Have I not posted about these diapers yet?

We're on vacation, so I'm not sewing this week. I am, however, putting up tons of vacation pictures on my personal blog. And I noticed that my "Sewing" folder had some pictures that I don't think I've put up here yet.

So, here are some more diapers. Apologies if any of these are a repeat!

Pattern: Darling Diapers Unlimited, size medium
Outer: T-rex polyester knit print, from the Top Shelf Fabrics destash
Hidden layer: PUL
Inner: Alova suedecloth from Joann's, modified welt pocket
Closure: Snaps. I was running low on black snaps, so I did sockets on the wings and studs on the body -- usually, you do the opposite. But it works fine this way, too!

Front:

Back:

Inside:

I made this diaper mostly to see whether doing a poly print outer/hidden PUL layer would work OK, without any Chelory Method type stuff. And... it does!

One other thing I learned with this diaper is that when sewing with a hidden PUL layer, it's good to use microfleece for the inner. This diaper is kinda hard to stuff, and I think it's because the outer is a tiny bit thicker and less stretchy (with the two layers of fabric), and then the suedecloth doesn't stretch at all. My Cowboys diaper is also a tiny bit harder to stuff than my other diapers, but it's easier than this one, and I think that's because the microfleece inner helps a lot.

The other thing that doesn't help with the stuffing issue is that with suedecloth, I like to turn the edges of the modified welt pocket opening under slightly. (Microfleece is a little too thick to do that with.) That cuts down slightly on the total width of the pocket opening. After doing this diaper, I started adding an extra inch to the pocket opening when doing a suedecloth inner, and that does help a lot with stuffability.

Anyway, once I get this diaper stuffed and onto Noob, I love it. So cute!

Next up... pattern: Darling Diapers Unlimited, size medium
Outer: Winter Giraffes printed PUL, purchased directly from another sewer
Inner: Periwinkle microfleece from Wazoodle. I'm curious to see how this holds up. The white microfleece I've been using (from the Swaddlebees Clearance section) gets pilly and dirty, fairly quickly.
Closure: Tabs are aplix hook. Front strip and laundry tabs are touchtape loop. Both from Wazoodle. I love this combination! I've always found aplix to be not quite sticky enough, and touchtape to be too sticky, so I like using hook of one and loop of another.

I used DiaperMaker elastic from Wazoodle for the first time on this diaper. (I normally use regular ol' Dritz elastic, which I buy in bulk by the yard at Joann's.) I didn't like it at first. It didn't seem to be very strong. In these pictures, taken right after I sewed the diaper, the rise on the diaper seemed to be much higher than usual, as if the elastic wasn't strong enough to gather the diaper enough.

But I think the elastic shrunk slightly when I washed it, and now, it fits just like my other diapers that use this pattern. I'm actually starting to prefer the softer touch of this elastic. It seems less harsh/less likely to cause red marks on Noob's thighs. I haven't sewed any new diapers for Noob in a few weeks, but I do plan to try this elastic again when I do.

Finally, probably the ugliest diaper I've ever sewn :)

Pattern: Very Baby Basic AIO, size medium/long
Outer: woven cotton print (Joann's remnants bin)
Hidden layer: Zorb II (Wazoodle)
Inner: minky (Soft n Comfy fabric from Joann's remnants bin)
Soaker: trifold with one layer minky/one layer Zorb II

I actually started this as a Fourth of July diaper. I was putting the finishing touches on the soaker when I ran out of thread on my serger. Now, this was right after I got the serger... and it took me until well after the Fourth of July to figure out how to re-thread it :) Haha! In my defense, the serger does have four separate threads that need to be threaded, and one of them has eleven steps to thread it! The serger I have does make it as easy as possible, but it's still not easy, especially the first time.

Anyway, I eventually figured it out and finished the diaper. (And now threading my serger really is easy!) But, it turns out that Zorb II doesn't work well as a hidden layer for a fitted. It is really thick, making the diaper bulky, and also, the elastic isn't strong enough to gather it well. So, this diaper is huge, and the inner minky rolls out at the legs and looks funny.

That said... I actually love this diaper. The Zorb II might make the diaper ugly, but it also makes it super absorbent. I use it regularly overnight, and it still has dry spots in the morning. Also, I've always had recurring ammonia issues in overnight diapers... not this one. Zorb II seems to be much less prone to stink. I usually alternate overnights between this diaper and the camo Rainy Days diaper, so they get used equally often -- well, I've already had to strip the camo diaper because it was getting ammonia-stinky. This diaper has never even had a hint of stink.

So, now I'm trying to figure out a way to make an overnight-worthy fitted exclusively out of Zorb II, since clearly, elastic doesn't work too well with it.. I have some ideas. Stay tuned :)

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 :)

Another diaper

Here's what I sewed up last night. No action shots, as I didn't have time, and now we're leaving for the long weekend.

Very Baby Basic AIO pattern. This is a "medium long" size (see tips) -- basically, I added about 2" to the rise of the medium pattern. Outer is the same camouflage knit that I used on my last diaper. Hidden layer of bamboo fleece inside. Inner is suedecloth from Joann's. Soaker is a layer of bamboo fleece and a layer of suedecloth.

