Changing a Nappy

update

2010-09-18T01:01:00.003+10:00

I really need to get some photos up here!
I've got all sorts of projects going- baby slings, more nappies and covers, new non-maternity clothes- even a new bra! easier to sew than I expected but if I could just buy one that fit well instead I would.

I feel like a complete fraud at the moment because both my babies are in disposables! The waste is unbelievable, the stench is revolting and the cost is distressing...
What happened is that both my new baby (2 months old and the size of an average 4 month old) and my 2 year old have had growth spurts. I had to discard all my son's old covers because they perished in our storage shed and weren't working properly any more so there was nothing to put darling daughter into when she outgrew her newborn covers. I've also chucked the cuddlebuns fitteds due to them developping a smell I couldn't get rid of. I replaced them with fitteds based on the wee weka. They are too bulky and restrictive on my little girl and too small for my son already so I find myself without nappies to put them in and so they are in disposables while I plan my next move. I hope to place the order for fabric in the next few days. My idea is to make a bunch of AI2s and a bunch of night nappies. oh and a bunch of training pants for my big boy too as we are just about to start toilet training.

So much going on! Photos to follow.

Sewing progress

2010-04-14T21:40:00.002+10:00

Well I've actually made four tops, converted 2 pairs of jeans, made a pair of pants and cut out 3 more tops waiting for me to have some time to sew them up. I've started the placement and so far am doing ok with what I've managed to sew but my son has been very sick for the last week and a half and I haven't had much time which is making things difficult.
I'll post some pics of the garments when I get a chance...

My sister's baby is due any day now so I'm putting some thought into baby gifts. I have a few ideas I'd like to try out.

sewing away...

2010-03-13T13:28:00.002+11:00

I've now finished three of the tops- a wrap style one in a purpley-blue colour and a black and a navy 3/4 sleeve version of the "soon maternity" long sleeve tee. I still have the red one to finish - it's about 1/2 way at the moment. I've also made the charcoal stretch trousers which are incredibly comfortable and will fit right up to the end as well. I think I'll have to make some long sleeve tees once we get to winter and I'll use a cotton/lycra blend for that rather than the 100% cotton so they have a bit more stretch to cope with the third trimester.
I've taken some photos and will upload a tutorial on how to use an item of clothing to make a pattern and recreate the product when I have time.
Once I've got the red top together I'm going to use the 1/2m I have left from each of the fabrics (we went back and picked up and extra 1/2m just in case and I didn't end up needing them)to make some long sleeve tees for my 18 month old son.

I have a few more projects in the pipeline too- a stash of fabric shopping bags which I will sew out of homespun from my quilting stash, a baby nightgown from some embroidered cotton jersey that my mother bought when I was expecting our daughter- it's been languishing in a crate ever since, and a "going home from hospital" outfit from some white bamboo velour which I bought at about the same time... although I might wait to start either of those until I've seen my obstetrician in a couple of weeks and maybe found out if this baby is a girl or a boy...

I've been very disappointed with the twin stretch needle (schmetz) I bought from spotlight. It was unbelievably flimsy and broke when really there was no reason for it to have snapped... I'm going to try the other fabric suppliers around town to see if anyone is still stocking the Klasse needles I was buying before.
Fortunately I now have my own car- as of this week- and can do the rounds without having to drag my poor longsuffering husband along to act as chauffeur.

I also found a lovely blog which has inspired me to make some more traditional baby outfits this time around... the Old fashioned Baby one thing at a time though.

New fabric :-)

2010-03-09T12:53:00.003+11:00

I'm just back from Spotlight where I've spent about $90 on fabric- from which I will make 4 tops and 1 pair of pants. My only disappointment was that I couldn't get black cotton 90% lycra 10% so I'll have to keep looking for that- or buy the bamboo version from the Bamboo Fabric Store which is a little more expensive (about $4/m plus postage...). I want that for some lounge pants- I had a really great pair from Ripe Maternity but they are about as dead as a pair of pants can get. Actually the colour selection was pretty limited and to keep it in cotton prints etc were completely out of the question. I'm eyeing this off for a "nice" top. I think $20 plus pp is pretty reasonable all things considered...

I found a great website for free patterns last night- BurdaStyle I found a few things on there I'd like to make- might have to wait a few months although one top looks like it might work for maternity...

GDUNH is on again!

