help with diaper choice

[nanajewel]

I want to make some diapers for my 17 year old who is pregnant and I am so confused as what to make, What would be a good diaper for her to use and what fabric would work best. I do have a snap press so that helps? She has no money as she is still in highschool so I figured I would start now to make a few here and there. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[academama]

What a nice thing for you to do for her!

There are lots of choices, and every baby is shaped differently. A few patterns I like, with highlights of why:

* Fattycakes: fits a lot of different shapes of baby, as the waist and legs adjust separately. This is a side-snapping diaper. Very cute. Makes great covers, pockets, or fitteds.

* Hippy Hippy Snap--snaps on the sides (at the hip). Very trim, runs small. The XS size is great for a tiny baby for those first few weeks. I think a stash of XS covers in this size, plus little prefolds, is great for a brand new baby. Designed for pocket diapers and covers.

* Darling Diapers makes a pattern called Unlimited something or other--this is supposed to be great and has extremely detailed directions and many different options. I have not personally used it. They also have a free newborn diaper pattern that's great on a newborn (small, comfy, with umbilical snap-down). I love fitteds in stretchy materials in this pattern.

* An alternative to diaper covers is fleece pants--the Little Comet Tails Yoga Pants pattern is great for this. It has two options, with or without a separate "booty" piece. Both are very easy (two or three pattern pieces!), and fleece is cheap. They're super cute and eliminate the problem of fitting a cloth-diapered butt under RTW pants.

*

[maxwill129]

Originally Posted by academama

What a nice thing for you to do for her!

*

What a nice mommy!!!

I don't have advice, since I just made my first diapers (fitteds from the Mama Bird pattern) but that would be cheap! It runs small, so I added a couple of inches to the rise and to the length of the tabs...

[Michigan Mama]

At the top of the diaper-making section, there is a link to a bunch of tutorials and patterns to make a variety of different styles of diapers. My personal favorite is a fitted (has elastic in legs and back, but still needs a cover), and I like to use bamboo or hemp for that, but you can make them from cotton you find around the house like flannel, old towels or t-shirts! Bamboo and hemp you can get online. Many people like wool covers and you can make those from old wool sweaters.

There are tons of options! Check out those links!

[momof3boysNC]

My favorite free diaper pattern is the RRP, I use them on my 2 yr old and 10 month old. You can add snaps to them if you like or use one pin to close.

http://handmadebyrita.blogspot.com/2...t-pattern.html

[herent]

I really like the Celtic Cloths pattern, I have only used the free medium size pattern, I used two rows of snaps instead of velcro and I love the fit, so the pattern you purchase with small newborn sizes would be worth it. Oh by the way I made it into a pocket diaper with an opening in the back like a fuzzi bunz and it works great and dries quick in the dryer. I like pocket diapers because you can adjust the absorbency as needed, and I use white blizzard fleece from Joannes fabrics as the inner and it keeps my sons bum nice and dry. I purchase my waterproof PUL fabric from Kids in the Garden (sorry don't know how to do links) there prices are great and shipping is fast. Kids in the Garden has a new pattern by Jalie for a pocket diaper that looks good, but it uses hook and loop, but it has a fantastic video tutorial on there about how to make a pocket diaper definately worth checking out. I also stuff my pocket diapers with microfiber towels the blue or yellow kind you get at Costco or walmart in the automotive section, they work great. Hope this helps some. I have tried alot of patterns out there, Very Baby, Poopockets, Chloe toes, mamabird, Wee Weka, and Celtic cloth as a pocket is a great fit on my son. Have fun cloth diaper sewing is addictive

[academama]

A couple more notes here about fit: every baby is different. I do not recommend Mama Bird, only because the wings are quite short and in my experience/observation, a lot of babies need more wing than that. You could add to the wings, though, and it would be better.

Because you don't know what shape of baby you're going to end up with, you can hedge your bets by using a knit fabric. The stretch will really help a diaper fit more different sizes and shapes of babies! Knit can be more expensive to buy, but I wish I had done more knits instead of flannels for my boy. I think I would have saved money by making just smalls and larges. With knits, they fit for so much longer that you can skip a whole size, often.

I like Chloe Toes, fit-wise, but I have heard a lot of people say that their babies react badly to the foldover elastic. I would hesitate to make a whole stash of those before the baby is born for that reason. Very Baby is a good all-around diaper. Little Comet Tails makes two good patterns, the Little Starter and the Half Moon, and those are available through Amazon.

Little Comet Tails also makes an absolutely AWESOME pattern for yoga pants--my kids wear theirs all the time. They fit perfectly over cloth diapers. I make them from fleece and they are pants and diaper cover in one. I can't recommend them too highly. They're also super easy [2-3 pieces, depending on which variation you make] and economical to sew. If you're not into fleece, you can use wool.

[lifeguard]

I would just avoid aio's. Some people find them easier to use but they don't seem to wear as well as time goes on & can be trickier to take care of.

That leaves you with covers & some sort of inner. Flats or prefolds are the easiest to make & can fit any baby. Fitteds are a little easier to put on the baby but a bit more difficult to make (& I believe you need more sizes).

[moondiapers]

The easiest for me when I needed to make a lot of diapers fast for a friend, was to make a snap or velcro wrap with a layer of micro fleece inside to prevent slipping, and then add snaps to prefolds so that they snapped into the cover.