Cloth diapers

For my cloth diaper stash, I am making fitteds, flats, and prefolds.  I completed the fitteds a few months ago and thought I would share them with you.  The diapers I made are "one size fits most," and I used Rita's Rump Pocket as the basis and got some of my inspiration from a one-size-fits-all fitted diaper pattern that I can no longer find online (the site no longer exists).  Rita's website shows her pocket diaper on both a 3-month old and a 2.5-year old.  One of her suggestions is to make the diaper with a sewn-in insert, and since the other one-size pattern I found has even more layers but claims to fit a newborn, I decided to go for it.

 

I printed off her pattern, enlarged to the correct size, and taped it together.  From reading Rita's blog, I learned that the front wings cause problems with wing droop, and she suggests folding in the wings on the completed diaper.  I decided to fold in the wings on the pattern, thus eliminating front wings from the completed diaper, especially since they are not important to the fit of the diaper.  I traced a rectangle onto cardstock to use as a template for the sewn-in insert.   The cardstock square you see is a template I made a long time ago, the center is an 8" square and the outside is a 12" square.  I used the 8" square for my cloth wipes.

 

And then I wondered how to do a sewn-in insert without the stitching showing on the outside of the diaper.  The diaper, is, after all, reversible, so I need both sides to look pretty.  My solution was to trace a template for the inside of the diaper.  This piece lines up with the diaper so that it uses the same seam lines.  To save space, I did not use the wings.

 

Next, comes the tracing the pattern onto the fabric.  For each diaper, I needed 2 outer pieces, 1 inner piece, and 5 rectangles for the soaker pad.  The completed diaper will be 8 layers thick on the soaker pad, which is, to my knowledge, standard.  If I had not done the inside liner I would have made 6-layer soaker pads.  The inside pieces can be cut from re-purposed and ugly fabrics because no one will see them!  All layers are cut from flannel.  Each piece of fabric was folded in half so I could cut 2 pieces at a time.  For the outer and inner diaper pieces, it is important to remember to cut about 1/2" out from the seam line.  I cut on the line for the soaker pads, and for the cloth wipes.  I traced 8" squares for the wipes.  This is the wrong side of the fabric, so you can use pencil or pen for tracing.

 

Once the pieces were all traced and cut, I assembled the soaker pads by stacking 5 rectangles and serging around the perimeter.  Next, I sewed the soaker pad to the inner liner.

 Then, stack all the layers of the diaper together as pictured below.  Outer fabrics go wrong sides together, then lay the liner with sewn-on soaker pad on top, and pin all the layers in place.  When you traced the pattern, you drew the seam lines.  If you cut in layers, like I did, then only half of your pieces have penciled-in seam lines, so think about this when you are matching front to back.  I wanted my diapers to work for either a girl or a boy, so I did one gender-specific fabric and one gender-neutral fabric (or one girly, one boyish) for each diaper.

 

Next, sew along the seam line, leaving the diaper open at the top for turning.  Mark your spots for the leg elastic using the original pattern and apply the elastic. Rita has 2 methods on her blog for applying the elastic.  I used a 3-point zigzag to stitch it into the seam allowance.  I did the first diaper to completion before doing the rest in an assembly-line fashion.  I did this to discover any issues.  I applied the elastic BEFORE trimming the seam allowance.  Don't do this.  It was very difficult to trim once the elastic was added.  On your diapers, trim the seam allowance to 1/8", leaving 3/8" where the leg elastic will go, and leave the top opening untrimmed.  This will make turning and topstitching much easier.

 Now, turn your diaper, and topstitch around the edge.  Topstitch about 1/8" from the edge, but on the elastic stitch inside of the elastic so that you are forming a casing.  This is why it is important to have the seam allowance trimmed so that it will not catch in the topstitching. 

For the wipes, stitch right sides together with a 1/4" seam allowance, leaving an opening for turning.  Trim corners, turn, and topstitch.

Look at my pretty diapers!  I made a set of 24.  they can be made to fit a small baby by folding down the front and the back, and they can be secured either with a single diaper pin or with a snappi.  Once I have a baby, I will let you know how well they fit a newborn.  I have complete confidence they will fit 3 months and up!