Leakage Problem

[jamie54]

I've been trying to make diapers for my little guy, but they always seem to leak at the legs. I'm making pocket diapers, so there is a layer of pul in the middle and flannel on the inside. I stretch the elastic as tight as it will go when sewing, but when he wears them after an hour he's soaked all around the legs? Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong, or is there a special kind of elastic that I should be using? Please help, I can't change him into new clothes every hour.

[Marisol]

You said PUL is in the middle -- what's on the outside then? What are you stuffing them with? Did you use 100% polyester thread? Did you run them through the dryer a couple times to help the PUL seal?

[jamie54]

I did a cotton outside, pul in the middle, and flannel on the inside. I'm stuffing it with microfiber cloths. I've seen several like this, and really liked them but wanted to try them myself. I'd been using cotton thread and I hadn't been running them through the dryer first, should I be? I ran one of them through the dryer once and it still leaked.

[Marisol]

The cotton thread is likely the major culprit. Cotton soaks up moisture very, very readily, unlike polyester. Essentially what's happening in your diaper is that the wet hits the flannel, travels along the cotton thread and then transfers the moisture to the cotton outer. The PUL never really even gets a chance to do its job because all that cotton is acting as a "bridge" to bypass it. Try 100% polyester thread (even a cotton/poly blend thread won't work near as well as 100% poly).

And, yes, always run them through the dryer to seal them. The high heat makes the shiny side of the PUL soften up and sort of melt around the thread in the seams so that the moisture can't get through as easily.

All that said, you might still have occasional leaking problems with using a cotton outer. They're incredibly cute, but are moisture magnets and just don't keep the wet at bay as long as polyester does.

[love2bmom]

I would make one without the cotton outer and using poly thread and see how much difference you see. Especially if the legs of the diaper roll in (as they should on a pocket or aio), then the cotton outer is probably coming into direct contact with urine. Which of course means wet clothes.

[Landover]

You might not have enough absorbancy as well. I found that only using microfiber cloths did not work well for us because all of he moisture would squish out of the microfiber. I started sewing a layer of flannel to my microfiber cloths and it worked so much better! My DD used to need a onsie change with every diaper change and now she can wear the same onsie all day long (unless she pukes on it ).

[jojospok23]

You have a flannel inside to the pocket, not something that isn't aborbant like fleece? That in itself could be enough to be wicking the pee to the cotton outer if they touch.