100 t-shirts into cloth diapers

How’s that for a title? I was going to call this “The super big project I’ve been working on” but it just wasn’t as catchy.

My sister is having her first baby and informed me that she wanted to use cloth diapers. Yay! So I promised to make them for her as the baby’s gift.

Well, I decided to make 18 smalls(7-11lbs), 18 mediums(10-22lbs), 4 covers, and 36 cloth wipes. Each diaper required 3 cotton t-shirts. I needed 9 t-shirts for the wipes. So that’s over 100 tees needed. Luckily I know a church thrift that sells them for $.10-15 each. It’s a significant investment of time finding the tees, since there are just piles of clothes to go through, but I enjoy treasure hunting.

So the last few weeks I’ve cutting all the pieces needed for this project. Each diaper has 4 pieces. The soakers for each diaper need 8 pieces. Wipes are 2 pieces each. All in all I needed about 500 pieces cut. They’re almost  all cut out now(just a dozen inserts left) and I’ve have started sewing.

I need to finish by Thanksgiving.

Work in progress:

No Frills Velcro Diaper Cover

 

For “no frills” this cover took forever to make. But that’s because I tried to put binding on it twice to pretty it up and I failed miserably each time. The first binding was a recycled lycra suit and the second was a recycled nylon slip. Both would have worked well in theory since they are non-wicking fabrics but my binding skills are seriously horrible. So I spent far too long picking out the threads of my sad, sad attempts to make the cover better looking.

I should *gasp* buy a tool for applying bindings. Someday I’ll wise up.

Anyway, I left the edges raw. It doesn’t really matter with PUL, except for looks. I used a Motherease Airflow cover I already had to make the pattern and I used velcro since I don’t have a plastic snap setter. I do have metal snaps and a setter but I think those would rust? Anyway, I love the Airflow design because the side overlap prevents leakage but still allows air to circulate which prevents rashes. I’m on my third baby diapered with this style cover and it works!

As much as I love their products, I’d rather not pay $15 each for new covers. Homemade covers with  my half-price PUL are only $2 each.

After finishing this cover it dawned on me that I should just reinforce the 4, old diaper covers I have instead of making new. Motherease snaps will apparently never die since the covers I have are now 10 years old and the snaps are still working well. The waterproof coating is worn out though and the covers are leaking. Snaps are harder for toddlers to undo than velcro.

So that’s my next project, reinforcement of the covers I have.