Very Baby One-Size Fitted and Pocket Diapers

My sewing craze began with baby carriers and then quickly moved on to cloth diapers. My little guy has been in cloth diapers since he was about 5 weeks old and we got back from our holiday trip with grandma. I had toyed around with sewing my own diapers (I tried the Ottobre free pattern online), but I couldn't seem to get it right. For one thing I didn't have machine with zig zag (yikes!), but this beautiful antique Singer Featherweight that has been my trusted side-kick on sewing escapades since I was around 10 years old. So I bought diapers and tried to get a variety of styles to see which one fit my bub the best. These are a few that I've tried and my comments (before getting to my favorite diapers of all made from the Very Baby patterns):

1. Bum Genius organic AIO one-size: I really like these diapers, but I was annoyed to find out that I would have wash them at least 6 times (but it was really like 10 with my washer) before they would reach full absorbency. The fit is great and very trim, but the extended drying times are a pain in the keester. I will also add that the cotton continues to shrink (unless you are good and line dry them), so the ones that I kept are completely unsnapped and my son is only 19lbs. There is no way that these are going to last until 35lbs.

2. Cloth-eez prefolds by Green Mountain Diapers: If you are going to get prefolds, I would recommend going with this company. They carry both white (without the use of bleach) and unbleached, as well as regular and organic varieties. I have tried both the white regular prefolds and the unbleached organic, and both are nice, although the cotton and absorbency of the unbleached organic is better. I like prefolds, I just don't like them all the time. My other problem is I'm lazy about using the snappi and folding the diaper correctly. When I use prefolds, I just fold it in three and put it in the diaper cover. However, this means that there is a doodie, it usually gets on the cover. Not so fun.

3. Imse Vimse flannelette and terry contoured diapers: These diapers have lasted me from my daughter. Granted I only cloth diapered her for about 6 months, but they are in great condition and incredibly thirsty for being so few layers. They work fairly well at keeping messes off the covers without pins or a snappi. These are probably the fastest drying diapers around. I even used to wash the diapers at night and then hang them to dry in the bathroom. They were always ready to use come morning. Not bad. The terry diaper with a flannel doubler is awesome for even a heavy wetter at night.

You are probably wondering why I still wasn't satisfied, huh? Well, I wanted to venture into the world of wool diaper covers and start knitting my own longies (wool knitted pants that act as a diaper cover and clothing). I wanted something that was trim, would fit for at least several months and wouldn't require pins or a snappi. So I started to do some investigating and happened upon the Very Baby website. They had just put up their new pdf one-sized patterns for fitted diapers and another for pocket diapers. I started to do the math. If I got the pattern and bought the materials for 12 diapers, it would cost me less than buying 3 or 4 new diapers. I figured it was worth a try. I bought the pattern and downloaded it from the email (yay, instant gratification). My next venture was going to a fabric store I'd seen many times going to my midwife's office, but never stepped foot into. Lo and behold in their clearance section was cotton interlock and french terry at $4/ yd. It was too good to be true. I was about to get fabric for a dozen diaper for less than $40.

Here are the results:



I wouldn't have been able to sew these without the fact that my mom brought my godmother's sewing machine that is incredible and I think of her each time I use it. If you're wondering about the snaps, they are easier than you think. I didn't want to invest in a snap press, although Very Baby sells those. Instead I ordered snap pliers from KAM snaps and have been very pleased with the purchase.

The next thing I tried was the Very Baby One-Size Pocket diaper pattern (like the Bum Genius diapers), but I decided to modify it into an All-in-One (AIO) and make PUL only wings (thank you, JoAnn Fabrics for finally having PUL in stock in your stores--can you say great savings with the 40% coupon?).



I wrote up a tutorial on how you can use the Very Baby One-Size Pocket diaper pattern to make your own AIO diapers, which will actually fit up to 35lbs. Just contact me and I would be happy to email it to you (although I have heard that it should be linked to the tutorial section on the Very Baby website soon :-) ).

Happy sewing!