2010-03-02T00:35:00.006+11:00

It's March and that means that Diaper Decisions is hosting the Great Downunder Cloth Nappy Hunt once again. Follow the link and register to be in the running to win some wonderful prizes.

The stash of side snapping newborn fitteds is almost finished- So far I've sewn 2 dozen, half of which are still awaiting snaps. I still have some fabric left over so might make another 1/2 dozen or so just to be on the safe side but I expect these to be fairly quick drying and considering how quickly the nappy buckets will fill with a toddler and a newborn in cloth I think it's likely we won't be leaving it too long between washes...
I haven't started work on the AIOs yet- I need to buy some fold over elastic (FOE) for that project so it's on hold until I am ready to place an order for sewing supplies. It's not exactly urgent either. The next job should definitely be a few more covers for the toddler!

I've been contemplating the whole issue of maternity clothes recently. When I was pregnant with my daughter way back in 2006 I had a disposable income and easy access to a few boutiques that stocked nice- and expensive- maternity wear... times have changed- the stay at home mum who is busy studying while the family lives off one income, pays a mortgage, renovates and is planning on buying a 2nd car in the next few weeks doesn't have a disposable income! Definitely long gone are the days where $60 seemed like a reasonable price for a nice casual top... but all the nice maternity clothes I bought back then, while they were still quite good for my 2nd pregnancy are well and truly showing signs of wear now.
I think I could probably cope with feeling like a complete dag- although the lack of jeans that fit is driving me crazy- I'm still wearing my pre-preg jeans with a "belly band" at 24 weeks. The problem is that I have to do a professional placement for uni this semester... 3 weeks of turning up to a corporate workplace and something tells me that daggy old leggings and faded shirts just won't cut it.

Corporate style maternity clothes are very expensive. Purchasing a wardrobe to get me through those 3 weeks would probably completely blow my clothing budget for the whole family for the year. When a pair of trousers or a skirt cost about $100 each (depending on the brand) and a top is about $80- if you're lucky, a wardrobe makeover would quickly amount to several hundred dollars- and if I were to try to buy a jacket? $200 easy. I know there are cheaper options out there but lets face it- you usually get what you pay for and even "cheap" maternity wear is very expensive for what it is- usually very poor quality fabrics and workmanship that don't look nice for even the length of time you would be wearing it in one pregnancy. I need anything I invest in now to last beyond this pregnancy because I don't want to find myself in the position of having to buy any of it again in the next pregnancy.
So I've been looking at my options.
I need at least one, but preferably 2 pairs of pants and possibly a skirt as well and a selection of tops to wear. I've trawled through probably hundreds of web pages belonging to various labels and have not failed to notice that the majority of tops labelled "corporate wear" are made from stretch fabric and are designed along quite relaxed lines. I can work with this. I'm going to pass on a jacket because I don't really need one and that will make things much easier for me.
I've decided to sew my own maternity wardrobe.
Unfortunately an online search for patterns proved fairly fruitless- except for this gem- a free pattern for a wrap around style maternity top which is a knock-off of a designer top that retails for $US150. I'm going to modify the pattern slightly so that my top is lined and the edges are finished. I think if I'm happy with how it turns out I'll probably make a few- the fabric for each should cost around $30.
I have a black long sleeved tee that I absolutely love- a Soon basic long sleeve tee. It's seen some hard wear over the last 3 years and is definitely looking like it's had it. I'm going to try to clone this top. The style is quite basic and the sewing techniques are pretty simple so it should be possible. I estimate that this particular top should be able to be made for about $15- $20 depending on the fabric chosen. Unfortunately in order to make a pattern I will have to cut my existing top to pieces.
I also have an empire style top which I've had since the early days after giving birth to my daughter. I like the style but feel it requires more fabric in the bodice and a few modifications to the skirt section. I'm going to turn that into a pattern as well.
That gives me 3 top variations which, made up in a few different colours and fabrics should easily get me through the 3 weeks of prac and the rest of the pregnancy as well.
I happen to have a pair of trousers from my first pregnancy which are also looking a little worse for wear- the fabric hasn't stood the test of time but the style is perfect and the fit is quite good needing only a few alterations. These are destined to be cut to pieces as well and turned into yet another pattern. Spotlight stocks a decent range of stretch suiting fabrics which I've never felt any real need to look at in the past but they should be perfect and I can safely assume that I won't be spending more than about $30 on each pair. My corporate maternity wardrobe will be time consuming but cost a fraction of what I would have to spend for the equivalent.

