T-shirt diaper a no go--Help

[jorie]

I made a prefold diaper out of t-shirts following the fern and fairie directions. It is made from my husband's old undershirts with a waffle-weave outer layer to make it snappi-able. The problem? Apparently, ds pees too fast. I put it on him for a nap and when he woke up, the bed was wet, his pants were wet, the gussets of the cover (a bumpy wool wrap) were completely saturated (don't remember when last this happened) but when I went to change him, the center of the diaper outside was completely dry and the center of the diaper inside was just damp a bit. The outside (waffle-weave) edges that were folded in (I had the diaper in the angel fold) were wet. So, the looser knit fabric seemed to absorb but not the tighter knit t-shirt fabric. Would sewing a strip of something down the middle (like flannel or a piece of the waffle knit) help? My thinking was if there was something on top that would absorb quickly, the pee would have time to sink into the slow absorbing knit before it went flooding out of the cover. Does this make sense? Any other ideas?

TIA!

[E&Gmommy]

That sounds like it would work. I haven't made prefolds but I've used tee shirts to make fitteds and I used a flannel top and it works ok. I haven't used waffle weave, is that like the hand towel kind? Sounds like it absorbes good.

[xenabyte]

Another thing about 'recycled' materials from clothing...if the article of clothing was ever washed with fabric softeners or dryer sheets, then you need to make sure to 'strip' the fabric well with a strong wash in a detergent and maybe even soak/wash in some vinegar.

The fabric might have been fine, but have had a 'residue' on it, so it 'shed' the urine to the more absorbant side materials before it finally soaked in a bit.

[mama_bee]

Originally Posted by xenabyte

Another thing about 'recycled' materials from clothing...if the article of clothing was ever washed with fabric softeners or dryer sheets, then you need to make sure to 'strip' the fabric well with a strong wash in a detergent and maybe even soak/wash in some vinegar.

The fabric might have been fine, but have had a 'residue' on it, so it 'shed' the urine to the more absorbant side materials before it finally soaked in a bit.

:

i had that trouble for the longest time before i figured out what the problem was!

[Kari_mom]

what Heather said.

[mehndi mama]

Yep, that was my immediate thought - you're dealing with fabric softener. Wash it a few times on hot with a water softener. Use detergent the first time, but none the second time. (Throw in the rest of your rag stash to complete the load, so you won't have to worry about the fabric softener problem the next time you sew a diaper!)

[courtenay_e]

Uhh-huh. That was my immediate thought. I wish that fern and faerie would add that the fabric could need to be stripped to their directions, as I think many people may fall into this trap. Lucky for us, I tend to use vinegar on fabric that is "foreign" to our house, as my kids have allergies, so it's not usually a problem for us (I often use donated tshirts for my dipes), 'cause I automatically strip mine. But I have often wondered how many mamas have leakage issues 'cause they don't know...

[mehndi mama]

Ah, but that would require that I rework the whole page, which is a PITB now that I'm without my original editing software! I wish it were still easy for me to build my pages......oh well.
I will put that on my list of revisions for when the time comes to do so, though!

[jorie]

I have literally spent days striping these t-shirts, but I think they are finally ready to go. I'm talking probably 20+ washings! I've used vinegar, and callgon (sp). There was still a slight scum on the surface of the water in the rinse cycle I did this morning, so I am going to rinse a couple more times. Sigh, what with the water cost, I don't know if I am even saving any money recycling these shirts, but at this point I am just determined to not be bested by t-shirts Thanks to y'all for the help!