Question:
What is your favorite fabric for making cloth diapers?

Answer:
My favorite cloth diaper making fabric is bamboo fleece. The bamboo fleece I use is soft, durable and very absorbent.  I’ve used different cotton fabrics before and I’ve found that none of them are as absorbent as the bamboo fleece.  Also, most cotton tends to get a bit scratchy, especially when line dried. Some types of bamboo fabric can also get a bit scratchy, that is why I stick to bamboo fleece which remains relatively soft.

Bamboo velour is also a nice fabric, but I find that it doesn’t absorb as much as bamboo fleece, and it doesn’t remain as soft and beautiful as when new after a few hot washes.  I prefer to use bamboo velour for cloth wipes.

For the outside layer of the diaper, I like to use cotton interlock prints the most. They make the diaper cuter :)

If you have a question about cloth diapers or cloth diaper making, please write me a message using the contact form.

What kind of fabric do you like your diapers to be made of?

I think this might be my first turned and top-stitched bamboo All-In-One cloth diaper ever!  I used a heavily modified La-Di-Da diaper pattern because I have the undying need to improve diaper patterns hahaha.

Cloth Diaper Makers is going to host a giveaway sometime this week, so please keep checking the site!

Diaper Patterns

If you have no idea how to design a diaper pattern yourself, or you just don’t want to deal with that, there are quite a few free patterns available online.  Zany Zebra Designs has a few listed on their site.  Another good site for cloth diaper patterns is The WAHM Mall.

I’ve only tried one diaper pattern – the Ottobre pattern.  It was the first one I ran into and I thought it would be easy to follow.  I ended up making a diaper that was way too big for my daughter and the leg elastic was so loose that there was no way she could wear it.  It took me a few tries to get the size and elastic length right.  I’ve read that a lot of other people have had much better luck with the Ottobre pattern than I did though.  I ended up designing my own pattern which I tried to perfect over a few months.  A lot of people recommend the free Rita’s Rump diaper patterns, so it might be worth looking at those.

If you don’t mind paying for a diaper pattern then here are a few popular ones:

• Darling Diapers
  A lot of people seem to love this pattern.
• Jalie Diaper Pattern
  This is a Canadian pattern.  If you’d like to see how to make a Jalie pocket (or AIO) diaper, you can view their YouTube video here.
• Little Comet Patterns
• HoneyBoy! Diaper Pattern
• Chloe Toes Diaper Pattern
• La-Di-Da Diaper Pattern

Yahoo Baby Diaper Sewing Group

The “sewingdiapers” group on Yahoo is a great source of information.  There’s a lot of helpful mamas there who would love to help you with any questions you might have.  They can also help you select a diaper pattern if you’re not sure which one to choose.

Diaper Making Fabric

To make your first diapers you can use old T-shirts, swaddling blankets, towels, pants, etc.  I wouldn’t recommend using new and expensive fabric for the first couple of tries.  My first two diapers were disasters, so I’m glad I used cheap flannel.

Once you feel more comfortable making diapers, find out if your local fabric store carries any of the fabrics you’d like to use.  If you can’t find anything there then try searching online.  There’s quite a few online stores that carry diaper making fabric.  You might also want to ask in the Yahoo Baby Diaper Sewing Group where to find specific fabric.  If you have no idea what fabric to use, the group can help you with that as well.  I usually use the very absorbent bamboo fleece for my cloth diapers which I haven’t been able to find locally.  So, be prepared to order the fabric online and pay a bit for shipping.

Elastics

Buying the right elastic for your diapers is very important.  The most popular types of diaper making elastic are as follows:

• Lastin® (1/4″ and 3/8″)
• Polybraid Elastic (1/4″ and 3/8″)
• Cotton Swimwear Elastic (1/4″ and 3/8″)
• Fold Over Elastic (5/8″ and 1″)

Lastin is not the easiest to use, but it’s supposed to be very durable.  Cotton swimwear elastic tends to shrink a bit, so you might have to either wash and dry the elastic before use or make it a little bit longer than suggested by the diaper pattern makers.  Polybraid elastic is probably the most popular choice for diaper making.  Fold over elastic (also known as FOE) is used more frequently for making covers than diapers.

Cloth Diaper Fasteners

Snaps and velcro/aplix/touch tape are the most popular choices.  Touch tape is easier to use than snaps, but it’s scratchy and it can create diaper chains in the wash.  Snaps are not as easy to use, but are great in the wash and usually last longer than touch tape.

Other fasteners that you can use include the Snappi® and diaper pins.  Snappiable/pinnable fitted diapers are quite a bit easier to make than ones with snaps or touch tape.  I have recently made a few of those myself and have been using them for night-time because they seem to be a lot more comfortable for my daughter.

I hope this is enough to get you started.  You’re always welcome to ask me questions!

Update (25/06/2011): A new site has been created for cloth diaper makers and for those who are interested in cloth diaper making.  The site is called Cloth Diaper Makers.

Another reason for wanting to leave diaper making behind is that I miss the field of technology a bit.  I miss some of the challenges I was faced with on a daily basis. Before I became a mother, I was a Software Engineer, so the jump from designing ATM software to designing cloth diapers was a bit much for me. The truth is, I miss working with software.

Most of all, I do not want to make diapers for sale anymore because I want to spend more time with my daughter.  I already missed a lot of valuable time with her because of the crazy amount of hours I had to work.  The past year has gone by in a flash and I find myself wishing I had taken more time to play and relax with her.

So these are the reasons why, and I hope you understand…

Organic Bamboo Velour

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been making bamboo cloth diapers, doublers, inserts and cloth wipes for a few months now.  I fell in love with bamboo fabric, when my daughter became a heavy wetter and cotton diapers failed to hold the HUGE amounts of pee that came out of this little baby at night.  We actually ended up using disposables for a couple of months until I discovered bamboo fleece.  Around that time I started making diapers, so I decided to play a bit with different fabrics and try to find out which one would work best for us.  After doing some online research, I decided to order some bamboo velour, bamboo fleece, bamboo loop terry, and bamboo french terry.  I also tried hemp fleece, but never got hooked on that stuff.  I found it too rough after a few washes and it stained more easily.  It also has a tendency to get a bit more stinky than bamboo.  That’s my experience though.  I know a lot of people out there LOVE hemp fleece.

After some extensive testing courtesy of my daughter, I decided to go with bamboo fleece because of its absorbency and softness.  Bamboo velour felt softer than bamboo fleece, but it just wasn’t absorbent enough.  Although velour is a a great fabric to have as the inside layer of a diaper, right against baby’s skin.  I also love the fabric for cloth wipes / washcloths.