Fitted Multi-size Diaper with Pocket-- a Tutorial

It's finally here!!!

This is a tutorial for a multi-size fitted diaper with the top left open, so you can stuff it inside itself to adjust the rise for smaller babies.

I LOVE this fabric!

A few notes:

• I call this "multi-size" instead of one-size, because I'm not sure how small it fits. I started making these for my son when he was 19 pounds, so I'd love to hear how this works for smaller babes!
• This diaper is not waterproof, so you will need a separate cover to make it so. However, if you like to go coverless around the house or practice EC, this diaper is fabulous all by itself!
• I don't know how this works for heavy wetters or over the course of many hours, because I like to change my son just as soon as he gets wet. But, the nice thing is that you can stuff this diaper with an extra insert if you need to!
• You may also have to experiment with the placement and size of the Snappi grips to accommodate your individual baby.

What you need:

-Flannel (at least 3/4 of a yard in length). If you want different prints for the inside and outside, you will need at least 3/4 yard of each.
-An old bath towel (the more plush and absorbent, the better!)
-Elastic (I like to use 1/4"-thick for the legs, and 1/2" for the back waist, but 1/4" all around will work just fine)
-Paper grocery bag for making the pattern
-Safety pin (not pictured, whoops!)
-Optional: a washcloth to use as a Snappi grip (I use the cheapy Wal-Mart ones). Unfortunately, flannel isn't that great at holding a Snappi, so unless you plan on using pins, you'll want to add this.


STEP 1: MAKE THE PATTERN

You can trace a diaper you already have, or find a pattern on the web. I used this pattern from this tutorial for a starting point, and tweaked it. I added 1/2 inch to the top for wider tabs (3" instead of 2.5"), and at the other end, I made the diaper stop tapering 3" from the top, for easier stuffing.

If you use the pattern I used, it's helpful to make the piece from a paper grocery bag. For a symmetrical piece, I recommend folding the paper in half, and measuring/tracing/cutting half of the pattern on the fold.



STEP 2: CUT YOUR PIECES OUT

From the outer flannel print:
-One diaper piece from pattern

From the inner flannel print:
-One diaper piece from pattern

After you cut a diaper piece, you should have a small piece of fabric left over like this:

Save it, because you will need to use it later.



From the terry cloth:
-One 13" x 4" piece (I like to round the corners a bit, but you can just leave it square if you'd like)

From the washcloth, if you want Snappi grips:
One 5" x 2.5" piece
Two 3" x 2.5" pieces
I like to cut the corners on these to make folding easier.

STEP 2.5: MAKE THE SNAPPI FRONT
If you are going to attach some terry cloth for Snappi grips, now's the time to attach the front piece! I'm still figuring out the best size and placement, but here's what I have so far. Take your 5" x 2.5" piece, fold each side under 1/2 inch (If you want to make it easier, you can sew those edges down before pinning to the diaper front), and fasten to your outer diaper piece-- about 4 inches down from the front top, down the center.

With a straight stitch, sew 1/4 inch from the edge. Then, using a zigzag stitch, sew right on the edge.

STEP 3: ATTACH THE SOAKER

Pin the your 14" x 4" towel piece to the wrong side of your diaper inner piece. I like to position it about 4 inches from the front top so I can stuff the finished diaper further into itself. Using a straight stitch, sew 1/4 inch from the edge, with the presser foot as your guide.

Remember that scrap of fabric you saved? Pull that out and lay it over the soaker, covering it as best as you can. (Ideally, you want to use the scrap from whichever flannel print is lightest, but for the sake of instruction, I am using the ladybug print, wrong side up, so you can see better). Using your sense of touch as a guide, pin the flannel to the terry cloth, making an outline of the soaker.

Here, the pins are outlining one end of the soaker

Turn the diaper inner over, so that the right side faces you. Using a zigzig stitch, and using the presser foot as a guide, sew along the outside of the straight stitch you just made.

Being careful not to cut the diaper inner, trim the excess fabric off the soaker.

STEP 4: MAKE LEG CASINGS

Some diaper tutorials instruct you to sew the elastic directly to the diaper. I've tried this before, and it compromises the elastic's stretchiness big-time! It also makes replacing the elastic next to impossible. So, we will be sewing leg casings instead.

Place both diaper pieces right sides together, and sew 1/2 inch seam along the back and sides, leaving the front top and tab sides open. Turn right-side-out, and press.


Starting about an inch from the diaper tab curve, sew a 5/8" seam, ending about 4 inches from the front top (where the diaper pattern straightens out). Sew another 5/8" seam along the top back, beginning and ending about 3" from the ends of the tabs.

The pins mark where to begin and end the seams.

STEP 5: INSERT ELASTIC

Attach the safety pin to one end of the elastic.

Using the safety pin as a grip, thread the elastic up through the leg casing until it's clear of the end of the casing seam.

