Newborn fitteds

"Q" made HER arrival on July 2!

I made some fitteds for her in advance of her birth. She was a homebirth baby, so I wanted some diapers that recognized that. Here's what I came up with:

The white ones are all made using the larger version of the Darling Diapers free newborn pattern (DDNB). The outer layer is cut from an old white sheet, there's a hidden layer of bamboo fleece, and the inner layer is bamboo velour (except the whale one, which has an inner layer of cotton velour). The graphics on the back are silk screened, using my newest toy, a Yudu machine. I got the Yudu back in April or May, I think, and I've done a lot of fun projects with it. I'll show off some others in future posts.

The blue diaper is made using the "Arfy" NB/S fitted pattern.The outer layer is some remnant woven cotton from Joann's, hidden layer of bamboo fleece, inner layer of cotton velour.

Note that all the diapers have woven outers, which means that they fit a smaller size range than diapers made entirely with knit/stretchy materials.

Here are some close-ups of the Arfy and one of the DDNB's. Both diapers have an umbilical cord snap-down.

They also have two rows of snaps on the diaper body but one row on the wings, so you can snap into the lower row for a smaller baby and into the upper row for a larger baby. This picture shows both diapers on the largest settings.

Action shots... well, enough action as you can get out of a newborn :)

Q was born at 9 lbs 4 oz and only dropped down to about 9 lbs even, so not a tiny newborn! But all these diapers still fit well at birth, and still fit today, at 7 weeks/11+ lbs.

This is the Arfy diaper at 3 days old on the smaller setting (on the left), and 6 days old on the larger setting (on the right):

It fits nicely underneath a newborn Proraps cover:

I'm not using most of the DDNB's, because the three in the bottom row in the picture above are all waterbirth-related... and Q ended up coming out so fast that I had no time to get in the tub! Luckily, I made those two in the top row that are just homebirth. Here is one from Q's newborn photo shoot. She's 14 days old in this picture:

(Photo copyright Chasing Fireflies Photography -- highly recommend her if you're looking for a newborn photographer in the D/FW area!)

I made most of the DDNB's with one row of snaps, but here is one with two rows of snaps. I found it hard to get the umbilical cord snapped down well with this one's waist on the tightest setting, and this doesn't give you the ability to have a lower rise setting for a smaller baby. But her umbilical cord only lasted for a few days anyway, and obviously she didn't need the lower rise setting, so if I were making these again, I think I'd do the double row of snaps on all of them. Here she is in the double-row version at 4 weeks old (under a newborn Proraps cover in the picture on the right):

And the single row version. 1 month and 1 week old, and she still fits this diaper on the smaller setting, even though obviously she no longer needs the umbilical cord snapdown:

Bottom line on these two patterns: I love them both! The Arfy pattern fits a little bit smaller, so I'd recommend that if you're anticipating a smaller baby. I'm glad I have more of the DDNBs because I think they will last longer. But they are both great patterns, and you can't beat free!

By the way, if you're wondering where I came up with the graphics for the diapers, the two general homebirth ones (top row) are both from the international homebirth symbol contest. They haven't picked a winner yet, which is fine by me, as it meant I could choose my personal favorites from all the entries!

For the waterbirth ones, I did a search on Etsy for "homebirth" and noted the graphics that I liked. Then I replicated them on my own, using images I found through web searches or in the Microsoft Office clip art gallery. I put everything together using Microsoft Publisher.

Stay tuned for many more posts on new baby sewing and crafts... when my new baby lets me get around to it :)