What I'd really like to be able to do is draft my own patterns but I just don't have the skills or knowledge. I plan on embarking on a sewing skills development course after I've finished this uni degree so that I can learn all the skills I feel I am lacking.

newborn fitteds

2010-01-24T14:55:00.005+11:00

Newborn fitteds are the latest project- somehow they seemed more appealing to start working on. it's so long since my big boy was a newborn that I found it hard to remember what a newborn nappy would need to be capable of- aside from containing the monster breastfeeding poos. I settled on cotton flanelette with an internal soaker of 5 layers of flanelette. They are trim, slim fitting and look like they will be successful. If I decide they need more fabric I can always add a lie in soaker as well. I started with the mama bird newborn fitted pattern, made one nappy completely and set to work with the snap press trying to figure out a snap configuration that would prevent the dreaded wing droop- and I found one but it was pretty heavy on snaps. The next nappy I trimmed before sewing to turn it into a side snapping design and completed it with snaps- it used precisely half the snaps that the first, front snapping option used and was equally good at preventing wing droop.
Side snapping nappies have a few other advantages. They are very trim fitting with no extra bulk around the waist, they are a good fit on most babies regardless of waist or leg circumference and they are very difficult for older babies to undo.

developments over the last few months

2010-01-17T12:18:00.004+11:00

I keep meaning to come on here, and then never seem to manage it with one thing and another. In the last two months I have experimented with sewing a simple wetbag from polarfleece and creating side snapping nappy cover prototypes. Both my husband and I prefer these over the more traditional front closing wraps (as they are a trimmer fit under jeans and shorts) but other people seem to find them challenging- both of my brothers as well as my parents have somehow managed to put them on back to front.

Another project has been helping my sister apply snaps to the stash of fitted nappies she has been making from leftover scrap fabric in her stash. She is just moving from disposables to cloth with her 1 1/2 year old and has another baby on the way. The nappies she has made are a fitted shell without an internal soaker pad but with a pocket at the back so a soaker can be added. She did this to reduce drying time and the nappies seem to be a success. She used toweling (from bought towels, most of which were in her cupboard) for the inside and the outer is a printed cotton fabric of one type or another- everything from flanalette to corduroy. Following this undertaking it became necessary to place a new order for snaps. I got some fantastic colours this time and should have enough to keep me going for ages.

Over the next few weeks I'll be making a few more covers, a few more OSFA fitted nappies and beginning work on a stash of newborn size fitteds. I have a few months to work on the stash but have a few ideas in mind to try out. I'm also planning on sewing a few AIO nappies- side snapping for preference and sized (OSFA is great in theory but hasn't stood up well in practice). I ended up giving the Little Parra Pants AIO away because it just wasn't providing adequate coverage and protection for DS. We ended up with the only blowout we have ever had with a cloth nappy as well as the only time a cloth nappy has failed to contain urine- to the extent that his clothing was wet when we stopped to check him while travelling. He had only been wearing it for a little over an hour.
I've learned that wing droop is a major cause of leakage and that the crotch can't be too narrow or the containment area is too small. Valuable lessons.

of doll nappies and conceptualising

2009-11-09T22:45:00.005+11:00

The last month has been busy with other commitments but I was commissioned to make some fitted doll-sized nappies for the grand-daughter of a lady I know and some bibs to match. The project was a fairly quick one and the nappies and bibs turned out very well. The little girl was thrilled.

Aside from that we have been continuing to gather ideas for the next generation of all in one nappies. After a serious road test (read big poo) of the OSFM AIO I won from Little Parra Pants I have decided that we really need a wider crotch and that wing droop is a very serious problem for containment...
So we are looking at a side snap with a wideish but not too wide crotch, fleece outer (because that is what I like best atm and laundering is easy) and hemp fleece inner with microfibre boosting.
I am moving away from the idea of OSFM and liking sized nappies better for AIOs simply because they give a better fit. I am also putting serious thought into changing the snap configuration to improve fit and reduce wing droop. I have decided to change to square rather than round ended tabs.

Nappy Wraps

2009-10-11T15:30:00.005+11:00

Nappy wraps are covers that "wrap" around the nappy and do up with either velcro or snaps as opposed to pilchers which pull up over the nappy.
I'm absolutely loving my new fleece wraps! they are working even better than I expected. The only problem with them that I can see is that they are made on the cuddlebuns pattern (because they had to cover cuddlebuns diapers) and so they are very bulky through the crotch. The more I'm sewing the more I'm hating this pattern so I think that I have sewn my last Cuddlebuns anything and will be moving on with the next project. The side snapping AI2.