The safety pin is up at the top, near the diaper tab

Sew across the elastic near the pin. Because I am slightly OCD, I like to make two separate seams about 1/8" apart, sewing and reversing a few times on each. That elastic ain't goin' anywhere!

Holding your new seam, pull the elastic until it's taut, but keep your diaper body straight and unpuckered. If I had another set of hands, I'd show you what I mean. :-(  Pinch the elastic at the front top, and pin into place.

Make another seam (or seams) at that end of the leg casing. Clip off the excess elastic. Hooray, you're done with one leg!

Repeat for the other leg and back.



STEP 6: FINISH

Turn the diaper inside-out again and close up the diaper tab seams.

At the diaper front top, turn under 1/4 inch and press. Turn under again (somewhere between 1/4" and 1/2") and press again. Pin into place, and stitch all around. Since I have kind of a love affair with the zigzag stitch, that's what I used, but you could just as easily use a straight stitch.

STEP 6.5: MAKE THE DIAPER TAB SNAPPI GRIPS

Take one of the 3" x 2.5" pieces of terry cloth. Fold and attach to a diaper tab, the same way you attached the front Snappi grip. You may need to play around with the placement to suit your baby, but here is where I place mine for my 20+ pound chunky baby:

Repeat for the other tab.


Congratulations, you made a fitted diaper!

I love the nice, deep, poo-catching pocket it forms inside. I have never had one of these diapers leak yet!

To shorten the rise, you can stuff it inside itself...

And it will fit a smaller baby!

******

So, what gives? I have a baby boy, and yet this diaper is clearly for a girl! Well, I don't want to giveaway any answers, but you will want to check back for a special post soon! :-D

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. My house currently looks like I'm getting ready to set up a bar. Liquor boxes everywhere!!! But they are truly wonderful for packing heavy objects, since they're made for transporting booze. Their smaller size also makes them ideal for sorting clothes! Hopefully, it will be many years before Baby D figures out that "XX" is, in fact, not his clothes size.


2. Can anyone recommend a good (or cheap :-D) Mac-compatible webcam? After nearly two weeks of separation, my hubby is getting rather antsy to see his wife and child!


3. Baby D turned six months last week! In one way, it doesn't even seem possible he's been around that long, but in another way, I kind of see my entire past life through a Baby D lens now, like he has been there all along, and my life was just waiting for him to appear at some point. Are there any other moms who know what I'm talking about, or am I just batty?


4. I have been fantasizing about making a back carrier like a mei tai or onbuhimo for... oh, six months now. :-D All the tutorials I've seen on the web are TERRIBLE, so I'm just going to have to muddle my way through and make a better one for y'all. :-D Have you tried a mei tai or onbu? Which do you like better?


5. I'm also supposed to sew a sling and nursing cover for a friend who's TTC-- she will buy the materials, and I will do the sewing! I'm eager to see what materials she chooses, because I know her sense of style. FYI, this is what I like to tell people choosing a sling fabric: many women like to choose colors based on the gender of their baby, or the colors of their nursery, but I recommend that you take inventory of your wardrobe and choose a color/pattern that complements what YOU usually wear. When you wear a sling, it's like wearing another piece of clothing, so you want something that matches the rest of your outfit!

I have since redone the shoulder seam, but here's my sling.
A friend actually recently recognized me solely from the sling. Ha!

6. I have actually thought of making up business cards for my sling-making, because I get TONS of comments on my sling at the supermarket. Would you be weirded out if you struck up a conversation about a stranger's sling and got offered a business card?

I've put this picture up before, but I could stare at those pleats forever.
That sling was a bugger to make!!

7. It looks like I have let sling talk hijack this Seven Quick Takes. Whoops! One more quick tip: if you are looking to make your own, do NOT use the tutorial that the Maya Wrap store provides. You'd think a sling store of all places would give a good pattern, right? WRONG! It gave instructions for a really funky, uncomfortable shoulder; I eventually ripped mine out and started over with a much more comfortable "floating rings" style.

I got a lot of ideas for constructing my sling from Jan Andrea's site, which also has tutorials for a zillion other baby carriers. Well, I think this has sufficiently taken care of my baby carrier itch for a while! ;-)


This post is linked up to Conversion Diary's Seven Quick Takes, which are actually happening at Betty Beguiles this week!

Diapers, Diapers Everywhere!

Miriam over at My Country Cupboard asked if I've been sewing anything lately. I haven't been intensely working on any projects, but when I have a few minutes to spare, I make... DIAPERS!

These are fitteds, so they're not waterproof, which is perfect for EC! My mother-in-law bought me a ton of flannel on Black Friday, so I've been having a field day with all the patterns.

I made the leg warmers, too! Elizabeth at That Married Couple has a great tutorial.

These diapers are constructed with two outer layers of flannel, with an inner layer of terry cloth (old bath towels) and flannel sewn in. It's actually very absorbent!

