Cloth Diapering

Modifying Microfiber AlOs to Hemp AIO – Cloth Diapering

If you are anything like me, you may not like your cloth diapers to have microfiber. The reason being, they are fluffy, they compress and oftentimes leak with heavier wetters. Microfiber is also difficult to keep clean, as microfiber tends to hold onto ammonia. Even with a very good washing routine, sometimes it is near to impossible to keep microfiber smelling clean.

Because of this, I often replace a microfiber all in one with natural fibers. My favorite fabric of choice is hemp fleece 370 gsm from Nature’s Fabric. I pick hemp fleece for these reasons

  • hemp is very trim, and has very little compression.
  • hemp fleece is softer then knit jersey.
  • fleece like fabric does produce more of a stay dry feel
  • hemp fleece doesn’t get the holes that a hemp knit jersey insert will get. I find hemp jersey will even get holes where a dull sewing needle goes through it. And even if you get an interlock jersey that will not continue to fray, a thicker fleece will last much longer.

My instructions kind of assume you have a serger, but I realize that isn’t a reality  for everyone. If you don’t, you can opt to buy already made inserts.  I would stick to trimmer options for easier washing. Keep in mind the insert size when purchasing, measure your diaper to make sure it will fit in nicely.

For this project, I had did some recycling. I some hempkicks prefolds laying around, which are made out of hemp fleece. I used two layers for each insert.

Before you start to sew, I would decide on what kind of flap style you want your aio’s to have. There are three main options. One directional, two directional, and snake. I personally, prefer one directional or snake. Cleaning a poop with inserts that flip in opposite directions isn’t for me. lol.

Both of these are Thirsties Microfiber AIO.

Step 1: Remove the old insert with a seam ripper. 

Step 2: Use the old insert as a pattern for you new ones. Even if making a snake, just make it twice as long as the old one, and the same width. Serge around the insert.

Step 3: If using two inserts, and putting them on the same side…sew them together first. Then attach to the diaper wrong side to wrong side. Sew

All done, just trim the ends of the threads, and finish like a normal sewing project.

Happy Cloth Diapering,

Jamie

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Potty Training Success

Dear Sis,

William is no stranger to the potty. We have been setting him on the big potty, with a training seat, since he was 15 months. When bursts of motivation would arrive, he would be eager to use the potty until he had a mishap. Not getting out of his clothes on time, falling off the stool, etc. Our process was much too complicated for him. So I finally gave into a training potty! During our Iowa visit we saw cousin Ronan’s training potty that looked just like a real potty. William is all for little versions of the real thing!

Our old motivation tool… M&Ms also needed a refresh. Now William gets to pick any treat out of his candy basket and puts a sticker on his helping mommy/potty training chart. We have been 5 stickers shy of a new toy for some weeks now, but yesterday William filled the chart by nap time. I promised him he could pick his new toy after nap. 

He picked a toy house. Nearly every place we visited on our road trip had a toy house and he really enjoyed them:) I was hoping he would pick one of the other three options so I wouldn’t have to brave Ikea, but alas, no such luck.

We loaded our rarely used stroller into the car because it was the only way I could imagine surviving an Ikea shopping trip without a second adult:) Things unfolded much better than anticipated! We used family parking, so we didn’t have to walk the enormous lot, we used the short cut signs and advice of employees to cut through whole sections of the store, and we stopped for dinner at the cafeteria, so no one would get too hungry. Ikea has been redeemed in my mind. It is possible to get through it in a hour, with a toddler and a meal stop!

We built it as soon as we got home and William played with it until bath time:)

Papa Carmin got William hooked on bubble baths during our road trip:)

Love,

b

Wool Diaper Cover

Hi Sis,

I have to show off Evelyn’s cute diaper cover that I made this week. I haven’t lanolized it yet, so I slipped it over her pul cover to see how it fits. It is almost too small for her already… time to make a new one! 😊

Here is the pattern I used. I made the 6-12 month size, but clearly my 4 month old needs the next size up. lol

Love,

Jamiegoof

Making Zorb Diaper Inserts

Hi Sis,

 I have somewhat decent sewing skills, so I decided to make some diaper inserts. When looking up fabric types, I learned about Zorb.

Zorb (thinkingaboutclothdiapers.com)

Have you heard of Zorb yet? Although I had seen it sold on Wazoodle, my first experience with it was in an all-in-one from Mother-Ease, called the Wizard Uno (which, by the way, we love!) Zorb is a blend of bamboo, cotton, viscose and microfiber. It was designed specifically for cloth diapers, with the goal or reducing costs and improving performance.

Each layer of Zorb replaces 2-3 layers of cotton, bamboo, or hemp terry, or microfiber. The manufacturer claims that it absorbs moisture 20x faster than other fabrics, and will hold more moisture. It’s apparently a miracle fabric for diapers too – it’s much less likely to have stink issues that need stripping from hard water or detergent residues!

Zorb looked like the highest quality insert out there, and was super trim. It is also very expensive, at the average seller selling double zorb inserts for $8.00 each! But, by making it myself I was making it affordable (the cost of normal inserts) but getting much better quality. I figured, why not?

I ordered Zorb from Wazoodle Fabrics, which is the only manufacturer of the patented product. I got eleven inserts made from 1 yard of 45″ fabric. The cost was $23.41 which came down to $2.12 per insert.

After, washing and drying the fabric, I measured all my pocket diapers and came up with a size that would work for all of them. I took two pieces of the zorb quilted fabric and sewed 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch away from the border, and then I ran around the whole thing a few times with a zig zag stitch. A serger would have made this easy work, but it came out just fine.

I was rather happy with how they turned out. Look how trim they are compared to my other inserts.

left to right
zorb, microfiber, birdseye cloth diaper with flannel

These do need prepped. Most inserts do, so this was no surprise. They get more absorbent with every wash. I can’t wait to see how they perform. After the second wash they were absorbing rather nicely. I will wash them five times and then put them into the diapers.

Zorb Inserts

Love,

Jamiegoof

EDIT/UPDATE: After some use!

  1. I saw holes forming on the top layer of the zorb inserts after some washing. So, I covered them in cotton flannel. The flannel stopped the problem. 
  2. I found Zorb to be like hemp.  It isn’t soft like cotton or bamboo, and is slower to absorb. I ended up using it as a bottom layer with cotton or bamboo in front.

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Trying Cloth Diapers

Hi Sis,

We finally took out and tried out our cloth diapers. I really didn’t think they would fit, they  looked so big. But, they snap up, and Evelyn’s clothing is thankfully fitting over them without trouble.

All my diapers are second hand, and I have various brands and types. With second hand cloth diapers, it is recommended to do a bleach soak. This helps kill yeast and other nasties that your baby could catch from another child. I followed the instructions from Fluff Love University here.

Then, I hung them outside to dry and sun bleach. The sun is great at taking out baby stains. (Now that I’ve been doing this for awhile I recommend laying them flat to dry, as hanging them wet can stretch your elastics)

After that, I put them on Evelyn. I am curious to see how much money we will save.  We go through about fifteen diapers a day! Little miss lets me know every time she has a slightly damp or wet diaper, she demands a dry bottom. I hope this means she will be easy to potty train. lol

Love,

Jamiegoof