Crossover aplix tabs:

Suedecloth is stay dry, so I'm hoping this will make a good overnight diaper. I'm just a little concerned because synthetic materials like suedecloth tend to hold onto stink more than natural fibers like bamboo. We'll see how it goes!

While I didn't take pictures, I did try this on Noob briefly this morning, and it seemed to fit well. Definitely a higher rise than the regular medium size, so no fear of plumbers crack :) But the waist is still a little bigger than I'd like, especially considering that Noob is towards the top of the listed weight range. Maybe when I get back from our weekend trip, I'll experiment with adding a few inches to the rise of the small pattern, to see if that gives me something that's long enough in the rise without being so big in the waist.

Camouflage

Fabric.com has free shipping for orders over a very reasonable $35, so I usually throw some extra fabric into my order to get to that threshold. As part of my recent order that included the "Army Strong" fabric and the fabric for another project (which I'm still working on and will show off in a few weeks here), I threw in some extra knits that were on sale. One was a camouflage print that I thought Hubby would like almost as much as "Army Strong."

This is the Very Baby Basic AIO pattern again, size medium. I've realized that the medium size is just a little short for Noob in the rise -- it works OK for now, but I know he'll outgrow it pretty soon. So I'm currently experimenting with a "medium long" size, which is the same width with a longer rise. But I wanted to sew up one more medium using this camo fabric, to see how it fit. It is stretchy, and stretchy fabrics generally fit a wider size range.

I also wanted to try snaps, to see if the stretchy fabric made it easier to get a good fit with snaps. The Basic AIO pattern only comes with markings for aplix, but there are instructions on this page for making it with snaps instead. I opted to add the snaps prior to sewing the diaper, so that the snap caps wouldn't be exposed on the diaper interior. That also made it pretty easy to get the snaps lined up fairly straight.

By the way, that tutorial calls for three snaps on the wings, just like the Darling Diapers Unlimited pattern. I had complained about that when I sewed a DDU with snaps, but now I realize that the third snap is to prevent wing droop. It works well!

I did crossover snaps to allow the diaper to fit smaller waists. This is covered in the tutorial linked above:

Diaper front, fully unsnapped. I forgot to make the bottom row of snaps one snap shorter than the top row. No biggie; that last snap just won't ever get used. Actually, I don't think the last two snaps on the bottom row will ever get used.

Diaper inner. Bamboo velour with a hidden layer of bamboo fleece. See how the snap caps are not visible on the inside front of the diaper? The soaker is a layer of bamboo velour and a layer of bamboo fleece, trifolded. I made this soaker a little longer than the one I did on the Army Strong diaper (it's 14" long by 12" wide, compared to 12" by 12" for the Army Strong soaker) because I've found that the Army Strong soaker is a little shorter than I'd like once the diaper is put on.

Action shots. You can see that the fabric really does stretch to cover Noob well in the rise:

 

I also like how the stretchy fabric helps the snaps fit right. Snapping diapers normally bug me, but this one doesn't. Although I will say that Noob is towards the top of the medium size's listed weight range (range is given as 15 lbs to 25 lbs, and he is 23 lbs right now) and he is on the crossover snaps -- the fabric stretches that much. I'm not sure this will fit a baby who is lower in the weight range. If I make one of these out of stretchy fabric again, I may shorten the wings a little bit, so that it will fit skinnier babies.

 

I've been working on another project with camouflage material. I got blue camouflage fleece to help "pad" another fabric.com order, so I decided to sew Noob a pair of pajama pants. I normally use the Katrina longies pattern to do this, but it's really cut to fit over big cloth diapers, and I have some upcoming projects where I need to sew pants for non-cloth diapered babies. I already have the McCall's 5963 pattern (it's what I used to make those awful footed PJs), and it includes a pants pattern, so I gave it a whirl. I made a size large, which is listed as fitting 22-25 lbs.

It seems to be really big, especially in the rise, but it matches up almost exactly with a pair of Carter's (store-bought) knit pants in 18 month size (on the left). It's bigger than Katrina pattern size mediums (on the right), but that makes sense, since Noob has really outgrown that pair of longies. You can see how the rise on the longies matches the rise on the new pants, even though the longies are made to fit a smaller baby:

 

Action shots over a prefold (pretty close to disposable diaper trimness). They are a little baggy, but they don't fall down, which is my main concern!

 

But they are easily big enough to work as pajama pants over a seriously fluffy bum. In these pictures, Noob is wearing the pants over the wool soaker from this post and the camo diaper. This is bulky, but it's a bulletproof overnight setup! The diaper is absorbent enough and the soaker is thick enough that I would be shocked if anything leaked out, but if it did, the pajama pants offer yet another layer of protection.

 

I always like to mention that the fleece pajama pants "trick" works with disposable diapers, too! I know a lot of people struggle with their kids leaking out of disposable diapers overnight. Putting a pair of fleece pajama pants like these over a disposable diaper can help keep the sheets dry in case of leaks.

Anyway, there you have it! My camouflage projects! I still have plenty of both fabrics left over, so I'm sure you'll see it again. I'm a little bit worried about the quality of both -- the diaper is already fading a little and the pants have some noticeable pilling after just one wash. Hopefully, they won't continue to age that quickly.