A Diaper Cover And A SleepSack

I’ve made two more diapers this week, and retired two that were getting a bit too snug.  This evening I made a diaper cover out of an old, wool sweater that had been felted.  It’s not the fanciest thing ever, but it will definitely get the job done.  I cut the cover out as one long piece, folded it over, sewed up the edges, and cut leg holes.  But then I decided that the leg holes needed some work.  With just holes, we were begging for leaks.  So I cut a cuff off the sweater, cut it in half, and sewed one half to each leg hole.  Instant "poop guards."  The whole thing took me about 30 minutes to make.  The sewing wouldn’t win any awards, but that’s ok.  I used the back of the sweater and one cuff tonight; tomorrow I’ll use the front and the other cuff to make another diaper cover.  I love little projects like this that don’t cost anything and provide tangible benefits for our family.  And recycling materials into new projects always makes me feel good.  Another benefit is that this whole diaper experience has been good practice on the sewing machine.  A year ago, my skills in that department were non-existent.  They’re still not particularly great, but I’m getting better. 

I also came up with a free sleep-sack solution for our son.  He just started sleeping in his own room a few weeks ago.  It’s going great, but his hands are always cold in the mornings.  It doesn’t seem to bother him, but it bothers me.  He wears footsie pajamas with a sleep sack over them, and the rest of him is toasty warm.  But his hands stick out, and I hadn’t figured out a way to cover them.  He’s too young for a blanket, and even if we could put one on him, I’m sure he’d just kick it off.  I tried mittens, but he just pulled them off and chewed on them.  I considered putting him to bed in his snowsuit, which has attached mittens, but he’s basically immobile in the snowsuit (picture the little kid on "A Christmas Story") and I decided that wouldn’t be very comfortable.  But then I came up with an idea that has been working great for the past couple nights.  I dug out a very old sweatshirt from the bottom of my closet.  After I got the baby into his PJs and his sleepsack, I put the sweatshirt on him with just his head sticking out.  The neck is way too big for him, so I safety pinned it closed off to the side.  His hands are inside the sweatshirt, and stay nice and warm.  I pinned the shirt to the sleepsack at the bottom, to keep it from riding up or getting in his face.  So far it’s working great.  I had planned to sew a sleep sack without arm holes, but I came up with the idea of using an adult sweatshirt and I love the simplicity of it.  And that sweatshirt was just taking up space in our closet – now it’s got a second wind.