I plan on drafting a new fitted and pocket pattern that addresses the problems I'm finding with this one. It will be narrower in the front and through the crotch, the snap down panel at the front will be changed- I don't like how it sits. The snap configuration will be different- possibly side snapping/possibly 2 rows of snaps or a chevron made of 3 snaps.
The Cuddlebuns pattern while effective enough and a helpful starting point is certainly not the answer for us.

I have an order for some doll nappies for a little girl's birthday which should be a good opportunity to play around with some newborn size patterns. I also have a friend who is 31 weeks along and I'll be making her some wraps. She is buying the fabrics and putting in her order so it might be a nice chance to sew with some fabrics I haven't tried before.

Concept

2009-10-07T00:05:00.005+11:00

so how does this sound?
First a side snapping OSFM pocket nappy- should be easy enough to sort that one out. I have some ideas about how to make it work with a snap down/snap up system and a tummy protection sleeve to cover the snaps when not in the fold down position.

A side snapping, AI2 with internal leg gussets

or a OSFM side snapping AI2 with internal leg gussets?

The design process is now underway.
One day I will probably market these.

Pocket Problems

2009-10-02T22:43:00.005+10:00

Well it seems that the pocket nappy- while being very quick and easy to change, quick to dry and very cute has it's problems as a night nappy... if the baby lies on their back or tummy things are fine but if that baby rolls onto their side and the booster isn't in quite the right place then there isn't anything there to catch the urine and lo and behold- wet pjs, wet sheets, grumpy baby who needs cleaning up when they just want to go back to sleep and an extra load of washing.
I suspect that this is more of a problem with boys than girls on account of the whole "pointing" issue.

Back to the drawing board.
The current concept is for an AI2 with a fleece shell and a hemp inner with gussets (catch absolutely anything!) boosted with a microfibre and hemp soaker pad and covered with a fleece liner to keep bub dry. To this end we went to spotlight today and bought several metres of polar fleece.
I have already sewn the first fleece cover. It is a double layer cover with multisize snaps and a cute truck print on it. DH chose the fabric. I used the Cuddlebuns pattern but sewed it using the turn and topstitch method. Should be ready to put him into it in the morning over a fitted nappy.
I am not completely happy with the Cuddlebuns pattern. There are a few things I would like to change. It is very wide through the crotch- much more than is necessary. I think it could be narrowed a fair bit. I am also less than impressed with the snap configuration and the tendancy towards wing droop which was not evident until I actually started using the snaps- they worked perfectly as fitteds done up with a snappi. I am seriously thinking about experimenting with side snapping nappies.
Things for me to think about.

close up of wing droop.

a One Size Fits Most All In One.

2009-10-01T03:17:00.002+10:00

I recently took part in the Great Downunder Nappy Hunt (GDUNH) which is an online scavenger hunt that takes place in March and September every year. It is sponsered by Diaper Decisions.
The hunt takes place over the websites of a huge number of small businesses run by work at home mums (WAHMs) and it was at one of these websites Little Parra Pants that I was fortunate enough to win a spot prize- one of the newly released One Size Fits Most All In Ones (OSFM AIO) which is a multi sized nappy with an inbuilt cover- as close to using a disposable as it gets but better because the one nappy goes from newborn size to toddler and is earth friendly.
The nappy is a great fit- although on my skinny boy it has a bit of a wing droop problem. My beloved husband is completely converted and wants a few more for the nappy bag- nice easy nappy changes while we're out and about.

There were a lot of little competitions running actually- another one I entered was at the wonderful blog The Nappy Spot. The Winners for the various prizes of the GDUNH won't be announced for another couple of weeks.

Night Nappies

2009-10-01T02:45:00.003+10:00

Night nappies have always been a bit of a challenge.
When my baby boy was a newborn it was no big deal to change his nappy at every feed through the night- he would settle back down and go to sleep without too much trouble. Over time though it got to be that his nappies needed to last because changing him meant he would wake up too much and then it would be very hard to resettle him.

We tried boosted flats, double flats and heavily boosted fitteds. They worked by and large except that they didn't fit inside the covers very well. Polar fleece tracksuit pants make a good back up over a cover because they are like adding a second cover. They also work without a cover over a cloth nappy. That little bit of information might come in handy one day.

