Totally new to the cloth scene, with some questions

Hello ladies. With my fourth little one on the way, and an every increasing nappy bill and garbage haul every week (DD 1 and 2 still wear something to bed at night, and DD3 is no where close to potty trained), I thought I'd better do some serious thinking about cloth.
I like the idea of a fitted cloth diaper, with a waterproof cover, I think.
Here are my questions:

How many different sizes will I realistically need? I don't think a one-size-fits-all is really going to work well for a newborn to toddler. What are you using?

How many nappies will I probably need in each size? Covers? Liners? Anything else?

If I want to make them myself, where do I find a pattern? How do I find the right kind of material? I can sew a little - have made clothes for my kids, but I'm not an expert by an stretch of the imagination. Is it hard to do? My MIL has a serger, which I'm sure I could borrow if need be.

Do you save money by sewing your own, or does it just allow you more flexibility as far as sizing and material goes?

Are snaps or velcro better in your opinion? I'm leaning towards velcro, because it seems like it would give you more flexibility in the fit, but I've heard it wears out and starts curling, etc. What is your experience?

Any other tips or help you can give would be MUCH appreciated!
Thanks!

I can't help you with the sewing questions - cos I can't sew to save my life.

I think all my fitted nappies are snaps. My velcro ones are AIO's, AI2's or pockets.

One size fits all fitteds (such as baby beehinds and cute tooshies) are pretty good at sizing for small babies - I think Miss M was in the cute tooshies before the baby beehinds, but she had really skinny legs, and we got leg gape with the baby beehinds - didn't get that with the cute tooshies cos its a side snapper and adjusts both at the waist and at the legs. So she was probably in that at a month - and baby beehinds at 6 weeks.

I'm shocking for telling people how many they will need - cos I'm a fan of "I have wayyy too many"... LOL ... so a person who doesn't have an overload of nappies can tell you how many you can manage on. I have two in full time cloth and I can go 5 days without washing if need be...lol

I use PUL or fleece covers during the day, and wool at night.

I've been using cloth for 8 months, and still consider myself a newbie!!! :lol::redface:

Everyone will want something different out of thier nappies babe.... I didn't want the hassle of fitteds and cloth, so I went mainly pockets and AIO's, in OSFA 's.... as I use them on a few kids!!;)

I am now slowly getting rid of my pockets, and buying aIO and AI2 only.. i love them and they work so well on my kids.... but, again, your kids may be different!!

I had a gorgeous cover given to me that I used over terry flats for newborn... and it has converted me....:p I now have ordered more fitteds and covers!!! :rolleyes:

I have a pretty even mixture of snaps and velcro... I like them both for different reasons!! Snaps wash better, but velcro gets a good fit....

I probably didn't help much, but you'll need to find the right one for you... some of the MCN shops sell packages with different types and brands, so you can try them all before you buy too many.... :D

Good luck, and beware, buying gorgeous nappies can be addictive!!! ;)

Hmmm, I think the computer ate my post. :( I was going to ask about wool nappy covers. I can't stand wearing wool myself. Isn't it itchy for babies? Do they use a different sort of wool for the covers?

Hi Cricket,

The fit of the OSFA depends on your bub and the brand you choose. We have been using OSFA since Ari was 5wks old and have had no fit problems but my bubs chub up pretty quickly so we would have grown out of sized nappies way too quickly. If you are looking at sized nappies you can get the most use out of mediums 5-11kg.

Sewing your own - there are a number of ladies who sew there own and you can join a coop to get fabric like bamboo and hemp fleece (nappy body) and microfleece (stay dry liner or fabric against bubs skin) You can of course use flannellette which is available from most fabric stores but bamboo, hemp and microfibre have more absorbtion for the amount of material you need makiing them trimmer.

PUL (the waterproof outer) cuts can be bought from a couple of online stores or you can send in your own fabric to be laminated in some places or you can use fleece (needs to be a specific type) which naturally repeals water.

You can also knit the covers and lanolise them which create a waterproof barrier.

There are a couple of online stores which sell patterns to shorties and longies (knitted covers) and also for the actual nappies if you google cloth nappy patterns you should find a few.

As for how many you will need we stared off with 5 OSFA and 12 flats and every time I didn't buy a packet of disposables I used the money to get another nappy.

Generally a newborn will go through more nappies than any other age and a lot of people prefer prefolds (square with extra layers sewn together in the wet zone which you fold in three) or a trifold (fabric folded in three) /and covers for this time - prefolds/trifolds are really easy to make yourself.

After the initial pooping every change stage you use about 6-8 nappies a day and now we are down to about 4-6 a day. Depends on how often you want to wash but 12-14 MCN is a good place to start off and if you are going to buy them try a mixed pack so you can try out a few different brands before buying up lots of one type.

snaps vrs velcro - most of the commercial nappies use 'hook and loop' which is a stronger version of velcro and it does give a good fit bt bubs can also undo them and if you do get the cheaper variety it can 'wear out' and loose it's grippiness. Snaps are good and there are tricks to getting a good fit. If you are going to make your own you can purchase a snap press and snap your own nappies but they aren't cheap. My hubby isn't fond of snaps as he has big fingers/hands but he doesn't change that many nappies and mostly DD is in just a shirt and a nappy so snaps are a must for us or all our nappies would be off :-)

have fun shopping and beware MCN is very addictive :-)

PS wool covers - depends again on the brand, some are softer than others and some work better than others. My DD didn't like the feel of the machine woven covers but loves her handknitted woolies.

Is there anyone out there who uses mostly prefolds? I have found a Canadian website that carries many different brands of cloth, and explains how they all work, etc, and it seems like prefolds are quite economical, fit most sizes, and are really easy to wash and dry. They carry three different types, two kinds of unbleached indian cotton (I think) for about $3/piece, and one organic hemp and french terry for about $9 a piece. Not sure which kind to pick, either. But anyways, I thought that if I paired them with a "snappi" thing to close them, and then a really good diaper cover, I'd have a system that works pretty well, and isn't too expensive. What do you think? What's the down side here?

Check out the flat nappy discussion thread for info on prefolds and covers. You can also use a flat nappy and add boosters if needed. This way you can adapt for different absorption needed between kids and between day/night/naps.

in terms of sewing, prefolds are pretty easy to make yourself, if you want to go that way. Boosters are easy to make, much easier if you can access the overlocker.

To make good mcn with the proper materials, when just making for yourself, probably doesn't work out much cheaper than buying. You need a good tool to press the snaps, it all adds up.

prefolds are great and easy to dry and very trim, the only downside is that they aren't as absorbant as some of your pockets and AIO.

If you want you don't even need to snappi them you can just fold in three called the pad fold and lay it in the cover. Make sure your cover has gussets for the first few months to help with containment and as for the different types cotton is the least absorbant of the two but trimmer follwed by hemp which is more absorbant but bulkier.

For newborn, I just used the terry flats and a pocket nappy as a cover... and now I can use the pocket nappy as a pocket nappy, so twice the use...... although I will be selling my pockets and only using aio & ai2 now....

I had the terry in either the pad fold or chinese fold and never leaked out.. :lol: