The kids and I were out late tonight watching Hubby play hockey, so once I finally got them to bed, I didn't have a ton of time to sew. So I just worked on some easy diapering items.
First up was a new wetbag. I only have two medium-size ones (holding about 3-4 diapers) for use in the diaper bag, and it never seems to be enough, so I've been wanting to make some more. For the body of the bag, I used some sandwich PUL from the Swaddlebees clearance area. I had ordered a yard of this PUL to make diapers, and they threw in an end cut of a slightly different print for free. It's only about 14" wide, not enough to make a diaper, but perfect for a wetbag. And since it has a cute print, I could just do a simple single-layer wetbag, rather than doing an inner PUL layer/outer print layer like I usually do.
I got the zipper from my new zipper stash :) Since I've been sewing a lot of wet/dry bags, sleep sacks, etc., I keep having to buy zippers, at $2 apiece or more. The zippers sometimes cost more than the fabric! That was starting to annoy me, so I went on eBay and bought a lot of 100 zippers for $27, including shipping! All different colors and lengths. Obviously a lot cheaper, even if I don't end up using every one of them. Plus, it's nice just having them there for when I feel like sewing something with a zipper!
Anyway. The sewing was super easy. I just sewed in the zipper (using a method similar to the wetbag tutorial I always use, except with just one layer) and then sewed down the two sides. Done!
The bag is a little ugly on the inside, as you can see raw seams and the tails of the zipper tape. (Normally, all that stuff is hidden in between the inner and outer layers of the wetbag.) But it's functional, and the price is right!
Once I finished that up, I worked on a "fake pod" for my Softbums Omni diaper. The Omni is pretty nifty... truly one-size (by means of a unique toggle elastic system), and it can work as either a pocket diaper (by inserting the "pod," or insert, into the pocket in the diaper) or as an all-in-two (by snapping the pod into the body of the diaper). I only have one shell and one pod, so I'm not really able to use it as an all-in-two right now -- I can't use the shell more than once. But I figured it wouldn't be too hard to sew my own pods.
I got some bamboo velour and bamboo fleece from Nature's Fabrics, and prepped it by washing it on hot 4-5 times. (I just threw it in with my whites whenever I did a load.) Real pods are 3 layers of bamboo fleece and one layer of bamboo velour, but that makes it really thick and Noob doesn't need all that absorbency, so I decided to use just two layers of bamboo fleece. I traced the shape of the original pod onto the fabric, then cut around it with a generous seam allowance.
I layered the fabric as follows: bamboo velour right side up, first layer of bamboo fleece right side down, second layer of bamboo fleece (doesn't matter what side is up). Then I sewed on the tracing line, turned the new pod, and topstitched all around. Finally, I added a snap socket at the top of the new pod, for snapping in to the Omni shell when using it as an all-in-two.
The result is an almost perfect copy of the original pod. In this picture, the original pod is on the left, and my copy is on the right:
It fits nicely in the Omni shell:
I'll try it out tomorrow and see how it performs!
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