Pocket diapers

My dad visited last weekend and asked what I would sew once Noob is potty trained :) OK, so I have been doing a lot of diapers as of late... but part of the reason is that I do know that I won't be sewing diapers forever. (Thank goodness!) It's also a good thing to practice sewing skills on, because if a diaper comes out less than perfect, I can still use it without anyone else seeing it. And I do have a couple of non-diapering projects that I'm working on, too; they're just taking a little longer to finish up. Because I keep stopping to sew diapers :)

I've been working on pocket diapers as of late. First up...

Pattern: Very Basic AIO (by Very Baby), size medium

Outer: PUL (from fabric.com)

Inner: Suedecloth (from Joann's)

Closure: Aplix loop with touchtape hook. I did this because I had a little bit of touchtape hook that I wanted to use up, but I really like the combo. Touchtape hook/loop is a little too strong, and aplix hook/loop always sounds like it's about to rip open as Noob moves around (although it never actually does open). Touchtape hook/aplix loop is just right, grippy enough to feel like it will hold without being so grippy that you have to pry it apart.

This pattern does not have an option for a pocket, and somehow, I missed the excellent directions online for sewing it with a back pocket. Instead, I sewed it using the Darling Diapers Unlimited directions. Specifically, I cut the outer and inner layer as directed in the Very Basic pattern. I used those as being equivalent to the DDU pattern with and without color sides, and followed the DDU instructions for sewing a pocket with rolling leg elastic.

I've found that the medium size fitteds I sewed using the Very Basic pattern are a little short in the rise, but this pocket actually fits OK. I think it's because II sewed the back elastic on differently. With the fitteds I've done, following the Very Basic instructions, the back elastic is about an inch below the back edge of the diaper. With this pocket, following the DDU instructions, the elastic is in a casing right at the back edge of the diaper:

That makes it fit just about perfectly.

Now, for some action shots. I don't love the fit of this diaper on Noob. It seems bulky. Keep in mind that in these pictures, it is stuffed with his overnight insert, which is definitely bulkier than his daytime ones -- but still, the diaper itself just seems to have a lot more room in it, and not in a good way.

 

Awwww, buddy, it's not that bad :)

 

So. It's usable, but definitely not my favorite. Next up...

Pattern: La Di Da, size medium

Outer: PUL body, Later Gator print. I purchased it from another mom, but this print is widely available online, e.g. at Nature's Fabrics. Tabs are anti pill fleece from Joann's. I used this tutorial to do the tabs. (You must register for Diaper Sewing Divas to see the tutorial --  DSD is free, and it's a fantastic resource if you're sewing diapers!)

Inner: Microfleece, purchased from the Swaddlebees clearance section last year. (It's not there anymore, sorry.)

The pocket is a modified welt pocket, sewn using this tutorial, also on DSD. I did it this way because the LDD pattern only comes with instructions for a front pocket, which I wasn't thrilled with. But I'm glad I tried the welt pocket, because I love it! It is ridiculously easy to sew, it looks very professional, it does a great job of keeping the insert in place, and it works with any diaper pattern. (You cut out the inner piece following the pattern and then add the pocket to it -- there are no special cuts or sewing instructions required for the pocket, so you can do it on any pattern that has an inner!) I might give the Very Basic pattern another shot and do this type of pocket...

See? No insert peeking out!

Closure: Snaps. The La Di Da pattern has an excellent suggestion for snap usage. Normally, you do sockets (the "female" part of the snap) across the front of the diaper and studs (the "male" part) on the wings. That means that you use around 15-20 sockets per diaper and only 4-6 studs, so you go through sockets much faster than studs.

The LDD pattern suggests using sockets on half the diaper front and studs on the other half. Then you can do one wing with sockets and the other with studs. This allows you to use up sockets and studs equally! Nice! You might have to click this image to see it, but the snaps on the right side of the diaper front are studs, and the snaps on the left side are sockets.

I love how this diaper turned out, but there is one small issue. The pattern calls for topstitching around the front and back, but not around the legs, just like the Very Basic diapers I've been sewing. Someone asked me yesterday about the lack of leg topstitching on the Very Basic diapers -- specifically the fitteds that I've posted earlier. I actually really like non-topstitched elastic on fitteds. For starters, it's way easier to sew. It also seems to be a little gentler on Noob's thighs than topstitched elastic.

I don't like it as much for pocket diapers, because I think it's more likely to leak. In theory, the PUL outer is supposed to "roll in" around the legs to prevent leaks. In practice, that's not always happening, on either the Very Basic pocket or the LDD pocket. The right leg on the LDD is fine:

But see how the microfleece inner is rolling out on the left leg?

I'm sure this is due to my rookie sewing "skills," but I'm not entirely sure how to fix it.

I have the same problem with one of the legs on the Very Basic diaper. I tried that one overnight and it did wick some around the legs, although that was a pretty serious stress test, so it might hold up under normal usage. I haven't had any leaks yet with the LDD. I'll keep testing them and see how they do, but for now, I don't want to sew a whole lot of pocket diapers in this way. I will keep doing it this way for fitteds, since they have a waterproof cover over them anyway, so it doesn't really matter if the inner material rolls out.

Oh, and I could just topstitch the legs on the Very Basic diaper, but the LDD's pocket is so narrow as it is that if I topstitched the legs, I don't think the insert would fit inside anymore. Too bad, because I looooooooooooove the fit of this diaper! So trim!

 

Noob approves, too :)

So far, the only pattern I've found that really gives a good fit for a pocket (large enough to stuff easily with an insert, without being too bulky) is the Darling Diapers Unlimited pattern. So I decided to give that a shot, with the same contrasting wings. It took a little bit of tweaking to get a wing pattern that worked. Essentially, it was the same as the tutorial I linked above for the LDD pattern, except instead of trimming the "tail" off the bottom of the tab pattern, there is a "tail" on both the top and the bottom.

Anyway, here it is. DDU, size medium. Outer and inner are the same as for the LDD diaper above, and I used the welt pocket opening again.

Here's the back. I like how the contrasting tabs "wrap around" to the back just a little more than they do on the LDD diaper.

Hey, do you like the size tag? :) I got a bunch of them from Assunta Store. She ships from China, so it is a little slow (I think it took about two weeks), but she throws in some extras to make up for it. One of my "extras" was the green snaps that I used on both this diaper and the LDD one -- nice, huh?

Speaking of snaps, I had sworn off doing them after using them on a DDU fitted that I sewed a little while back... but obviously, I gave them another shot. They work perfectly on this diaper, as the fleece tabs and the microfleece inner have just enough stretch to give a good fit. It really works well. I'm sad now that I didn't get more microfleece when it was available. It's more expensive than suedecloth (which I can regularly get locally for around $3/yard, compared to $5-$6/yard + shipping for even the cheapest microfleece), but it's so nice having a little stretch.

Oh, and you can see that I did topstitch the legs on this one. I had forgotten what a pain that is :) Seriously, I think it took me upwards of an hour just to topstitch the darn thing, including sewing the back elastic's casing not once, not twice, but three times because I kept catching the elastic in my stitching. Grrrrrrrrr. But it is nice when it's finished!

Whaaaaaaaaat? You want action shots? Are you serious?

Okay, okay...

 

I think this is my new favorite diaper :)