Cloth diapers for free from recycled items

**herbsgirl** · 08-09-2010, 05:34 PM

Well, we recently had to come up with almost 295.00 a month out of our budget more than normal. Cut, cut, cut and cut some more!

One of the first things i did was put 1 yo DD in Cloth diapers. I dug out my old diapers and stuff. So for the price of a few saftey pins, basicly I am cloth diapering for free, because I already had the supplies from other children before her.

But they are not cute, and they could be more convenient. I love the cute Jeans diapers here...

Fern and Faerie Online Shop

I thought about purchasing the pattern, but scine I already have about 1 1/2 dozen or so cloth diapers and stuff, it would actually be costing me extra money. I could use a few more diapers it seems like, and it would be nicer to have AIO (All in ones)

I am trying to think that I could use the same Idea as the Fern and faerie recylced Jean diaper and use a free online pattern to make an AIO, with a waterproof layer, a soaker layer, ect.

I have a huge clothes basket full of mostly FREE jeans(some are even cut up) and some old flannel sheet(s) already. I also have a waterproof crib matteress I would be willing to cut up. I have materials available for the inner soaker layers.

My local thrift store has 3 free boxes that I dig through regularly. In the boxes are jeans, kids clothes, t-shirts and more. By going to the thrift store 1-2x a month, I would have a steady supply to use for making my recylced cloth diapers.

One thing, what do you think, how would I close the diapers? Im not sure, because of the snaps, or velcro would add cost, and my goal is to do this totally for free, using what I already have here or getting it in the free boxes.

One idea I had was to do button and buttonholes to close the diapers. She is getting close to 2 years old, so about 1 more year or so of diapering left.

I have also cut snaps off of other garments and sewed around the edges onto another item.

Any ideas?

**NikoSan999** · 08-09-2010, 05:53 PM

Nice thing about the Velcro is it adapts to waist gain or loss in the next year. 1 package of velcro at the store would do many diapers and really isn't very much. Unless you are making a game out of the totally free I would do the velcro. You wouldn't have to move snaps or buttons. You probably already have your hands full....just my opinion. I uses the old fashioned diapers, fold and plastic outers. They were sensitive to the gel stuff in the disposable

**sunshine** · 08-09-2010, 06:47 PM

There is no reason you can't pin the handmade diapers too.

Could you make them like pull ups? or panties? with elastic at the legs and waist?

My mom sewed snaps on ours, as my dad watched us during the day, and he only had one arm. . . after a disaster between me, and a dirty diaper pin, mom sewed on snaps and just moved them as we grew. . . .

**nuisance26** · 08-10-2010, 08:08 AM

~I made these from t-shirts from the F&F free pattern.

I had to use real Velcro brand and that was pricy. If I'm remembering correctly it was $.30 worth of velcro and elastic per diaper. I've since stocked up on no name velcro at Jo-Ann's when I was able to get there for about 1/5 the price of brand name. You can also salvage velcro off of other clothes. Men's cargo shorts are a great source for velcro!
Ask on Freecycle for velcro or items with velcro. It is by far the easiest, safest, and quickest to use fastener for dipes.
If you can make diapers with flannel in the area that would be pinned you can use pins. Flannel pins very easily!
I'll be making some more dipes in a few months with flannel and terry. I've spent $20 on materials for diaper making and will have to spend about $45 on covers but I should be set.
Totally free would be nice but the covers(and the fabric to make covers)are so expensive!
Let me know if the AIO's work for you. A few years ago, I cut up a brand new crib pad(got it nearly free with store coupon)to use in feminine articles and I didn't like the way it performed. So I've been hesitant to try making AIO diapers.~

**herbsgirl** · 08-10-2010, 08:35 AM

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

nuisance26- Wow, those diapers look so soft! I didnt know if I could get the F & F free pattern, because it looks like I have to hand draft it. How did you get the pattern, draw it?

I did have an idea that I already have these very high quality nylon training pants (not rubber like the cheap stuff) over 1 dozen of them. I guess I could try cutting one of them up and use that for my waterproof layer. Right now she does not leak through them hardly at all. They are very waterproof. Or I could sew regular fitted diapers and use the pull on nylon training pants to cover them. I also have the Gerber diaper service cotten diapers (again the high quality stuff) that absorbs well. I could use that as my absorbing layer.

Only 30 cents per diaper for velcro and elastic doesnt sound bad at all. Scince I used to use Parents Choice diapers for the disposable (I still do for church going, ect) There is some cheap aplix type stuff on each of them I could use for the tabs? I will check into a cheap resource for snaps/velcro. The more I think about it, I want to try making one with buttons and buttonholes instead of snaps. Like the fuzzi bunz has alot of snaps, I wouldnt want to do that many, but If I had 4 buttons or so running arcross the front, and then put one buttonhole or so on each tab, so I could adjust it.

Just ideas!

**nuisance26** · 08-10-2010, 08:51 AM

~Yeah, I just followed the directions and drafted the pattern. It was really fast and easy! Sewing FItteds
And I found my old thread about the dipes and it was $.50 per dipe in elastic and velcro. But with my cheaper source stash it will be less than $.20 each.
You have lots of covers! I'd probably sacrifice one as well just to try out the idea of AIO's.~

**celina** · 08-10-2010, 11:20 AM

you two are making me GREEN with envy//i've tried sewing simple things and cannot get the hang of it....i envy you this skill....i'd also ask on freecycle for velcro...but the button idea sounds great if you can do button holes...

enjoy your stash...and your bundles of love

**herbsgirl** · 08-13-2010, 08:03 PM

Updating this thread. I was able to get my cloth diaper stash fixed for now-- For Free!!! Yup, I realized one of my problems was that I was using two diapers at a time on my DD to get the absorbancy I needed for a toddler. That made me use my cloth diapers almost twice as fast usually.

I figured that some diaper doublers would help with absorbancy. Went and got 2 bath towels from my "stash" I already had (they were getting older and/or raggy and/or something was wrong with them) also used a microfiber towel or two and a very thick fluffy terry burp cloth, and some odds and ends like that

Cut them into diaper doubler rectangles, then serged around them and put 2-3 layers in each Prefold diaper, sewing the doublers only on one end up one end of the diaper so the doublers hung free, but are still attached. It works fairly well. The absorbancy is pretty good, especially the terry ones, and I even put a microfiber towel in 1 or 2 of them. With the diapers only being attatched on one end of the diaper, they are able to dry quicker and flow free in the dryer!

I really thought about all this, and doing it with stuff I already have really seems to be the more frugal way to go, especially when we only have a little over 1 year of cloth diapering left, and I dont think at this time we are having any more kids that we know of. (God Willing)

I also dug out an old flannel sheet that had snowflakes on it. It was fine, but the fitted matching part of the sheet had ripped or something, so this was available to use. I ripped and cut part of the sheet into aprox. 8 x 8 inch squares, put them in a double layer , rounded the corners and then serged around them!. Now I have one dozen new soft flannel wipes, with snowflakes on them. By not buying wipes anymore will also help me save money to pay bills!

Yay for re-usables!!!!!!

I now have around 18 diapers with attatched doublers and around 17 nylon taffeta "covers" with 12 new flannel wipes, and was able to diaper my baby for the price of a package of saftey pins, & using what I already had around the house!