Fleece liners to keep bum dry?

[OllieMama]

I've been experimenting with making diapers, trying to perfect materials and comfort and bulkiness, etc. I made a fitted diaper yesterday and added a fleece liner in the soaker area, though a bit wider in the seat, which I just sewed right onto the layer which will touch babe's bum. I hoped it would wick the pee away from him, as I hear rumor it is supposed to do. Based on the wet areas I could see when I changed him, however, I think what happened was that it kind of pooled and spread to the edges of the fleece, where it then was absorbed by the cotton. Has anyone had a similar experience? Could the fleece I used be *too* water-repellent, or is it the diaper design itself, or is it a fluke? It's salvaged fleece that came from a cheap blanket I bought at ikea. It worked GREAT as a diaper cover, so I used some leftover scraps for this. Anyway, any input would be great before I take another crack at it. Thanks!

[ReneeC]

If it's from a blanket, it's regular fleece, and you need microfleece Recycled blankets make great covers, though

[dis]

I was just at IKEA today, buying the fabric that coordinates with my daughter's crib set (little bum never really cared for cosleeping) - they've lowered the price of their solid coloured fleece throws a dollar from last year, and you could get quite a few diapers out of one blanket. I was in a hurry and DD was on the verge of a meltdown, so I didn't poke around to see if I liked any of the colours...

But yeah, the IKEA fleece is way too thick to be a wicking inner. Be a nice outer, though.

[OllieMama]

okay, this may seem like a dumb question, but how can you tell if what you've got is microfleece? I don't know if the "micro" means small like thin, or small like tight weave/thick. does that sound crazy? Oh well.. I've been keeping my eye out at the fabric stores lately, and I haven't seen anything explicitly called microfleece. I've seen things like winter fleece, blizzard fleece, anti-pill fleece, etc etc. I just don't want to actually buy something if I don't know if it will really be of any use to me. It's not so cheap! Any advice on what constitutes microfleece would be much appreciated.

[ReneeC]

The ones called "winter" or "alpine" or "anti-pill" or "blizzard" or "polar" fleece are regular fleece, generally about the weight of Malden mills 200wt. fleece.

Microfleece is made up of micro-fibers of polyester. Micro-fiber means that the thread is a certain diameter, (less than one denier, which is thinner than a hair.) Generally microfleece is labeled as such, sometimes it will have a weight on it. Below 240gms/yard is in the microfleece range. The fabric is thinner than regular fleece. If you were to compare the thickness of the different kinds of "regular" fleece at Joann's, you'd probably say that the Joann's "anti-pill" fleece is the thinnest. Microfleece is thinner than that