Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tutorial Tuesday - The 30 second improvised cloth diaper pull-up!

I know this is not recycled wool, but I have a lot of cloth diapering readers, and figured it might help someone out in the same situation as me. My 4 year old has been potty trained for over 2 years now, but sleeps deeply and wets at night. He has outgrown his cloth trainers, and nobody seems to make anything in his size, and when they do they are expensive. I'd hate to invest in a bunch of expensive trainers, when we are hoping he will not need them anymore, at any moment. I am a novice sewer, so there's no way i'd be able to figure out the elastic, etc. to make proper trainers for him myself, so I came up with this:

It ain't pretty, but it works, and it takes all of 30 second to make! I took a pair of Gerber training underwear (any underwear would work, but I liked the added protection of the thick middle),

and sewed a Thirsties doubler/insert (any doubler/insert would do) and sewed it to the outside of the underwear at both ends. I added a few stitches on the sides as well to help hold in addition doublers/inserts that I will slip between the doubler & the underwear.The stitching is hard to see in the pic, so I added the arrows to show where I sewed.

Now I have a customizable protection cloth pull-up that fits my son. I, of course, use a recycled wool cover over that ;)

They have already been, um... tested... and work great! When he no longer wets at night, I can remove the insert with a seam ripper, and will have a pair of underwear & insert again to pass on.
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8 comments:

  1. LoraJanuary 19, 2010 at 6:33 AM

    First of all--Posted at 4:00 AM????

    Second--I may try this for my special needs 11 year old. Obviously bigger, but it might just do what I need. The expensive pair we bought was way too bulky for him to wear. And if he doesn't wear it, it doesn't work...

    Third--Thanks for the kind words about Felted Woolies in your next post!!! I recognize those monsters!!!

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  2. ResweaterJanuary 19, 2010 at 6:53 AM

    I don't always have time to blog, but I like to start each morning with a new post on my blog, so I scheduled the post in advance. There's an option to set your time for it to go live, but the time is a different time zone. When I set it for 4am, it goes live here at 6am.

    I hope they work for you!

    I was so happy when I saw Felted Woolies started a shop. I had been admiring her cute monsters before that on her blog.

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  3. LisaJanuary 19, 2010 at 11:51 AM

    That's a good idea. We have similar issues here too.

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  4. AnnaJanuary 19, 2010 at 12:42 PM

    What a great idea! thats exactly what my sister and I had in mind for adopted Daughter 2B. I am thrifty that way....... I hadnt thought about leaving it as a pocket so I am glad you had that idea before me. Are you able to make the wool covers large enough? Last we heard DD2B was 32 lbs. I havent seen a free pattern to knit them that I liked yet. Any ieas?

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  5. ResweaterJanuary 19, 2010 at 12:58 PM

    Anna, I don't know how to knit (yet), so I make all recycled wool longies & soakers for my son. I use Katrina's free soaker pattern, but customize it. I describe how I make them, with the link to Katrina's free soaker pattern, in this post:

    http://resweater.blogspot.com/2009/09/4x4-longies.html

    I have no problem making them big enough for my son. I just use larger sweaters now, so the sleeves are long enough. For reference, my son is 35lbs and thin, so I use Katrina's size L for the width, but XL for the height (you'll be able to tell how I did that if you look at her pattern). I always make a long fold over waist, so as he gets taller I can unfold it.

    HTH!

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  6. Sewing-ChickJanuary 19, 2010 at 8:06 PM

    Thanks for the birthday wishes :) I actually thought of you while out thrifting yesterday because sweaters were only a buck!

    I wish I could get motivated enough to use cloth diapers, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I even sewed myself several before my son was born, but now they sit collecting dust!

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  7. UnknownJanuary 20, 2010 at 5:35 AM

    You are so innovative! I love this idea, although I'm hoping we won't have to use it...

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  8. The Sewing DorkJanuary 23, 2010 at 7:03 PM

    Good idea! I did something similar because my diaper-wearing child puts up a fight about wearing diapers, so I fooled her with these "big girl undies". To make them even more appealing, I iron-on transferred a few kittens on the bum. My mom was rolling her eyes...she thinks she was the saint of parenting and that she'd never have to resort to such lows.

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