question on recycling wool for covers

[mamasneedlove]

I got some regular sweater-like wool sweaters from the thrift shop today but I also found this jacket that is made of the softest wool you can imagine, and the sweetest pink color. Does anyone know if it will work for me? I don't really know how I'll do it, I think I'm going to use FOE on the edges and make it a wrap with snaps. It feels and looks exactly like Fuzbaby wool in their Fuzbomb covers... any ideas? Will this work? Do I felt it first? Do I have to finish the edges, can I fold over and sew or do I have to use FOE or some kind of binding? I really think I can just copy my Fuzbomb, but I know there's a mama out there who can answer my questions. TIA!

[CalaRei]

I don't have any answers, but I thought maybe I'd hang on your coat-tails and learn from your thread.

I think the first thing you should do is take the jacket you found and cut away the non-wool bits, and try to felt it up. You won't have to worry about edges then.

My question for experienced mamas is:
How much do you get out of a wool sweater?

I found a bunch of sweaters today, and they all felted up so nicely (well, except one, which may be "wool" but I suspect might be superwash. Boo.) But... could I get one soaker/cover from the "body" and also a pair of longies from the arms? Is that reasonable?

[JavaFinch]

I was considering doing this with a sweater I had but wouldn't the FOE collect a urine smell very quickly? Or no? That was my concern with using FOE around wool.

[mamasneedlove]

Oh, yeah, the FOE might be a problem that way. But I've seen it on PUL covers.

I've read in several places that you can get wool longies out of the sleeves and maybe even two soakers out of the sweater. Haven't tried it yet, though.

Another question, in case anyone knows: the jacket I'm debating about has seams all through it, which makes it fit very well (I'm kind of considering keeping it, except it's not my color), but I wonder if this will make it leak? Or will felting it prevent that? Any more advice?

Jen

[CalaRei]

Felting should prevent that, I think.

[CalaRei]

So I cut up some of my sweaters last night. It was pretty fun. I had a Large size women's sweater that yielded a small size soaker from "Katrina's Quick Sew" pattern. I also had a size XXL men's sweater that actually yielded three newborn soakers, PLUS the sleeves, which I think will make some nice longies, if I can figure that out. The sleeves for the women's sweater are too thin, so I'm going to save them for scrap.

Did your jacket felt up at all, Jen?

[caedmyn]

You can definitely get a pair of longies and at least one soaker or 2 diaper cover cuts from a good sized sweater...how many you'll get just depends on the size of the sweater and the size of the soaker/cover. Also, if you're making small or newborn covers and have a really big sweater with baggy arms, sometimes you can cut open the sleeves and get a diaper cover cut or soaker cut from each.

I tried making a two layer wool cover using felted wool flannel, which is fairly thin, and fold over elastic, and I wasn't pleased with the results. It probably would have helped if I'd had 1" FOE instead of 3/4", but it was just a pain overall and I couldn't get it to gather at the legs as much as I would have liked. I have a wool cover that's made with FOE, and I never noticed the FOE causing it to smell...but then, my covers got washed at least once a week because DD always seemed to get poop on them a lot.

Now I turn and topstitch my two layer covers, and I've made a couple of single layer covers from a thick felted sweater by just folding over the edge and hemming. It doesn't look as nice, but it works fine. You could also buy or make wool bias tape to bind the edges if you want something more like the FOE...you would need to add elastic to the legs and back, though.

I like this tutorial for longies:
http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/...d.php?t=227639

This is the one I used for making a turned & topstitched cover:
http://diaperfabric.com/sew-a-wool-diaper-cover/

And this has a free cover pattern and a tutorial for a FOE cover:
http://www.chloetoesboutique.com/store/WsPages.asp?ID=2
(Beware, though, the cover sizing is way off and the front wings are way too long IMO.)

[gabysmom617]

Anything that's 100% wool or almost is going to work. Seams don't really matter, and it doesn't really matter if it's a jacket or a sweater or something else, as long as it's a high content of wool.

I made a lot of my wool covers w/foe. I've heard from other mamas that they haven't really noticed an early or frequent urine smell when using wool covers with foe. I'm prepared to wash a bit more often in case it does, but I'm not too worried about it.

If the wool is thin enough, you could also do a turn and topstich wrap type cover.

I usually get two covers or more from a wool sweater. If it's a thick pullover sweater, I can use the front for a cover, and the back for a cover. If you're making small covers, you can even cut the sleeves aloose at the seam, and make covers out of each one of them. Or you can leave them intact and make one pair of longies out of them.

If it's a thin sweater and you can double up on the layers, of course you may get fewer covers from one sweater.

[mamasneedlove]

I haven't felted the jacket yet, I'm still feeling so conflicted, since it's so pretty I feel like it deserves to stay a jacket.. but it's kind of a weird color... oh, maybe it deserves to be a diaper cover!

I felted the sweaters, and one of them seemed a little smaller, but neither got really super thick. I think I'll make my first one with those and try it out. Thanks!

[ishyfishie]

I'm about to enter the world of wool, lol, so I'm learning here too! I made a sample pair using that DiaperSwappers tutorial that was posted and that came out great, and here's another one for making longies out of the body of a sweater in case that helps anyone! I'm not sure if we'll really use soakers over the winter, otherwise I'd make longies and a soaker out of each sweater we got, but I'm thinking of making two pairs of longies out of each sweater using those two DS tutorials.

http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/...d.php?t=543785