Diapers...take 2

Some day I will get this right. I feel like this might be pretty close though. A while ago, in May, I did a post called Little Diapers for Little bums where I shared my design for newborn sized diapers. These diapers worked great...for about one week. Then they got a little snug, and thus started leaking. I ended up having to make a whole new set of small liners for these diapers but eventually they just seemed so uncomfortable on my poor baby's teeny bottom.
I thought to myself " well if his newborns are too small, then perhaps he will now fit into his regular flip diapers." Nope, way too big. He squirmed and wiggled and cried the entire day he was in one of them. So against all my will, I put him in a disposable and kept doing so until I came up with a solution. I first made some quick fleece pocket diapers from some old fleece laying around, and although it kept my son feeling dry, his pee soaked right through onto his clothes...you need very good quality fleece for this or covers.  I went online, ordered some more PUL, snaps and softer elastic, waited 4 days for it to arrive in the mail and began sewing immediately.
( PUL in fabricland is $33 per metre...on line I paid $3 per metre)
Again I made flip style covers. I think the system is great. Here's how I did it:

I made my own pattern, based off of the measurements of a pattern I found on line, but my pattern looked basically like this:

*The gussets are 8.5" long and 2.5" tall

I cut the entire thing out of PUL, including the two gussets ( moon shaped things)  and then the green area I cut out of fleece or PUL, in this case I used PUL but some of my others have fleece.

All the parts. This shows fleece strips, although I
 used PUL  for this particular diaper.

The first step to sewing it all together is to sew FOE, or fold over elastic to the straight part of each gusset using the 3 step zig zag stitch. You want to tack the elastic onto the end (making sure you folded it over the edge of the fabric)  and then pull it as tight as you can so that it wrinkles the gusset up.

2 gussets

Next I added all my snaps (look at my pattern drawing, see the purple dots? that's where I put snaps). I use little scrap squares of pull to double the fabric, just to give it a bit more strength.

These pics ended up sideways.
 the top one shows the
reinforcements on the back
of each snap. 

Sew the gussets in place by lining up the round edge plastic side in along the leg curve. I use a straight stitch for this.

one gusset in place

Once all the snaps and gussets are in place, I sew the fleece/PUL strips on using a straight stitch. I did this because it's soft against the babies skin. you don't have to make these out of fleece, in fact on the flip diapers, they are made out of PUL, The main purpose of this is that they are the pockets to hold the insert in place. I just thought fleece pockets would be nice and soft.

front pocket sewn on

The diaper is almost complete. Next I sew on the FOE all around the outside of the diaper using the 3 step zig zag stitch. Start at the back but off to the side ( so not the centre of the back) because you need to create a gather at the back. Sew the elastic up to where the gather will start and once you get to the spot where the gather starts, pull the elastic tight and sew it in  place until the gather needs to end. Then stop pulling the elastic and continue to sew until you need to gather around each leg.

Top: start FOEjust before you need to gather
Botton: FOE complete

The last thing you need to do is put two snaps on each of the long ends to create closures. And you're done. Just put an insert in and pop it on you baby.

Open diaper

All buttoned up

  

                               

The diaper on my son, who is yawning away. 

 left: flip cover seems a little too big for my 8 pounder
centre: my version/Simply Yellouw diaper only slightly smaller
than the flip, but fits.
right: my first diaper, with umbilical dip, only fit for a very short while

So far these new diapers are holding up much better than the last ones. If a wet baby sits in them too long, then yes, some leaking will occur along the seems or maybe a little by the snaps, though leaking by the snaps has only occurred with my first attempt at diapers, not these ones. Dampness along the seams can occur though.

I've have also started making these nursing cover ups:

MY next step is to have a couple extra diapers and nursing covers made to sell at a fair or a mom to mom sale.