress what so ever!!! So the thing that I mainly did was just look at pictures on the tutorials I found because I couldn't understand all their descriptions and sewing terms. So this tutorial is mostly pictures:)

First I used a diaper and laid it out on cardboard and traced it as best I could. I realized it was a little smaller than I wanted it to be so when I trace it I trace about half inch to an inch around it to allow for the sewing and mess ups;)

My father-in-law recently lost a bunch of weight so he gave me his old work T-shirts to use. I've got so many I can make a crap load of diapers, hahahaha get it crap load;) awww man I crack myself up:D

Here's the stuff you need:

T-shirt is what I suggest, you could use sheets but you'd have to use many more layers. So I suggest T-shirts.

Velcro, I use the half inch wide stuff

Elastic, I think it's 1/4 inch I use? Maybe a little smaller? The size of it doesn't really matter that much, just don't use 3 inch wide stuff cause that's a little over board.

Scissors

Marker

Wash cloth, or towel

Some sort of soft material, this will be the outside, I just go to Walmart or JoAnns and buy the left over scraps for under a couple bucks. I've used rougher material but the soft stuff is nicer.

Sewing machine

I also suggest having a seem ripper (I use mine way to often)

Pins

Ok below I've already traced the card board. I lay down two layers of the T-shirt and one layer of the soft material, then trace it then cut it out as best I can, don't worry about making it perfect, just do the best you can.

Lay them so the soft material's face side is facing the t-shirt material.

Take your towel or wash cloth, fold it into thirds, then take some scrap t-shirt material to wrap around the towel material.

Sew the material around the towel, then trim the excess off. (This one isn't the best one I've done, usually they look really nice but of course I just had to do a crappy job since I'm sharing (insert rolling eyes)

Take one of the T-shirt's and place the towel on top of it and sew it to the center, You should use pins but I am extremely impatient so I usually end up doing it with out. I do suggest the first couple you make do use the pins just until you get the hang of it. This is like my tenth diaper so I can do it without just fine now.

Now lay your layers together, I have laid the layers differently each time it really doesn't matter the order as long as your soft material's face will face out, so just make sure to have it facing the t-shirt material at this point.

Now sew three of the edges together. Leave one of the ends un-sewn, you will be turning it inside out. This is where I usually end up using my seam ripper, I usually get carried away and sew all four sides;)

Now take your elastic, doesn't matter what side you sew it on, sorry if it's confusing in my pics I just noticed I kept flipping the material. Just to clear it up the diaper is still inside out at this point.

Sew the elastic into the curves(legs holes) Use your own judgement on how tight to sew the elastic, I sew a couple stitches then start pulling it tight, I noticed I prefer it almost a little looser than you'd think because when I pull it to tight then it seems like the leg part would be too tight on the lil baby's leg.

Just try it a few different ways and see what you like best:)

Here I've got both legs done, looks like I might have done one side tighter than the other, oh well cause you can't notice a difference when it's done.

Now sew your elastic on the backside, Make sure it's the side that's already sewn shut.

Again as tight as you feel it should be.

I added this next pic in to show you to make sure to tie off your ends and remember your turning it inside out so its ok to tie them together. I don't do the whole tying the string to itself thing that talented seamstresses do. Some of the strings I end up not tying cause I don't have a string to tie them to. I figure if later down the road it loosens I can just do a quick fix.

Now your going to turn it inside out! Separate it so you put your hand in between the soft material and T-shirt material then grasp the sewn end and just pull.

You'll have to pull your lil tabs out too.

Here's how it should look, lil funny right now but starting to look like a diapie, don't let that piece of elastic it's laying on confuse you. I just accidentally laid the diaper on top of it.

Now take the areas that have the elastic and pull them tight and sew along it on the outside.

Here's what it should look like, or similar at least:) Don't stress over perfection! Remember our mother's and grandmothers used to just wrap cloth around our bums and pin it so compared to that these are genius!!! Just ask your grandma, she'll be impressed;)

Now take the end that's still open and fold the material inside itself. Again I suggest you pin it till you've done a few.

Now sew along it, make sure to sew through all the layers, I have one diaper I didn't do a great job with and a little chunk is stickin out. It won't mess up anything just kinda an eyesore but whatever, soon it'll be covered in poo and I think that's a little more of an eyesore;)

Here's close to what it should look like now. Almost done!!!!

Now take your velcro and sew chunks as big as you want to the front (side without the elastic) Use as much or as little velcro as you want. Some of mine have more than this some have less. Or if you want you can use those snap things, I prefere velcro cause I can choose a little better on how I want it resized and I figure when the velcro gets bad I can easily replace it. Plus with the snaps you have to buy the tool to apply the snaps and I'm just to cheap to do that;)

Now sew your other velcro to the tabs on the backside. Make sure to figure out how you want them to sit, how high or low, how close in, how big of tabs. I try to judge where the babies body will be to try and make it so the velcro won't be touching to much of the body. I try to use the fuzzy Velcro on these tabs since they will most likely touch his body. But I've also done it the opposite way too, cause you'll notice you will end up using more of one side of the Velcro than the other, so to avoid waste I usually rotate the sides of Velcro(I hope that made sense)

Look your done!!! Here's the front!

Side

Back

Other side

Inside view

I hope this was easy to understand, again I am NOT a seamstress so I don't know terms or "proper" ways to sew, I just put the material down and push the pedal and sew. If you have ANY questions please feel free to ask:)

These are super cheap and I figure each one has cost under $3.00 The cost might vary depending on what material you purchase and if you have extra t-shirts and wash clothes but comparing these to the nice 10 to 15 dollar diapers you can buy, I'd prefer these. They might not work as excellent as the expensive ones but I have purchased the expensive ones and when I hold them next to each other there really isn't much of a difference. Oh and I've noticed these are way easier to dry because I don't use that water proof material(you really don't need to) These will hold the ingredients just fine. Also their way cheaper so you can afford to make tons of these and use them while at home if your worried about how well they'll work and then buy the expensive ones to use when you go out and about. I have bought about 5 pairs of the expensive ones and have made around ten of these and plan on making more once baby's born, I decided the ones I have will work great for now and then as he grows I will make ones that will fit him at the time and go bigger. I don't want to get carried away and make a bunch and they all be to small.

It roughly takes me half hour to an hour to make one but I take several breaks and my sewing machine is old so I let it rest a lot. When I made my first couple it took me close to an hour of straight work time but I was trying really hard for perfection, then I realized the things I was stressing on making perfect really don't matter in the end. I just try to make the outside as good as possible cause that's the part you'll see and gets the most wear and tear.