Friday, October 10, 2008

Converting Pocket Dipes to Pass-Thru Pocket Dipes

YAY!! No more standing over the diaper pail shaking out diaper innards from my pocket diapers! Even better, no more having to fish them out with my fingers if they're being stubborn. I am not squeemish, but still, I am not so fond of standing over a dirty diaper pail.

Well, now I've solved my problem. I'd seen pocket diapers online that have an opening at each end so the insert just comes out in the wash. I've sewn a few of these even, and they work great. But I already had a collection of only-one-end-opening diapers and figured I just had to deal with those. I didn't want to spend the time to make a whole new diaper stash. Then the other day it occurred to me that it would be really easy to just make a second opening in the dipes I already have and sure enough it IS super easy and it works! Now I can just toss these in the wash without removing the insert and they wash up just fine. Here's what I did (I have some dipes with a front opening and some with a back opening, I think most diapers have the back opening, so I'll show that):


First I sewed down the fleece across the front. ( In my diaper shown it was not already top stitched and I didn't want the inner fabric popping up out once it was cut.) I just sewed across the velcro strip. If it had snaps I think I would have sewn it down below the snaps line.


Then I snipped open about a 5 inch cut just below the stitching line. Fleece won't unravel so I didn't have to finish this edge. I was feeling paranoid about all the washing these get though, so to help the strength I zigzagged back and forth at each end of the cut, just to reinforce where it might get the most tugging.


And there you have it. Done. It looked just the same as before once I had it on him.


Here's one that has a front opening. For this I had to stretch out the elastic in the back as I sewed down the fleece. Other than that the process was just the same. You can see in this picture where I reinforced the opening with zigzags- that thicker stitching at each end of the stitched line.

If you have any questions just leave a comment and I'll answer them in the comment section!
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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey thanks for the nice comment on my blog! i'm also prepping for a craft show in november, although i only get a 4'x4' booth, yikes! love your diaper solution, very clever!
good luck with the etsy shop!

 
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