The end of my Flat Diapers

Well, I didn't have that much to write about today, so I decided to share my current project. I have been using cloth diapers on and off for the past 2 years and really found out the hard way what doesn't work and what not to do. The first thing I learned was that the All-in-ones I was using were not so great, the second was that flat diapers are complicated.

That last thing is the reason I decided to convert all my flat diapers into contour diapers. My first diaper was a bit of a mess, but it still works great, looks much more comfortable than a folded flat diaper and doesn't leak, so far.

Here is what I did; I took a flannel flat diaper from my stash and a piece of jersey knit cotton I found in a bag of old fabric in the basement. I thought I'd add the jersey knit as the shell so I could attach the diaper with a Snappi. I didn't want to add more velcro since my covers already work with it. And Snappies don't work with flannel.

Left leg elastic

 I recycled an old paper grocery bag to make my pattern. Based on a Pampers diaper and my Kushies diaper cover, I created my very own pattern. Then I cut the pattern in the flat diaper and the jersey knit (see tutorial coming up on my YouTube Channel). With the left over flannel, I cut out three rectangles to be used to make my soaker. I sewed the rectangles together in a three layer soaker, then I sewed the soaker to the middle of the flannel part of the diaper. I then sewed the jersey knit and the flannel together, but here is where I made a bit of a mistake...putting on the leg elastics.

Right leg elastic

I started sewing the flannel and jersey around the edges but forgot about the elastics. Oops! so when I go to the left leg area, I sewed the end of the elastic where my mark was, stretched it, sewed it at the second mark and tried to pull the flannel over and back on the other side of the diaper, and sew that like a pocket . That allowed the elastic to be loose inside and free to move.

After I was done the left side, I was not happy with the tightness of the leg so I thought I could try something different with the other side. I cut my elastic shorter and sewed the front and back together at the edges, then sewed them again about a cm away from the edge, making sure the elastic stayed in between. Sure it was tighter, but I that it was more stiff than the other side.

The end product is pretty thin and absorbent, but I find it takes a while to dry...making me think maybe it needs another stripping.

Well, I still have 9 flat diapers waiting for a transformation...more experimentation to come!