The World According to Mommy

For my birthday Matt bought me a sewing machine, something I've been wanting for a while. Well, it's been a few weeks now, and I haven't even played around with it or tried to use it at all, because I was afraid it was going to be way too complicated to figure out, and that with my skill level somewhere around zero, I thought I wouldn't be able to do anything with it unless I spent a lot of time practicing.

But last night I decided to bring it out and set it up, because I was going to try my hand at making some diaper inserts. There are many different types of cloth diapers, here are the most common ones, but the majority of my stash is comprised of pocket diapers. There is a little pocket in the back where you slide in one or more absorbent inserts. The inserts draw the moisture away from the skin, so Nate's skin stays pretty dry.

However, lately I've really been getting into prefolds. These are what most people probably think of when they think of cloth diapers. They are the flat (rectangular, really) diapers that you pin up around the baby (yes, I use pins!). I really like the simplicity of them, plus they are the cheapest way to cloth diaper. I was in need of a few more diapers to carry me through from one wash to the next (which occurs every other day), so I decided to buy prefolds instead of more pockets in order to save money. And I have really been liking them.

The problem is that you can't really adjust the absorbency by just throwing an insert into a pocket, because there is no pocket. All of the inserts that I have for my pockets are made of a microfiber-type material, which is great because it can hold a lot of liquid, but you can't put it directly against the baby's skin because it's very drying.

So I've been lovin' the prefolds, but Nate is a super soaker, so I needed some more absorbency. Now, I can buy inserts or doublers, either microfiber ones to add to pockets, or others made out of materials such as fleece, hemp, cotton velour, etc. to put directly against his skin in a prefold, but they can be pricey. They generally cost around $3-4. This probably doesn't sound like a lot, but you need a lot of them. Like I said, with the pockets, I generally do two inserts, times this by seven or eight diapers (or more) a day, times two days worth of diapers....that's a lot of inserts. And a lot of diapers. Thus the need for a cheaper solution. Enter the prefolds and the homemade inserts.

Yes friends, homemade inserts. Walgreens was having a sale on microfiber towels (used for household cleaning, drying your car, etc.), 12 for $5, and they also had flannel receiving blankets on sale for $0.50 each.

So last night I gathered my materials, and I got to work.

The microfiber towels were already the correct length, so I just folded them into thirds and sewed the edges together.

Then I cut one of the receiving blankets down to the correct size, covered the microfiber towel (so that Nate would have soft flannel against his bum instead of the microfiber), then sewed the edges of the blanket together.

I was able to get four covers out of one blanket, so the total cost for each insert came to $0.54. And they were so easy to make! Just a couple of straight stitches, and voila!...inserts to keep Nate clean and dry!