Ultimately though the boy is too heavy a wetter for any of those solutions and after one leaky night nappy too many I dug out the crate of fabric again and made my first pocket nappy.

This was easier than you might expect. I used the Cuddlebuns pattern as a template but added a bit of extra where the back opening would be to allow for hemming. The inner was polar fleece and the outer was pul. Pretty straight-forward. I made a hemp and microfibre trifold booster (large rectancle that can be folded into thirds and stuffed into the nappy but unfolded and line dried quickly) and we tried that out the next night.
This nappy does up with snaps- my KAM snap press arrived and it is wonderful. I will never go back to velcro having had the opportunity to play with one of these. I ordered mine from Snaps Australia and their service was excellent.

As a night nappy it performed very well. In the morning the inside of the nappy actually felt dry to the touch. The nappy was very heavy and the booster was absolutely soaked. That is a pretty good result.
We did have a bit of trouble with "wing droop" by morning (where the sides of the nappy come adrift from under the wings around the waist and hang down). Further prototypes and experiments ensued. There are currently 5 pocket nappies and an assortment of boosters. When I ran out of microfleece I sacrificed a polarfleece bunny rug that we had been given and which had never been used on account of being yellow and therefore not a good choice of colour for my jaundiced bub.
I am still working on the whole issue of wing droop which seems to be more of a problem on the nappies that are larger and "snap down" to a smaller size.
I am considering side snapping nappies and covers and will be looking into those over the next few days.

The Cuddlebuns OSFA pattern...

2009-10-01T02:02:00.004+10:00

I guess my little boy was about 5 months old when he outgrew the small fitteds I'd run up to get us through after his immunisations. We went back to using folded flats for a while but really felt the lack of the fitted nappies- it's hard to go back. I wasn't keen on making the next size up in sized nappies only to have to do it all again a few months later because of the cost of materials and the fact that it really is a LOT of sewing and i've always had a bad back which develops into an excruciating back if I spend too long at the sewing machine.
I'd ordered the cuddlebuns diaper pattern almost 2 years earlier. When it had arrived I'd pulled it out of it's packaging and taken one look at the size of the pattern pieces and put it away until later- it is HUGE! I got it out again now though and had a read through the booklet that explains what to do.

The idea behind one size fits all is that the nappy is big enough to fit a toddler but can be made smaller (usually by adjusting snaps or velcro, or by fiddling with the elastic). Ultimately the nappy is supposed to be able to be made small enough for a newborn or large enough for a big toddler simply by doing it up in different ways. It seemed to be my best bet. I pulled out what remained of the nappy fabrics we'd initially bought (there was a surprising amount left) and made up a few tests. I didn't add the velcro or snaps- partly because I don't like having velcro in my wash- it bites everything else- even with "laundry tabs" and partly because I didn't want to add to the drying time or the cost of the nappies. Snaps were out of the question- I didn't have a snap press.
I deliberately used terry fabrics (hemp, cotton and bamboo) on the outside of the nappies so we could do them up with a snappi. They worked well and we were very pleased with the result. My favourite nappy was bamboo terry with an organic cotton velour lining. Absolutely gorgeously soft but in the end we decided to go with the hemp because it is cheaper.

We ordered a large (very large) quantity of hemp- half terry and half fleece and I started running them up. Terry on the outside for the snappi and fleece on the inside against bub's skin.
We still use these with Snappis and at present there are just shy of 2 dozen of them, with plans to make some more... we have to replace one of the testers at the very least- that gorgeous bamboo nappy hasn't stood up to the wear.

All our nappies are dry pailed, then soaked, then washed with an extended rinse. If the weather is good they are line dried, if not they are tumble dried or hung on a drying rack inside. The bamboo fabric is simply disintegrating. Holes are appearing all over the nappy. It is still beautifully soft and silky but it has not coped with a relatively short period of wear- only about 6 months. It is not a suitable fabric for making OSFA nappies! there is no way they would survive for the 2- 2 1/2 years.
The hemp is holding up very well but is not as soft as it was in the beginning.
The nappies are huge on our 9kg beanpole of a 13 month old and will definitely fit for the rest of the time he is in nappies. There are a few things that have become evident with time though...

Fitted nappies are great but our son hates his covers. He will lie still to have his nappy put on and then scream and try to escape while his cover is being put on over it. Once it is on he is ok.

