Diaper Rainbow

The little boys needed some new diapers so I gave my precious sewing time to complete the above rainbow.  I admit I would have enjoyed sewing spring/summer girl clothes more but diapers were high priority and by sewing them myself I think I saved more than a couple hundred dollars.

A few hundred dollars?...... Yes, cloth diapers are kind of a big investment but after committing to them for almost 4 years I believe the investment has paid off.

I already listed my reasons why back in 2007 but I will list them again.

-gentle for babies sensitive skin
-potty train earlier (I am convinced of this!)
-better for the earth (though technically debatable at least I feel better about decreasing our waste)
-softer landing for when they fall on their bums (only kidding)

Switching to cloth diapers can be a bit overwhelming because their are so many options now.  I started with a combination of bumgenius AIO (all in one) and Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers and now prefer to use a combination of prefolds (the old fashion rectangles) and pocket diapers.

I used Very Baby's one size pocket diaper pattern and only had to tweak it a little bit before going forward with mass production.  The rest of the materials were ordered from Wazoodle fabrics and I could not have gotten the job done without  good amount of time at my snap press .

Here are a few closer shots.  I'd be happy to advise anyone interested in switching over or sewing their own.

Emergency Sewing

After a five week break I discovered cob webs across my sewing center.  It is hard to justify sewing when I am so behind on laundry but this project was done exactly for that reason.

Baby George was out of clean diaper covers so I jumped to it and sewed this one up in less than thirty minutes where as waiting for a load of laundry takes at least 2 hours. 

Marie gave me some really cool diapers cover from Japan so I used one as a pattern.  What makes them so great is that the front flaps hold the pre-fold neatly in place which makes for quick changing and less leaks.

I lined the cotton knit print with PUL fabric and bound them together quite effortlessly with fold over elastic.  This was just a test fit and will probably be too small by next week but I'm out of fold over elastic so hopefully I'll perfect the pattern before I get my elastic order from Wazzodle.

I do have some back up disposables on hand but George seems to be reacting to them. Besides I think babies look so cute in cloth diapers!

As for emergency sewing there may be another episode this week because it was almost impossible for me to find something that fit for church last Sunday.