T-Shirt shrinkage

[xekomaya]

Hi All

Can I assume old teeshirts won't shrink any further if I sew them into prefolds?

I'm totally sewing inept but after months of reading about diapers I think I finally "get it" enough to try and make a few. I'm going to use the fern & faerie teeshirt prefold pattern, and then the measurements from GMD.

As an aside: Is there any way for me to know if my creations are halfway decent before my baby arrives in April? I was hoping to sew up a good portion of my newborn stash myself but I really don't want to find out half my diapers are useless...

Thanks so much!

[ReneeC]

Old cotton anything shouldn't shrink any further. If you're worried about it, you can wash them in hot water and dry on high, but regular cotton normally shrinks as much as it's going to in 1 to 2 washes.

So far as sewing in advance--if you're using an established pattern (by that I mean one that someone else made and has been used), you should be alright. It's only if you're designing your own pattern or making significant changes to an established pattern that you need to be concerned. As long as you follow the directions so far as number of layers and have realistic guidelines for larger sizes (and GMD's prefolds are great "real baby" sizes), prefolds are pretty hard to mess up

Congrats on the baby, and good luck with CDing!

[xekomaya]

Thanks so much!

Great to also have you confirm that GMD are good to use for size guidelines..

I think I'm going to make a request at Thanksgiving for old teeshirts -- like a teeshirt drive and family can bring them when we see each other for Christmas. Hopefully it will all work out and I can save my money for the dipes I really want

[~Stephanie~]

I just made a bunch of of t-shirt prefolds and we just love them. I think you will be very pleased with them.

[Meksmama]

I was wondering what to do with some old shirts. Maybe I will try this and see how they work out.

Then if they are easy enough I will ask family members for old shirts.

Thanks for the great idea!