I've been experimenting with sewing strips of terry cloth on the outside for Snappis, since flannel doesn't hold a Snappi very well. :-(

Ohhhhhh, I love all these fabrics! My personal favorite:

This next one is cool because it's reversible! The layer touching Baby D's skin is polar fleece, and there is an additional terry cloth/flannel layer inside. So he can wear it as pictured, as a fitted with a stay-dry inner layer; or he can wear it as an AIO with the polar fleece on the outside. I've always been skeptical about how well fleece works as a waterproof layer, but so far, I'm pretty impressed!

Here's the original diaper I made-- it's reversible, as well, but this is before I started adding terry cloth, so it's not that absorbent.

These have been very good at holding in the blowouts. Not a leak yet-- and Baby D has made some doozies! One thing I'm not crazy about is the fastening. These are actually one-size, with the top open for stuffing the diaper inside itself until I have a good rise length. This means that my only fastening options are pins or Snappis. If I had a plastic snap press, I'd make the rise adjustable a la bumGenius! and add some velcro.

This is a very economical way to diaper Baby D at home, but alas, I still need some diapers that won't make babysitters run screaming in the other direction-- I'd love to just hand them a stack of pockets or AIOs.  As soon as I can figure out how to do rise snaps, I'd like to try my hand at making pocket diapers. (confused by all this diaper lingo? Rachel at Silver Spoons, Paper Plates has a nice explanation of all the different diaper types)

These are pretty easy to whip up-- if Baby D allows, I can finish one in a day! So you might see more popping up here and there, because now I can never rest now until I have every single flannel print in the world. Whoops.

Convert a short-sleeve onesie into a long-sleeve T-shirt!

I discovered a curious thing about the children's clothing industry: apparently, babies age 3-12 months aren't allowed to wear T-shirts, unless they are purchased with the coordinating pants and hoodie ensemble. I discovered this as I combed through several large stores, thinking,  I just want a dang shirt! and finding that I had three options: squeeze Baby D into a 0-3 month shirt, let him swim in a 12-month shirt, or buy the shirt/pant combo and let the pants languish in a drawer somewhere.


I chose none of the above. And you don't have to, either! You can transform a short-sleeve onesie from this:

To this:

Here's what you'll need:

-Short-sleeved onesie
-Material for the sleeves. You can use any kind of knitted material: an old t-shirt, another onesie. I just happened to have some leftover knit fabric from another project. be sure the material is stretchy. Otherwise, it will fit really weird and Junior won't be able to bend his arms!
-Long-sleeved shirt or onesie to use as a pattern


(Sorry the pictures are such poor quality. My camera is currently broken, so I'm having to take photos with my cell phone! I hope to replace these pictures eventually.)


1. Lay the long-sleeved onesie out. Lay the short-sleeved onesie on top, with the shoulder seams matching. Measure the length difference in the sleeves. Also measure the width at the top of the sleeve, and the bottom. Add one inch to the length, and 1/4 inch to both widths.

For my six-month onesie, the dimensions (after adding the additional lengths) were seven inches long by 3-3/4 inches wide, tapering down to 3-1/2 inches. 

2. Fold your sleeve material in half. You want the knitting to be running up and down the fold, not across it. That way, the sleeves will stretch the right way. Cut two sleeves on the fold using your measurements. So, after cutting, my sleeves were 7 inches long by 7-1/2 inches wide, tapering to 7 inches.

3. On the short tapered end, fold up 1/4 inch onto the wrong side and sew with a zigzag stitch. This will be the end of the sleeve.

4. Fold in half, right sides together, and sew a 1/4 inch seam with a plain old running stitch. You now have a sleeve!

5. Turn the onesie inside-out. Pin the new sleeve, inside out, onto the onesie, matching seams. (As you can see, I like to use lots of pins!) You want the new sleeve to extend past the onesie sleeve hem stitching.

6. This was hard to photograph, so bear with me! You are going to be stitching on the outside of the onesie sleeve. Position the onesie on the sewing machine just so you are stitching through the neckhole onto the right side of the sleeve, but the rest of the onesie is inside-out. Using a zigzag stitch, sew over the hem stitching on the onesie sleeve.

All right! The hard part is over! You can stop here, if you just wanted long sleeves on your onesie. But if you still want a shirt, keep reading...

7. Cut across the onesie, just above the leg holes. This may seem like a long length for a shirt, but if you cut much shorter, you'll end up with a belly shirt-- especially if your baby has a longer torso. Trust me! If you still think it's too long after it's finished, you can just fold it up once more and sew that.

8. Fold up the bottom of the shirt about 5/8 inch onto the wrong side. Sew all around with a zigzag stitch.

Congratulations, you have a new shirt!

Evidently, Baby D doesn't like orange

This is a participating post on Works for Me Wednesday. Be sure to check out all the other great ideas floating around cyberspace!