By 11 months our little boy was able to undo the velcro on his covers which meant that he always had to have something over the top- a bodysuit or pants.

Snappis are a wonderful invention but you have to have a cover over them. They bite your clothing and they have got very dangerous teeth. If you aren't really careful you can give yourself a very nasty injury. An inquisitive 10 month old can remove them. A 13 month old can have his nappy off and thrown into the bath in the time it takes you to throw his dirty clothes into the basket outside the laundry door and turn back around.

There are solutions to these problems.
Firstly I ordered a KAM snap press and intend on fitting snaps to all his nappies and making them true OSFA Cuddlebuns.
Secondly I plan on making some fleece covers with concealed elastic to see if he likes them better than the pul + foe ones.
Wool is also an option and I can source some beautiful wool interlock fabric from Bubba Earth which is where I have ordered most of my fabrics from in the past.

Early experiments

2009-09-27T22:30:00.004+10:00

The initial prototypes were made using different patterns and fabrics and I made notes about which nappy corresponded to which pattern and what had gone into it but I was very concious of the fact that I didn't have a test subject yet so didn't really know how successful they were. I didn't add velcro to the nappies when I made them (even though the patterns called for it) figuring that we could easily use pins instead. I made fitted nappies because they were the cheapest option- I didn't have to buy a piece of pul for every nappy which saved somewhere between $4 and $12 per nappy depending on the pul- what the base fabric was made from and whether it was printed or a plain colour. I had read that if I was using fitted nappies I would only need about 4 covers and they could also be used over the folded squares and this seemed the most sensable option.

It was another whole year before I was in a position to see what worked and what didn't.
After our daughter died we packed up everything baby related and put it away in a storage shed. I discontinued my cloth nappy forum registrations and email list and we had a "baby product" free period which lasted until we realised it was time to get things ready for our son's imminent arrival. Anyone who has lost a baby and gone on to have another will understand why we left things until so late in the pregnancy.

It didn't take long for a few things to become obvious once we actually started using the nappies.
Firstly- leaving the velcro off was a mistake.
Secondly that the bamboo was by far the nicer fabric and
Thirdly that the nappies were vastly different fits on our long but skinny son even though the patterns were not terribly different.
Most significantly though- fitted nappies with a lot of layers in them are really slow to dry!

The pul covers were wonderful. Because I'd only made a handful of fitted nappies we were mainly using flanel squares (which worked really nicely and we were quite happy with) and only using the fitted ones when we went out and to stock the nappy bag. Our son had a very unsettled digestive system for a long time due to an undiagnosed allergy and his nappies were very messy. The pul covers often needed washing but they never let anything escape- a very different experience to the disposables we were using in the hospital! I ended up making a couple of extra covers because we often ran out. If your baby has gastro or even just explosive newborn breastfeeding poo I would recommend at least 6 pul covers.
We decided we preferred the type of cover that has gussets in the legs. They are a little more fiddly to make but certainly not difficult and don't need to be done up quite so tightly to get a good seal around the legs. This is an excellent site for free patterns and includes the Wee Weka cover that we liked best.

The other thing we learned was that a baby grows out of their newborn nappies very quickly. By the time we were taking him for his 2 month immunisations he had outgrown all but 2 of his fitteds. He reacted badly to the immunisations- his thighs were red and swollen for days and his nappies (the folded ones) obviously bothered him so we picked up a few metres of cotton toweling from Spotlight and I ran up enough small sized fitteds to get us through with him in them full time. They were cut high enough that the nappy didn't come in contact with his sore injection sites and he was obviously much more comfortable in them. Being made from toweling they were able to be done up with a Snappi which was a massive improvement over the pins. They consisted of only 2 layers of fabric. I didn't include an internal soaker because I wanted them to dry quickly- instead we would use a "lay in" soaker (remember how I'd sewn all my flanelette scraps into soaker pads?). It was these nappies that won over both my mother and beloved husband to modern cloth because they were so quick and easy to use and were obviously making a difference to my son.

Once upon a time...

2009-09-27T10:57:00.003+10:00

There was an excited, pregnant, first time Mum who had decided that she wanted to use cloth nappies when her baby arrived. She had her reasons for this- mainly they came down to the expense of using disposables and revulsion at the idea of having raw sewage in her garbage bin.
Fortunately her beloved husband agreed with her- again probably mainly because of the cost but also because he found the idea of filling his domestic garbage bin with what is essentially contaminated waste repulsive. He is a firefighter and one of the parts of his job is dealing with hazardous materials...and technically a used disposable nappy is contaminated waste and should really be disposed of in a yellow contaminated waste bin for collection by a special waste disposal facility...it is actually illegal to put human faeces in the household waste.

