Diaper Days

Before Edwin was born, I had decided I wanted to use cloth diapers. Not the cloth diapers our mothers used, but something more modern. So I experimented and posted about those first experiments here.

The non-waterproof homemade diapers worked really well. I used Gerber plastic pants over top of them and didn't have any trouble with leaks. Those yellow diapers made with "waterproof nylon" weren't really waterproof, so that fabric wasn't an option. They'd be okay for a short time, but then they would leak.

I started using cloth diapers after Edwin's umbilical cord fell off, when he was about 2 weeks old. I realized pretty quickly that they wouldn't last as long as I'd hoped, and sure enough, he grew out of them by about 8 weeks of age. So I had to decide what to do regarding diapers a little sooner than I'd thought.

I had been given a gift certificate to cottonbabies.com and used it to buy some bumgenius diapers that have snaps so they can be three different sizes. I really liked them, so I decided to save myself the stress of quickly sewing 2 dozen diapers before Edwin outgrew the small ones. Aren't they cute?
But, I still felt motivated to make some diapers, and since I didn't buy 2 dozen diapers, I knew I'd need some more. So...I bought some PUL (polyurethane laminate - it's the waterproof outer fabric used by bumgenius, as well as other brands) to experiment with making waterproof diapers, and I decided to also "whip up" a few non-waterproof diapers to use plastic covers with.

After some trial and error, I have some homemade waterproof diapers. And they work! Edwin wore one during naptime and longer, and his clothes stayed nice and dry. I had to make sure I had as little extra stitching as possible because that's where leakage occurs, since I'm not using a waterproof thread (is there such a thing?).

Anyway, maybe I'm a geek, but I had fun spending time sewing diapers while Edwin napped.