Calling all diaper-sewers!!!

[Mama Bird]

I am trying hard to find a fabric that is easily purchased, inexpensive, breathable, and easy to care for in my diapermaking. Wool is not really an option, as I'm allergic to it and my DS was allergic to the wool covers I made for him out of felted sweaters. I don't want PUL, since it isn't breathable. Fleece seems so hot, and MM fleece seems so expensive.

What about ripstop nylon? It says it's water repellant, not resistant, so I realize it won't work for long periods of time or for overnights, but I used ripstop as my waterproof barrier when I made my cloth pads, and it worked quite well, I've never had a leak with them.

Thoughts?

[Naked Camper]

no real thoughts here - but I did want to :popcorn We use PUL :shrug

[Mama Bird]

The reason I want to try to avoid PUL is that my kiddos tend to break out fairly easily. I just want to be able to have that area breathe to prevent as much rash as possible.

[Moon]

I've used ripstop covers before, they weren't the "beefiest" covers, but they got the daytime job done just fine. They had cotton print outers, with elastic inbetween the two layers.

[Moon]

Feel free to ignore me if you've been down this road already, but have you ever tried touching minimally processed or organic wool? I've talked to and heard of so many people that thought they were allergic to wool, but later found out it was the over-processed wool, the dyes used, and the stuff they put in the lanolin washes. My knitting buddy was one of those people, she's since found it's the harshly treated wool, and some of the dyes on the cheaper yarn that cause her reactions.

Another option would be soakers made with acrylic yarn or reclaimed acrylic sweaters. They won't cut it overnight, they don't need lanolized, they can't go more than a day without being laundered, but they are machine washable. Acrylic is essentially a plastic, so it makes a decent wetness barrier. If a diaper is soaked underneath you'll get compression wicking onto clothes faster than with wool. I've rotated two acrylic soakers through a day and did fine with it (one hung to dry while the other was on).

[Mama Bird]

Feel free to ignore me if you've been down this road already, but have you ever tried touching minimally processed or organic wool? I've talked to and heard of so many people that thought they were allergic to wool, but later found out it was the over-processed wool, the dyes used, and the stuff they put in the lanolin washes. My knitting buddy was one of those people, she's since found it's the harshly treated wool, and some of the dyes on the cheaper yarn that cause her reactions.

Another option would be soakers made with acrylic yarn or reclaimed acrylic sweaters. They won't cut it overnight, they don't need lanolized, they can't go more than a day without being laundered, but they are machine washable. Acrylic is essentially a plastic, so it makes a decent wetness barrier. If a diaper is soaked underneath you'll get compression wicking onto clothes faster than with wool. I've rotated two acrylic soakers through a day and did fine with it (one hung to dry while the other was on).


I haven't touched them, no. I'm guessing it's pretty expensive?

[Moon]

The Disana is organic, and isn't very expensive as far as soakers go. I'd mail you a small piece of organic wool yarn for nothing if you'd like, I have a skein in my stash at the moment. :-)

[Mama Bird]

Oh you are just the sweetest! I'm very much knitting/crocheting challenged...something about being a lefty and Mom being right-handed. She tried everything to teach me, bless her. How hard is it to learn? I'm certainly very willing to try!

[Naked Camper]

I can't crochet to save my life, but I may be able to teach you to knit. Knitting shouldn't matter too much if you are right or left handed since both hands are working together

[Moon]

I crochet and knit, I can't call one harder than the other, it's apples to oranges. I dove in feet first, frogged out a lot of bad work at first, watched the instructions with every stitch for awhile, and kept trying. There seem to be many people who jive with one but can't make heads or tails out of the other.

www.knittinghelp.com has videos you can watch for getting started if you want to tinker, I don't know of an equivalent newbie site for crochet.

If you want that organic wool yarn scrap just let me know where to send it. :tu

[Mama Bird]

Excellent! I have tons of crochet hooks and knitting needles, courtesy of my Mom, and Knitting and Crocheting for Dummies. I'm going to break those out and do some practice to see if I can't master the arts. I know there are some Mamas here in the town I live in who knit and crochet, so I might have to call upon them for some help. :tu

There is a little family farm here that has a festival for pumpkin season, and I remember a lady there spinning wool yarn that had been sheared and combed. Is that what I should look for? I'd love it if I could support someone local to get the yarn! I'll pm you my address. Thank you so much for your generosity!

[Naked Camper]

the knitting site Moon mentioned really helped me to figure out how to knit.

[Mama Bird]

Thank you for that link! I'm going to run to town today and grab some cheap-o yarn and try the baby bib that's on that website you recommended! :rockon

Wow! I just checked and there is a yarn shop in a town not at all far from us! They carry wool yarns, and I saw some undyed ones as well. The ones I saw were just under $7/skein. How many skeins do you use per soaker? (off to check some online patterns...) I'm so excited about making something for Josiah! :heart

[Naked Camper]

where did you see the bib pattern? I'm really liking the finger puppet idea. I may make some for DS for Christmas or his birthday :)

[Mama Bird]

where did you see the bib pattern? I'm really liking the finger puppet idea. I may make some for DS for Christmas or his birthday :)


Here. (http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/getting_started/) :rockon

[Moon]

Ooo I bet that hand spun locally grown stuff would be awesome!


A 4oz skein is enough for most soakers, maybe enough for two newborn soakers. There's a free baby hat pattern at www.littleturtleknits.com (look in the freebie section), that would be a great first project for knitting in the round on circular needles (most soakers are made that way). The baby bib sounds like a perfect first project!

[kingschild]

I know you are thinking about using wool now, which I also recommend. :)

But I wanted to let you know that if you do end up using the ripstop, keep it far away from your dryer.

A friend of mine found out through experience and immediately stopped using it.

I do have one cover I made with cotton and ripstop which is decent for days, as someone else noted.