Newborn pockets

I haven't been using pockets very much on Q. I don't know why. Prefolds are just easier to deal with, I guess.

I did make these diapers as a gift for a friend who was due in September:

From left to right: Rocket Bottoms size 1, Rocket Bottoms Totally Squared One Size, Rocket Bottoms Totally Squared Newborn/Small. Plus a wetbag. The diapers are all PUL outers (from fabric.com), suedecloth inners (alova suedecltoh from Joann's).

Here's Q trying on the two Totally Squared diapers. She is about 1 month old and 11 lbs, and she's trying them on over a prefold (because I was already running late to my friend's baby shower and didn't have time to wash them if she soiled them!). This pattern is large. She was swimming in the one size diaper, and even the newborn/small was on the large side when using the smallest setting!

This is another Totally Squared OS that I made recently. I did this one as a cover/AI2 shell, with a PUL outer, microfleece inner, and cotton interlock tabs. She is almost 4 months old and 14 lbs, and this is still pretty large on her, on the smallest setting:

I'm ehhhhh on the OS pattern right now, because it is so big. I should really try the NB/small pattern again, to see if I like that one any better.

On the other hand, I love the regular Rocket Bottoms pattern. I made a diaper for Q that's identical to the one I sewed for my friend, and it's one of my favorites. She is about 1 month old and 11 lbs in this picture, and she's wearing it on the second of three rise settings. After this, I moved it down to the smallest rise setting. She is now 4 months and 14 lbs, and is back on the second rise setting. It fits nicely and works really well stuffed with one of the trimmed newborn prefolds.

Still, despite the great fit, she did have a leak in this diaper yesterday -- leaks in prefolds + covers are virtually nonexistent. Hence why I say prefolds are just easier to deal with.

More baby gifts

Seriously, there will be a lot of these this year. Two of my close friends have already had babies, and there are three more due between now and September. Plus myself, of course!

One of the remaining three had her baby shower yesterday. She is the daughter of a good friend of ours, the kids' regular babysitter, and just an all-around awesome young lady, so I wanted to do something really nice for her. She decided to cloth diaper as well (seriously, I don't proselytize cloth diapering, but it's really cool that so many of my friends are coming to it on their own) and that made it easy! And since she's expecting a girl, this gave me a great excuse to use up a ton of girly PUL that I got on clearance from Fabric.com a while back. (If Q is a girl, I'm really going to have some fun :)

Top row:
Rocket Bottoms In A Snap cover, size NB. Outer is Soft 'n Comfy fabric from Joann's. Inner is PUL from Fabric.com.
Rocket Bottoms pocket, step 1 (NB/small). Outer is PUL from Fabric.com. Inner is alova suedecloth from Joann's.

Bottom row:
Witteybums cover, size small. All PUL, purchased directly from another sewing mama.
Rainy Days fitted, step 1 (NB/small). Outer is french terry, hidden layer of bamboo fleece, inner layer of bamboo velour, soaker of bamboo fleece topped with bamboo velour. All purchased directly from other sewing mamas.

Behind: Wetbag, made with PUL from Fabric.com. I usually sew the zipper on top of these, but decided to try it on the side, like this video tutorial from Wazoodle shows. I love how it turned out!

How did they turn out? Well, I think the In A Snap cover is really tiny. It may fit for the first few weeks, but I'll likely make another one in size small. On the flip side, the Rainy Days fitted seems quite large. I made it with Lastin elastic -- it's a little trickier to work with than regular polybraid, because if you stretch it as tight as it will go, it will be way too tight. But I may not have stretched it enough on this diaper. I'll have to keep experimenting, because the nice thing about Lastin (as the name implies) is that it lasts a lot longer, rather than getting all stretched out like polybraid does over time. Anyway, that diaper should work fine, it may just be more of a small/medium than a newborn/small. The other two patterns, I already sewed up for one of my other friends, and they turned out well this time around, too.

Close-up of the "handmade" tag on the In A Snap cover. I really like these for adding a bit of a professional touch. They're also a handy spot to put size tags -- I don't always put size tags on stuff I sew for my kids, because I can remember what size things are, but for gifts for other people, I figure it might be helpful.