Cloth Diapering and Finding Pants that fit

[lunulathrive]

My ds is 13 months.  He's average height.  I have him wearing 18-24 month clothing.  With breastfeeding and cloth diapering, he has a well padded bum.  I have trouble finding pajamas that fit him.  I want cotton pj's, without flame retardent, but snug fitting doesn't work for him.  And to get a snug fitting pajama bottom that fits his butt, I would have to get bigger sizes that would be too long.

What are other families doing?  Do you have any clothing brands you recommend?  I haven't made any pajamas for him.  I would like to make some with stretchy material, but I have a plain old sewing machine (not a serger).  Is it difficult to work with stretchy fabric without a serger?

Any help is appreciated!

Amy

[chel]

I really liked Carter's.
Pjs/pants with cuffs at the ankles can mask legs that are too long.

[Justmee]

I also used the carter's sweat pants at those age. They aren't "official" pajamas, but did the job just fine (without having to be snug fitting or flame retardant).

[rtjunker]

Zutano baby clothes fit much better than most on my LO's cloth diapered butt, though I don't have any pajamas. My DD typically just wears a t-shirt to bed.

[MariaDaizi]

I have been making pants out of old Tee shirts. I traced a pair of pants folded in half, added seam allowance,used the side seams of the shirt, cut the front down a bit,add half or 1/4 inch elastic to the waist, and wahlah! very fast and cheap.I even cut out cute shapes and zigzag them on. You can make winter pants using the sleeves  of wool or fleece sweaters and pieces for the butt and front. I just used my regular sewing machine. They are free and very cute.
 

[Alaura5]

I've just discovered H&M has great organic cotton onsesies (long sleeve and short sleeve) and pants for 2 for $10--they have plenty of room for my little guy's amply padded bottom--the onesies actually have gathers around the edges to create more space.

[Elise1313]

Have you tried using wool pants over prefolds or fitteds? Versus using PUL diapers? We LOVE our woollies 

[AmandaT]

What about baby legs (leg warmers)?

[wafflefish]

I also don't like the idea of flame retardants. I don't use pj's. My DD usually just goes to bed in whatever she has on when she feel asleep. Things I really like are knit wool longies. The knitting allows them to stretch where it's needed most. If you believe in quality over quantity, one or two pairs of wool pants works well.

I recently found granimal sweat pants with a cuff at the bottom. The fit is perfect. The cuff prevents her from stepping on the pants and tripping. I've found when looking at pants that the inseam should only be slightly longer than the rise. Fold the leg up to check the length.

I was planning on making pants for night time from scratch but instead I've altered larger pants I bought at a thrift store. I cut a couple inches from the legs, tapered them towards the ankle and added a rib knit cuff. They came out perfect. 

[sadiesage]

frugi is a great organic cotton brand from the UK. Their baby line (up to 2 years) is designed to fit over cloth diapers.
 

[JudiAU]

Sadly, it looks like Zutano changed their pants design. The old verision had plenty of fabric at the waist with a tapered leg. Very easy to put on and off and they lasted forever, just getting shorter. Now they offer a wide leg pant only plus a "skinny legging" directed at girls only. What a bummer.

[rtjunker]

Most of my baby clothes are hand me downs, so I likely only have the older style of zutano with plenty of space for cloth diapered butts. It's a bummer to hear they've changed their sizing.

[loveandgarbage]

In the summer my LOs went without pants but in the winter we had mostly Carter's stuff. I also had a few pairs of pants that I got at thrift stores that were older and seemed to be cut to accommodate cloth diapers. I also sized up and it worked out, most of the time having to roll-up the bottoms.

[Choose2Reuse]

You could just put your sewing machine on zigzag stitch, then you can stitch stretchy material.

For pj's we had good luck in the summer finding some with pants that aren't close-fitting, but we had to search through a lot of close-fit ones to get them.  (They are Carter's.)  For winter I think we'll just use sweatpants.  My DD also wears pants "a size ahead", partly because of the cloth diapers, and partly because she's just plain tall.  She's skinny though so I imagine it's not as bad as for a cute chubby little one with cloth diapers. :) Good luck!

We used to love footed pjs but now I refuse to buy them because they all have zippers.  Zippered footed pjs with cloth diapers are a horror.
 

[Basylica]

I loved hanna anderson when my boys were in cloth but I believe they were bought by gerber or something? they started doing the super skinny PJs (the zippers) about 5yrs ago?

the older versions were so roomy and comfy and i'd use them as jammies year round and as clothing in winter months.

they were CRAZY expensive....I think 36 full price and I think they have gone up in price now, but I generally got atleast 4 regular sizes for every one size, and usually picked them up for 28 on sale...slowly building a stash. I had about 2-3 in every size for 2nd DS....but that was like 3 sizes and they lasted him from birth (at 22" and 11lbs) until he was wearing 5T.

if you can find the older styles on Ebay, I reccomend them highly!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hanna-Andersson-80-Orange-Black-Loose-Grow-Cuffs-Zipper-Halloween-Old-Style-/190735160860?pt=US_Baby_Toddler_Boys_Clothes&hash=item2c68b3961c

I don't believe they modified their wiggle pants however....and again somewhat $$ but they lasted me just as long. I had youngest DS in size 60s at birth until he was in 12m clothes, and size 80s from 12-18m until he was in 2T/3T. the back stretches horizontally where the rest vertically. 100% made for cloth diaper butts!

I remember someone telling me about HA when my eldest was little and I thought, lady! 14 bucks for a pair of pants? you must be mental!

I tried out a pair and well.....downhill. my thing is anything that still looks like new after 2 kids wear the crud out of them (I'm talking 2-3x a week, for 6-12m per item) so that I can hand them down and have people think they were never worn, and the kids can wear 1 size for every 4 of a "regular" size item....makes it worth the extra cash!

http://www.hannaandersson.com/style.asp?from=SC%7c7%7c2%7c156%7c3%7c4%7c%7c&simg=36424_33N

oh, and when it was summer (9m of the year around here) I'd throw on a T shirt and the wiggle pants for jammies....

I ended up finding the only actual jammies I liked were childrens place zippered footies, and I had to buy atleast 1 size too large. both my kids are pretty long legged and slim...and it worked ok.

my elder DS was pretty chunky when he was that age however...

[Basylica]

Here is my (now almost 6) DS2, he was 11lbs when he was born wearing a hanna zipper. I believe this is a size 90, the biggest size, and he was a month shy of turning 2 and had flown to chicago for thanksgiving. if memory serves hes about 36-38" tall and you can see he's got quite a bit of room to grow still in them. and he's also very drooly it would appear!

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/68PkrxC4EHTWtPQpDhWUz9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

I don't know if that'll work, but thats same son around 18m wearing a size 80 zipper.