repurposing.

Cloth diaperers, this one's for you!

One of my favorite uses for no longer wearable clothes is to turn them into cloth diapers. I'm amazed by the ease of turning a cute old shirt or daddy's t-shirt into a cute and comfy cloth diaper.

When I first started using cloth diapers I tried the kushies brand. They worked great and held up through 3 children and have recently found a new home with a family that loves kushies cloth diapers and should see their way through several more children--they are very durable! At the time I had 10 diapers but that just wasn't enough. Especially when our 3rd daughter was born and we had 3 children in diapers. Granted one was only at night, but with an infant and a toddler 10 diapers just didn't cut it! So I set out to make my own diapers and build up our supply. I bought some PUL to make covers out of and got a great deal on it here: http://74.52.140.226/~kidsinth/shop/. Along with the covers I made several fitted cloth diapers to go under the covers. I started out with some snuggly soft flannel in cute prints. I bought that from Wal-Mart and Joann Fabric in 1/3 yard cuts--just the right size to make a diaper and minimize wasted fabric. Out of the small scraps left after I cut the diaper I made soakers to add as needed for absorbency in the diaper. At the time I didn't have a serger so I just zig zag stitched around the edges of the soakers and they held up great. I've since been given a serger (thanks mom!) and I use that for soakers. I also invested in a few yards of Organic Bamboo Velour to use on the inside of the diapers--the side that touches baby's skin. It is so soft! I bought that from the same website listed above and right now their OBV is 20% off! They have some beautiful colors!

When my fabric stash started running low I began looking for other materials to use to make diapers. I came across this website: http://fernandfaerie.com/sewing_fitteds.html and discovered a great way to repurpose our old shirts and other materials! I love the idea of reusing something vs. throwing it away! Some of the shirts I used had small holes that I was able to avoid when making the diaper. Another of my favorite cloth diaper patterns is the "Rita's Rump Pocket" (RRP) pattern. It works great, is easy to sew, and best of all it's free! It can be found here: http://handmadebyrita.blogspot.com/2007/10/classic-rrp-ritas-rump-pocket-pattern.html . When I first started out making my own diapers I simply made my own pattern. After mastering that, it was fun to try new patterns and I really like the cut and wings on the RRP diaper pattern.

Notice that the fabric I used to recover the chair is the same fabric as the outer fabric of diaper in the upper right corner. The inner fabric is striped--that was an old shirt of mine--and for added absorbency I used flannel as an inner soaker.

The bottom left diaper is made from some fabric my mom gave me. I think she made clothes for herself out of it and then gave me the remnants. It has a PUL liner and the inner soaker is made from flannel. The fabric closest to baby's skin was once my 100% cotton shirt in black to match the outer black and white floral print. It has aplix closures.

The upper left is one of my first diapers--a monkey flannel print. It has metal snap closures. This was the style of my first diapers that I made. I had about a dozen of them. The middle row of diapers are all made from scraps I had leftover from other projects and the first and second are lined with fabric from my old shirts. The last two on the bottom row are made with leftover fabric and lined with Organic bamboo velour. These are all snappiable or I just use a cover. These were so much fun to make! All but the monkey print and the black and white floral were made with the RRP pattern.