By Beth Flumignan – Cheeky Diapers

One of the best things about cloth diapering is that you have a million options to build your stash. Cloth diapering fits every budget.  If you want to buy new, used or sew your own the information below will point you in the right direction.

Frugal Ways to Purchase New Diapers

• Seconds: Many name brand diapers sell seconds—which means the stitching may be off a little or they got dirty in transit, etc. The diapers are still perfectly functional just not perfect. The best way to find these deals is to simply Google “cloth diaper seconds” different cloth diaper stores will run specials on seconds for limited times.

• Buy from WAHM’s: There are thousands of amazing WAHM’s out there that sell high quality diapers at EXTREMELY reasonable prices. Plus you get the customer service that only another mom can provide. The links below are just a couple of market places to find WAHM made products :

▪ Hyena Cart

▪ Etsy

• Frequent the Blogosphere: There are so many really great cloth diapering blogs out there that not only provide a lot of great information and reviews—they also offer giveaways. All you have to do is take the time to enter and win. Here are some of the most popular:

▪ Dirty Diaper Laundry

▪ The Cloth Diaper Report

• Sarah, from Sarah’s Stitches is a wonderful WAHM with a big heart for the Cloth Diaper Foundation. She has graciously added options for Cloth Diaper Foundation recipients as well as to purchase covers to donate directly to us. Thank you, Sarah!

Purchase/Trade For Used Diapers

I know it sounds gross but if you are purchasing/trading them from a reputable seller they will be clean and sanitized. There is actually a HUGE market for EUC, excellent used condition, cloth diapers out there. Just be a good shopper, ask questions, check their seller ratings and don’t be afraid to bargain. Then when you are done cloth diapering—sell them yourself!

▪ Diaperswappers

▪ Mothering Discussion Boards

▪ Diaper Pin

▪ Craigslist

▪ Hyena Cart Spots Corner

Make Your Own Diapers and Cloth Diapering Accessories

It’s not as hard as it sounds. In some cases you don’t even need a sewing machine just an old  receiving blanket and a video off of YouTube! There are a million tutorials, free patterns, and patterns for sale out there that take minimal sewing skills. Plus the materials that you need to make them are often times languishing in the back of your closet or are available at your local  sewing supply store. Don’t be intimated—you may be surprised what a little research, ingenuity, and time can get you.

• Cloth Diaper Sewing Kits

Diaper kits arrive at your door with all the materials you need and with directions to sew. All you have to do is make time to do it.

▪ Diaper Kits

▪ Kayla’s Cloth Kits

Free Cloth Diaper Tutorials

▪ Sew Cheeky

A blog that provides tutorials and reviews of popular cloth diaper sewing patterns.

▪ Diapersewing.com
Sew Your Own Diapers–how to’s for sewing “Quick-Dry” AIOs, Fitted, Fitted with Velcro, Fitted Front Snap, Fitted Side Snap, AIO, Pre-Fold, Pre-Fold to Fitted diapers, Ultrex/PUL with Snaps Cover, Fleece with Snaps cover, plus measurements of popular fitted diapers, FAQs, and approximate costs of materials to sew your own diapers.

▪ Cloth Diaper Sew-Along
With Kayla from Kayla’s Cloth Kits great pictures and easy to follow instructions.

▪ Swim Diaper Sew-Along
Also with Kayla from Kayla’s Cloth Kits great pictures and easy to follow instructions.

▪ How to Sew a FuzziBunz-type Pocket Diaper

▪ How to Sew a FuzziBunz-style Pocket Diaper With an Envelope Opening

▪ How to Sew a Fitted Diaper

▪ How to Make Your Own Diaper Inserts
For pocket diapers, would also work as lay-ins with a cover or as doublers

▪ How to Make Contour Diapers from Prefolds

▪ The Famous Fortune Cookie Tri-Fold Insert
Uses microfiber towel

▪ Sewing Diapers from Recycled Materials
How to make Flatfolds, Prefolds and Fitted diapers from stuff around the house.

▪ How to Make Fitteds From T-Shirts

▪ How to Sew a Wool Cover

▪ How to Sew “Sweaterpants”

▪ How to Sew a Prefold “The Real Way”

▪ How to Sew a Prefold
Either by using padding for the center or using a single piece of cloth

▪ How to Sew Your Own Prefolds in 7 Easy Steps

▪ How to Add Leg Gussets to a Diaper

▪ Picture Tutorial on How to Get Fleece to Roll In Easy
For leg elastic on Pocket Diapers.

▪ How to Make Pull-On Trainers From a Pair of Underwear

▪ A Comparison of 3 Popular Free Diaper Patterns–Wee Weka, Mamabird, and Ottobre

▪ How to Make A Zippered Wet Bag

▪ How to Sew Different Diaper Styles From The Very Baby Pattern
These methods can be applied to “any” diaper pattern. Also includes tutorials on FOE, repairing elastic, and more.

