Tuesday, October 28, 2008

who would have thought...






Who would have thought...making your own fitted nappies could be so satisfying! We have be in desperate need of new nappies around here for Maeve. The old terry squares just aren't doing the trick, no matter which way I fold them they don't fit right. Up until now they have been perfect and served two little bottoms very well. 
I decided to sew the free Ottobre pattern, which turned out to be a winner. I know a lot of people say this pattern runs rather large, but I found it fine if you ignore their elastic instructions and sew the elastic in as tight as you can. Just secure it at on end, stretch it as far as you can and stitch it down. Make sure you use a good quality elastic (I used swimwear elastic) because having to pull them apart later on to add new elastic doesn't appeal to me at all! I added snaps instead of velcro hoping they will last longer and be much harder for little fingers to undo. 
Back to the sizing again, I made Maeve the larger size 80-86cm (she is usually size 86cm) which fits great now but has room for growth.The best thing about these nappies was for each terry square I cut into I got one nappy piece and 2 soaker pads. There was very minimal fabric wasted. The outside fabric is flannelette, and there are an extra 2 layers of flannelette in the soaker pad.

9 comments:

Ansia said...

How clever are you! I currently have got my girls in disposable nappies but have always throught about making my own cloth. Anja is just about potty trained but Alani obviously has got many more months to go before she is trained. Tell me did you use your old terry nappies? I have got a large stack of cloth nappies that would do well to get some use. Also what do you use for water proofing? Where did you get your snaps from? I am very interested in using cloth again but with Alani rolling so much at changing times it is a real battle getting the nappy on. These fitted nappies might just do the trick. Sorry about the long post and all the questions, but these look great and I am tempted to give them a go. Thanks.

naomi said...

I did use my old terry nappies and the pattern piece fitted perfectly on them! The snaps are from Snaps Australia (link for them is on the post), but you can just use velcro like the pattern says. Its a lot of money getting the snap press, but such a worth while investment if you are thinking of making a lot of nappies. The nappies are all cotton, so no waterproffing in them. I use nappy covers made from PUL (motherease brand). There are all sorts of covers you can buy these days, or you can buy PUL and sew it on the back of the nappy instead of flannelette. Depends what you like. I prefer a separate nappy and cover, better for washing and soaking. Let me know how you go Ansia! I am happy to answer any other questions you have.

Anonymous said...

They look great, well done :)
We are a cloth family here and there's nothing cuter than a little cloth tushie!

Kat said...

Great nappies! It is such a lovely looking pattern - and good on you for using up your terry squares. As bob the builder says "reduce, reuse, recycle!" xx Kat

Anonymous said...

well done! they look fantastic! for the covers apparantly 'pul' fabric is the most breathable.

Delben said...

Hi Naomi.... I tried the same pattern and have a few questions. How many layers of terry were in your soaker. I cut six but there was no way it would fit through my machine. So I went down to 4. I hope it would be fine. Ottobre says to use wadding between the layers. Is that necessary? I made the first size and it looks quite big to fit from newborn to a year. Do the nappies need to fit snug?
Thanks.
Delene

naomi said...

Hi Delben
The soaker pad had 2 layers of thick terry and 2 layers of flannelette. The body of the nappy was terry on one side and flannelette on the other.
I didn't bother with the wadding at all as the terry is quite fluffy and airy anyway. They have worked fine without it. I don't like my nappies too thick, they end up being bulky on bub and take forever to dry. I would rather have thinner nappies and change them more frequently.
This pattern apparently does run on the big size, and I could imagine they would be very loose on a newborn, however I haven't yet made the smallest size so cant say for sure. Just make sure when you sew the elastic in you pull it tightly while sewing it down- stretch it to the max.
It will be quiet hard to find any nappies that fit well on both a newborn and one year old, as they grow so quickly!
Hope this helps:)

naomi said...

Hi Delben
The soaker pad had 2 layers of thick terry and 2 layers of flannelette. The body of the nappy was terry on one side and flannelette on the other.
I didn't bother with the wadding at all as the terry is quite fluffy and airy anyway. They have worked fine without it. I don't like my nappies too thick, they end up being bulky on bub and take forever to dry. I would rather have thinner nappies and change them more frequently.
This pattern apparently does run on the big size, and I could imagine they would be very loose on a newborn, however I haven't yet made the smallest size so cant say for sure. Just make sure when you sew the elastic in you pull it tightly while sewing it down- stretch it to the max.
It will be quiet hard to find any nappies that fit well on both a newborn and one year old, as they grow so quickly!
Hope this helps:)

Anonymous said...

love to cumin them and put one on her tight so she feels mycum rubbing her babypussy all day