Preparing for a Newborn- adventures in cloth diaper making

Please let me note, this blog isn't going to be all about cloth diapers and babies.. That said it is a huge part of my life right now, and honestly probably due to the fact that I am all pumped up with hormones ready to have a baby, its all I really think about lately.. Trust me, I will write about other things soon enough! In fact I am drafting a blog post this week on Renewable Energy with an interview with the site manager of a local wind project.. LOL aka my hubs!

Anyways now onto what I have been up to.. It's been a short 9 months, they aren't kidding when they say the second one around goes two times as fast!
As you might have guessed we have been making alot of preparations for the new little guy. Cleaning all the baby clothes, rebuilding all the baby furniture, buying new stuff we didn't have the dough for from the first babe, and of course cleaning the house like a crazy person.. (ok that's just me and by now you would think I would see it is pointless) Silly hormones.

Another adventure I embarked on recently was, I decided the 12 onesize cloth diapers I already have wasnt enough, and that I needed to make this baby some newborn cloth diapers for him to wear in the month or so before he fits in the onesize diapers. You see onesize diapers are great and all but if you have a baby under 8lbs the onesize diapers can be too bulky. Not to mention I seriously love my cloth diaper stash and until the umbilical cord and circumscion is healed I dont really want to risk getting them ruined with vasoline. If you have no clue what I am talk about here, might just want to give up with this post now, I am up late writing this and I am too tired to go into further details.. Might want to refer to my blog post about why I use cloth diapers.

So on to the making of these newborn cloth diapers!!

I had been searching for a pattern forever that included aplix closure, **double leg gussets**, onesize or sized option and a pul outer, microfleece inner pocket design. Well I finally found it! Huge thanks to Krista at Rocket Bottoms!! She made the perfect pattern I had been searching for.. After reading over the pattern I wrote down the list of supplies I would need, and started researching.
Not going to lie, it took me a week and a half or so to track down all the materials I really needed to start this project. Sure I could have drivin to JoAnns and bought the materials all there but for one that is 45 min drive and with boo boo a huge headache! (men and craft stores just dont get along no matter what age they are) So I went with the online option hoping to get some better quality diaper supplies.

Heres what I found:
Loop fabric- ComfyCreations:.$0.55/yd 2"
Natures Fabrics $9/yd 6"
CDMF- (Cuddle Dry Microfleece) ComfyCreations, Sewit, KITG YG- yahoo groups
Diaper Sewing supplies- 6.29/yd

PUL Prints- RocketDiaper Ebay, Diaper Sewing supplies, Kids in the Garden, Wazoodle
Mint Zoo- 12.50/yd
Retro Owls
Grey Ice Giraffe

Notions: Diaper Sewing Supplies, Wazoodle
Elastic- .38/yd
hook tab-.78/yd

6 diapers from 1.5 yards
=$8/ diaper

After a week I got all my materials from 3 different people. I cut out my pattern and started on my sample diaper, that I was making with spare materials I already had on hand.

The pattern and instructions were very easy to follow for a novice sewer like myself. I did have to log on to her blog to see the video of her doing the welt pocket opening to figure that out but it was pretty simple once I saw her do it. The inner leg gussets could use a video instructional if you ask me but I figured it out and mine turned out fine.. It's just a little not clear about where to pin down in the right places..
The first one I thought didn't turn out half bad, and I didn't pull my hair out trying to figure it out so I considered that a good sign to proceed with making the rest. LOL

Once I got all my materials I was super pumped to start!! I cut out the PUL and CDMF for three newborn sized cloth diapers all at once.

At 34 weeks it was a hustle to maneuver the floor to cut those bad boys out (what was I thinking starting this now?) LOL

Next day I started on the first one, sewing the inner top & bottom, & welt pocket, then pinning to outer and sewing all around, adding back and leg elastic and then turn & topstitching. I found it is really hard to stop sewing one diaper once I got going and I planned to make one each day while Boo Boo was at preschool. That gives me 3 hours. I was so happy when I finished this one because it turned out a heck of alot better looking than the sample diaper I had made..
The next 2 diapers went smoothly and I am very satisfied with them, just hope they fit good, and we can get some used out of them. I will do a followup post on my review of the fit and sizing on the new baby, with pictures of course!