• Free Cloth Diaper Patterns

▪ Rita’s Rump Pocket
One-Size-Fits-Most Fitted Pocket Diaper—PDF pattern, as well as a new one-size-fits-most H&L “granny tab” diaper cover.

▪ Mama Bird Diapers
The very popular Mama Bird diaper patterns–if you get the data transfer limit error from Geocities, try again later! Patterns for Fitted, AIO, and Pocket diapers. This pattern runs small.

▪ Wee Weka Diaper Patterns
Patterns and tutorials on how to sew pocket diapers, pocket diapers with gussets, elastic casing, and fitteds.

▪ MatNap fitted diaper pattern for use with a Snappi
It looks like you could easily add hook-and-loop or snaps to close, or use with pins—her instructions use a large beach towel & say you can get 3 diapers out of one towel.

▪ How to Make a PUL Pocket Diaper With Fleece Waistband That Fastens in the Back

▪ How to Draft Your Own Fitted Diaper Pattern

▪ How to Draft Your Own Diaper Cover Pattern

▪ One-Size Fitted Diaper

▪ Comfy T-shaped Diaper Pattern
Not printable but easy to draw for yourself.

▪ Ottobre Fitted Diaper Pattern
This pattern runs large.

▪ Ottobre Knitted Wool Diaper Cover Pattern

▪ Fern and Faerie’s Hand-Knit Soaker Pattern

▪ Lion Brand “Day-to-Night Felted Soaker” knitting pattern
You will need to register to view the pattern, but it is free!

▪ Miala Diaper Cover Pattern (Size medium only)
Also soft baby shoe pattern and links to a variety of other free patterns

▪ Free Side-Snapping Diaper Cover Pattern from Chloe Toes

▪ AIO Pattern (size medium only, other sizes available to purchase)
Also a free changing pad cover pattern, wet bag pattern, and tapered sling pattern.

▪ No Elastic Fleece Pull-Up Cover
It would probably work with wool too.

▪ Side-snapping Waterproof Training Pants

▪ How to Make Your Own “Bum Sweater”
In other words longies from a wool sweater.

▪ How to Make Your Own “Bum Sweater” Soaker From a Wool Sweater

▪ Cloth Diaper Sewing
Patterns and How-Tos for Flatfold Diapers, Gusseted Diapers, Covers, Knit Soakers, Training Pants and more.

▪ Crochet Longies Pattern

▪ Tiny Birds Free Knit Soaker Pattern

▪ Free patterns list at the WAHM Mall

▪ Free Knit/Crochet/Sewn Diapering Patterns

▪ Collection of Knit/Crochet and Recycled Wool Diaper Cover Patterns

▪ Aubrey Doodles Knit Longies
A knitting pattern for longies–has a drawstring waist.

▪ Little Comet Tails Patterns
A group of covers, longies, dresses, and training pants.

▪ Katrina’s Sew Quick
A group of longies and skirties patterns.

▪ All-In-Two Wool Training Pants
Wool shorties with a snap in soaker.

Known Issues with Donated Diapers

To read about possible known issues with diapers sent to our recipients and how to fix the problems, please view our KNOWN ISSUES page.  We discontinued sending this out with all of the packages in July 2009 to reduce costs and waste.

Laundering

- Is my detergent cloth diaper friendly? Find out by viewing this PDF courtesy of Linda from Happy Heinys.

- My diapers are new. Should I do anything special? If you have new prefolds, you will want to wash and dry them on HOT several times before use. Make sure you dry them between washings to help quilt them for maximum absorbency. If you have new PUL diapers, you will need to wash and dry them on HOT before the first use to ensure the PUL seals around the stitch holes. If you have wool, please refer to Granola Babies for care. All other diapers will need to be washed and dried before first use.

- How do I wash my cloth diapers? Everyone eventually comes up with their own washing system depending on what works for them. You will find many different washing routine examples online, so try to take those and tweek them to fit your needs! Here is an article from Diaper Jungle as well as a different, yet simliar perspective from Green Mountain Diapers.

Using Prefolds

- How do I fold my prefolds? Take a look at Green Mountain Diapers for anything you need to know about folding prefolds! The site is complete with “how to” pictures.

Building a Cloth Diaper “Stash”

- Where can I buy cloth diapers on a small budget? Miracle Diapers is excited that you want to expand your new cloth diaper “stash”. There are many ways to obtain cloth diapers at low cost. We suggest that you join a few cloth diapering/natural living forums, yahoo groups, as well as local support groups if available. View our list of websites that may be useful.

Stinky, Leaky, non-Absorbent, Irritating, or Discolored Diapers?

We may have a solution for ya! Bummis.com was kind enough to share their prepared “Residues” information with us!

From the file – “We believe that residues are now the single most important issue in troubleshooting problems with cloth diaper users.”

If this sounds like some issues you are having with your diapers, please check our their “Residues.pdf” file!

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to help you get a jump start in cloth diapering your child.

The diapers that we send to recipients are received to us by donation and may or may not be perfect.  Many of our donated diapers are either previously loved or are of second quality.  We are very grateful for the donations that we receive from gracious people all over the United States and abroad.