Anyway that is an aside.

Because this Mum to be had never actually had anything to do with using cloth nappies and only a vague idea that there were a number of ways to fold them she started researching the topic. Her own mother had used cloth nappies of course and showed her "the kite" fold, ordered her a few dozen cotton terry squares online and advised her to use plastic overpants. Her grandmother showed her how to customise the "newborn triangle" for either a boy or a girl. She turned to the internet.

She started a steep learning curve.
First she learned that in some other countries terry squares were basically unheard of- and flannel squares were used instead. These were less absorbant but much trimmer and a better fit for a newborn. She bought a large quantity of flanellete and made a large quantity of flanellete squares. She learned that some people use "boosters" to make their nappies more absorbant. She sewed her flanellete scraps into boosters. She learned that covers and liners can both be made from polar fleece. Polar fleece is aquaphobic and can be used to make a "stay dry" liner or an effective cover or "wrap" that can either be done up with velcro or "snaps". She bought polar fleece.
And THEN...
She discovered the amazing world of modern cloth nappies. She learned that All In One (AIO) nappies are as quick, easy and convinent to change as a disposable, that All In Two (AI2) nappies and pocket nappies are also as quick and easy but dry much faster. She learned that fitted nappies with a separate cover are excellent for containing mess and cheaper than the other types.
She learned that plastic overpants are a relic of the past and that pul (polyurethane laminate) fabric is the way of the future but that fleece and wool are popular modern options as well. She also learned that cotton has moved over and made way for more exciting textiles like hemp, bamboo and soy fabrics.
She found inumerable websites selling modern cloth nappies and covers and she fell in love.

Here her beloved husband was not quite so co-operative...you see modern cloth nappies are not particularly cheap things to buy. Each individual nappy costs somewhere between $AU18 and $AU40 depending on what you are looking at and how elaborate it is. When compared to buying disposable nappies every week for the next 2 1/2 to 3 years, purchasing a "stash" of mcn works out to be hundreds, if not thousands of dollars cheaper; but when compared to using an existing stash of flat terry and flanelette squares and making a couple of covers it is really expensive.
Basically there was no way the beloved husband was willing to spend several hundred dollars on a set of nappies. He did however say "can't you make them cheaper than that?" and at first this would-be mcn Mummy was too intimidated to consider it but the seed was sown and over a couple of weeks it germinated, took root and put out shoots.

This began a whole new line of research. There were free patterns online, there were patterns for sale, there were online nappy making supply shops- it was actually possible to buy pul and bamboo and hemp...

The process was time consuming but simple. First you trawl through all of the websites investigating the most covet-worthy nappies on offer and writing down their composition- ie bamboo fleece inner, microfibre and bamboo internal soaker, pul outer and the price of the nappy. Then you go through the sewing resource sites noting down the cost of each component (usually sold in "nappy cuts" which is about 50cm2 and roughly the ammount required for a single nappy piece). Finally you do your calculations (including p&h).

Of course your nappy will not be an identical replica of the fancy brand name nappy- you will be using a different pattern- but it will be much cheaper (think half price) and you can customise the pattern to your own child's needs and your preferences. If that sounds like it is way beyond your ability you might be surprised. You won't just be making one of these. If you are planning on using fitted nappies full time for one child you can expect to make at least 2 dozen and if you are planning on using sized nappies (newborn, small, medium, large) you can expect to make 2 dozen in each size... over time you will get to know where you need to add a bit more than the pattern allows or how much longer you want the wings etc.

The cheapest option is to download, print and use a free pattern from the internet- there are loads and yes, we tried them and have stacks of newborn and small sized nappies made from those patterns. The MamaBird and Wee Weka were our preferred patterns. Here is an interesting comparison site.
Another option is to buy a commercial nappy pattern. There are a few of these on the market: HoneyBoy, Chloe's Toes, PooPockets and Cuddlebuns are all available both as the pattern and as ready made nappies.

I bought the Cuddlebuns pattern which is a One Size Fits All (OSFA) pattern together with a piece of every fabric I wanted to test. It came to less than the cost of a single embroidered OSFA AIO. Not a bad start.