Supplies needed

[bethwl]

what supplies are needed for potty dance training pants? 2 mil pul, lastin, and the material for the inner pant? one thread mentioned knit elastic; is that foe?

thanks,
beth

[rowena___.]

you might want a small soaker layer too if this is an early trainer.

knit elastic is just another type of elastic (another kind is woven). the benefit of knitted or woven elastics over braided is that knitted and wovens stay the same width when stretched, whereas braided elastic narrows as it is stretched. braided elastics also lose some stretch and recovery if the elastic is pierced when stitching.

[tippytoes26]

recommended supplies

1mil PUL (you can use 2mil.. but the 1mil is softer and thinner and will feel less like a diaper) ..the pattern HIGHLY recommends a DWR coating if you don't want wicking. If you use PUL without it, expect some wicking unless you have a light wetter (NOT the case for most toddlers *LOL*) or the trainers are JUST for that little trickle before making it to the potty. I know some people don't like DWR on the outside of their diapers, but I'm confident that it's very key in making a trainer that doesn't wick.


1/4 inch lastin elastic - this is for the legs. You can use other elastics, but this elastic provides the most range for small to big thighs without ever being tight enough to cause marks.. AND, with the soft stretch, it makes the pants easier to get up and down without help

3/8 inch to 1/2 inch knitted elastic- This is for the waistband. Lastin doesn't work in this area because the waist elastic is in a casing unlike the legs which have the elastic sewn into the seam allowance. Sewing a casing at the waist makes them easier to get up and down without help and makes them look more like underpants.

flannel for the inside layers (or any other absorbent cotton.. birdseye etc.. flannel is just easy to get and the thickness is good for these pants)

hemp fleece or hemp frech terry for the soaker. You can use flannel, cotton terry etc..but the pattern example is in hemp and we found we liked them hemp best for trimness and absorbency

snaps or aplix if you want pants that open on one or both sides (I really liked pants that were sewn on one side and snapped on the other)

It looks like a lot of supplies. I wanted to make these pants really simple, but found that the benefits of things like using different elastics in the legs and waist were just too good to give up for the sake of simplicity. Of course, the beauty of it is, you can always customize!

The one thing we found that we didn't like was using knitted elastic in the legs. It just didn't provide the gathering the trainers needed. Swimsuit elastic worked second best to the lastin if you just don't get along with lastin elastic.

Hope that helped a little.