Friday, May 8, 2015

DIY: Fitted Prefold

The other day while perusing Pinterest, yah know, like ya do when you are having bon bons and sipping champagne in your sparkling clean, quiet home -- I came across some fitted prefolds. I thought they might address some issues we have with cloth diapering.

Our babiest is a very wiggily little man and keeping my newspaper fold from going all wonka is seriously difficult -- plus, the diaper liner always seems to move around no matter how I fold the diaper... and we know what that gets us.

But, I have three boys and the thought of spending an entire day doing a complicated looking prefold revamp seemed out of the question. I also didn't like the idea of adding another piece of elastic to my kid's legs - it's already bulky enough down there, and that elastic isn't keeping any wetness out - that's what my Flip is for.

Then I had an "ah hah!" moment and this method popped into my head. It. Is. So. Simple. No joke, under 5 minutes, and I'm not talking about a concentrated 5 minutes. I am talking about five minutes while having a baby on your leg and getting sucked into whatever episode of Daniel Tiger (Isn't he just the best?) is on.

You will need:
  • Scissors
  • Ruler
  • Marking pencil (I used a purple crayon the first time)
  • Prefold
  • A threaded sewing machine
 
 

The smaller seam allowance, and cut line, on the "bottom" side of the diaper allows for added width to cover more bum.
 
 

 
 
These work so much better for my little boy than the regular prefolds did. I have used these prefolds for 4 years and wish I had done this 4 years ago! The diaper fits so much trimmer, the diaper liner lays flat and does not shift around and my son doesn't get weird marks on his skin from where strange folds in the diaper pressed into him. The best part? These work really well with my snappies. Before I transformed my prefolds I was really having to stretch the snappy to make it work and with any more gains we were going to have to switch to a different diaper type.
 
If you wanted you could zig zag across all your raw edges before sewing what ends up becoming the center seam of the diaper, and then leave the "pocket" open and stuff another prefold in there at night or for long trips.
 
What do you use? Let me know if this works for you or if you have any questions.
 

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