Before our son was born, my mother and I made about two dozen diapers for him. We followed a pattern we found online, and made the medium size diapers. We thought they would fit him for about 4 – 6 months. When he was born, he was just under 7 lbs. Now he’s 13.5 lbs, and ten weeks old. I guess he didn’t get the memo about babies doubling their birth weight by six months. I could tell by the time he was a month old that the diapers were not going to last long. But I couldn’t bear to see all that work go to waste, and I didn’t want to start over right away with another huge diaper-making project. So I improvised. I bought a used sewing machine, and started adding wings to the back of all his diapers. It was much easier than starting from scratch to make bigger diapers, and didn’t require any new material. I used offcuts that we had saved from the original diaper project. I just removed the velcro tabs from the back of the diaper (the parts that wrap around to the front when the diaper is on the baby), and set them aside. Then I cut rectangles of fabric about 6 inches by 8 inches, folded them in half and sewed them into little pockets. Then I slipped the pockets over the existing wings on the back of the diaper (where the velcro had been) and sewed them to the diaper. Then I sewed the velcro back on, at the ends of the wings. Before I altered them, the diapers still fit just fine everywhere except the waist. They just weren’t big enough to go around his waist and fasten in front anymore. Now with three or four inches of extra waistband on each side, he has room to grow. The wings overlap by a few inches on his little belly, so they’ll fit him for a while. Eventually I’ll have to make new diapers for him, but for now it was a lot easier, cheaper (free!), and faster to just add a bit of fabric to the nearly-new diapers we already had.
Our diapers were very inexpensive to begin with, although we had a lot of time invested in them. But if you bought expensive fitted cloth diapers that are not adjustable, a fast-growing baby could be quite a budget buster. Adding wings could solve the problem without having to go buy a bunch of new diapers.
What have you done lately to improvise and get by with what you have, instead of buying something new?
Kelly says
When I decided to go with cloth diapers, I really did my research. I can sorta sew, but not enough to make my own diapers, so I purchased some online. I bought some Fuzzi Bunz in the medium size. They fit 15-30 lbs. I also bought some Bum Genius 3.0 Onesize. The are reported to fit 7-35 pounds, you just adjust the snaps. I spent a good deal of money, but considering how much I had spent the first 3 months in disposables, I figured out that I would break even before my daughter was a year old (probably before the end of this year, when she is 9 months)and then there will still be at least another year before she is potty trained. I know that it wasn’t as frugal as making my own, but I still feel it was a sound economical decision, not to mention the eco impact and the fact that they are so much better for baby because there aren’t all these weird chemicals that make them super absorbent.
Frugal Trenches says
Reminds me of what I wrote today.
I’m learning to improvise with food, clothing, gifts…so good for the finances!
Michelle says
The real question here for being frugal is… is it more econimical using cloth verses plastic diapers??? When planning these type of projects you also have to figure in the price of soap,water and gas expenses it takes to wash the cloth diapers. From what I can figure looking at my figures your not saving much.
Frugal Babe says
Michelle,
I’m curious what figures you’re looking at. If you make your own cloth diapers from used material, the cost of cloth doesn’t even come close to the cost of disposables. We spent $20 on fabric at a thrift store. I had enough left over the make a ring sling too. I spent $45 on the sewing machine, but that obviously is useful for far more than just diapers. I use 1/2 cup baking soda and 1/2 cup vinegar for each diaper wash, along with 2 tablespoons of detergent. I buy all three of these very inexpensive cleaning products at Costco. I never dry diapers in the dryer – they dry on a clothes rack, for free. I looked at our water bill last month, and it’s actually less than last year at this time, so the diapers obviously aren’t adding a significant amount of water. Our total expenses for diapers so far is $20 for fabric, $10 for a container of all natural detergent that still has about 90% of it left, $6 for two jugs of vinegar, and $8 for two huge bags of baking soda. But I use the vinegar and baking soda to clean everything in our house, so it’s not really fair to count that whole cost towards diapers. But for argument’s sake, I will. So $44. And our son is almost 3 months old. The cleaning supplies I have will last at least another 4 months, so at 7 months we’ll still be at the same price figure, plus a tiny amount for water. Trust me, it’s a fraction of the cost of disposables.
Donna Freedman says
Frugal Babe,
My niece made cloth diapers out of two pieces of cloth, with shop rags — I kid you not — in between. She used the most absorbent variety available, she says, and sewed them in between the other two parts. It was almost like quilting! The diapers work really well on her little guy, who’s now almost two. She still had some diaper covers left from her first child, and I believe she got some more from Freecycle. She’d been using disposables but the cost was prohibitive. Washing diapers isn’t nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be, she says.
I can attest to that, having used only cloth diapers with my daughter, many years ago. For about a year, I washed them by hand, on a scrubboard because I was too broke to afford the laundromat. Not something I’d recommend, actually. Washing machines do make it easier, and I second you on the drying racks or clotheslines. It not only saves money and energy, it makes your clothing (and diapers) last longer.
Enjoyed your post.
Best regards,
Donna Freedman