Per the agreement that every recipient must sign before receiving a package of diapers:
*I understand that all manufacturer warranties on diapers sent to me are voided, and they are not to be returned to, replaced by, or repaired by the manufacturer.

We would love to be able to send all of our applicants a full set of cloth diapers as well as all of the accessories and extras to go with their new start up stash, but we are not always able to do so.  We send out what we have available to be sent.  We may have a wealth of pocket diapers and covers, but we do not always have inserts to send with the pocket diapers.  If you do not receive any inserts, please remember that you can use anything around the house to stuff your pocket diapers including dish towels, wash rags, prefolds, cut up tshirts or sweatshirts, clean socks, receiving blankets, etc.

Blueberries
Prefacing this issue, we would like to say upfront that Bluberry Diapers was kind enough to donate thousands of second quality diapers to our organization.  We’d also like to state that hundreds of the Blueberry diapers have been used without issue.

If you are receiving new, never worn Blueberry pocket or stuffable AIO diapers, please note that they may or may not have one or both of the following problems.

Elastic Issues – There has been report that some of the diapers have less than securely stitched elastic.  To ensure this is not a problem for you, if you’re able, please stitch (either by hand or machine) the elastic at both ends so that it does not pop. Please view this photo for a better understanding.  Stitched Elastic (Please understand that The Cloth Diaper Foundation does not have the resources, at this time, to have the diapers stitched before sending them out.  Please do not think you will ruin the diapers if you stitch them and they do not look cosmetically perfect.  We understand.)

PUL Issues – The PUL in your Blueberry Diapers may or may not be faulty.  It may be as simple as sealing the PUL. You may do this by washing and drying on VERY hot and high heat (you can add boiling water if needed).  PUL was designed for the medical industry to withstand extremely high heats, so it is ok to do this.  We include a cover with every set of Blueberry diapers we send in case there is a PUL problem. Remember, not all leak issues mean that the PUL is defective or that the diaper will not work for you.  There could be several reasons for leaks including absorbency of inserts and or wash routine.  Make sure you are using fabric/materials that are absorbent enough to keep up with your child!  If you need more covers, you may request them from us for shipping costs.  Please note that we will not replace the Blueberries if they have leaking issues, but we will help you with making them work by providing covers for shipping costs.

If you have issues with your Blueberry Diapers, please visit this discussion page with many, many suggestions from our readers and testers on how you can make them work for you.

WAHMIES One Size Pockets

Although we do not recommend using bleach on ANY diapers, the manufacturer has asked that we inform you to not use bleach on these OS pockets.  Some of these diapers have had PUL separation issues, but are completely functional regardless.  Please note that we will not replace these diapers if there is a separation issue.  If you do have a problem, please treat the diaper as a pocket fitted and use a cover to make it waterproof.

If you’ve been using your diapers with no leak issues, and all of a sudden they start leaking, it could be your wash routine.  In that case, view our resources link provided on the back of this page or contact your chapter manager for help with washing.

gDiapers

If you are a recipient of gDiapers covers, with few or no inserts, please understand that we send what we have.  Anything that can be folded up to fit in the liner of the gDiapers cover will be perfect for diapering your baby.  Please do not use the gDiapers cover as a regular diaper cover, as it will leak.  You must use it a long with the liner and insert inside the liner for it to work properly.  They are not designed to be used as a regular diaper cover.

If you have any questions regarding the diapers you have been sent and you do not find your answers on the website, please feel free to contact your Chapter Manager.  We strive to help this be a great adventure for you and your family.  We are here to help you get a start cloth diapering your baby, and we hope that you have a positive experience with the diapers that you receive.

Please remember that we are a nonprofit organization, and we do what we do so that the babies we serve can have the best for their bottoms and so that we can help you do your part in reducing landfill waste and saving a little money at the same time.  We hope you understand that we are not always able to provide brand new, top of the line, first quality products and accessories, but we would love to help you find ways to make what you have, and what we have sent, work for you.

BUILD YOUR OWN STASH!!!

Please contact your chapter manager if you are in need of advice on how to build your own stash with very little money.  Frugal diapering can be done, and we would love to help you get into your own diapers!

Thank you,

The Cloth Diaper Foundation Team

If you elected to receive a tax receipt, please remember that we send them once per quarter (end of March, June, September, December).

We appreciate your support, and we look forward to utilizing your donation to help families get a jump start in cloth diapering.

Currently, we offer the following products:

Rockin’ Green Cloth Diaper Detergent and Pail Shakers
Drybees AIO Diapers
Little Bean Diapers and WipesUrban Fluff iCandy Systems and One Size Diapers
SoftBums One Size PerfectFit Diapering Systems
Rocky Mountain Pocket Diapers
Cheeky Diapers Pockets and Covers
Knickernappies One Size Pocket Diapers and Menstrual Pads
Pregnancy Test Strips

We hope to add more products to our store very soon!  Please check back often.