Handmade Pocket Diapers

by Julia
(Dallas, TX)

I used Ottobre's free online pattern to make a set of cloth diapers for my toddler daughter. The pattern as written is to make a fitted diaper that you would put under a diaper cover but I used this pattern to make a pocket diaper, a la Fuzzi Bunz. These pocket diapers are made of two layers, a waterproof PUL outer part and a wicking fleece inner part, and there is an opening in the back where you put in an absorbent insert (made of an absorbent fabric like microfiber terry, hemp, etc). They are my favorite style of diaper because they keep the moisture off the baby's skin, dry quickly in the dryer (unlike all-in-ones), and don't involve any pinning, folding, or putting a cover on top. To figure out how to make a pocket diaper, I looked at my RTW examples, used Mama Bird's tutorial, as well as the pocket diaper tutorial at diapersewing.com.

The Ottobre pattern has been known to be really long in the rise, so I compared it to a RTW diaper that fits DD well right now. I discovered that I need to use the 62-74 cm size (my daughter is 90 cm tall!) and remove some of the coverage in the back, i.e. make it narrower. I also did not use Ottobre's elastic measurements (I made mine much tighter) and started the elastic further back than the pattern shows. The white diaper in the picture was my "prototype" and it fit quite well so I made the rest in assembly line fashion.

I used velcro because I had not yet invested in my snap press. I definitely prefer snaps over velcro, but using velcro allowed me to use Ottobre's adorable little foldover laundry tabs to protect the hook-and-loop tape during washing! I do love being able to use a cute bit of cotton print from my scraps on that part of the diaper. For the rest of my materials, I ordered grab bags from Wazoodle for the PUL and the fleece inside (their grab bags have 5 pieces of each in just the right size for diapers), as well as their "Diaper Maker" 1/4" elastic and hook and loop tape. I'm very happy with the quality of everything.

For inserts, I ordered some microfiber terry from some random person on Diaper Swappers and serged 4 layers of it into rectangular inserts. These look the most homemade of anything I did for this diaper project; my serger has a really long presser foot and I just could not get it to turn nicely around the corners. Oh well, the inserts are all on the inside of the diapers, right?