How to Make a Cloth Diaper Pattern

This is how to create a cloth diaper pattern to fit your child, using a diaper you have on hand.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• a cloth diaper that you like the fit of
• pattern paper or computer paper taped together
• pen/pencil
• measuring square
• measuring tape

1. 

   Place diaper on table.
   Measure full front of width of diaper

2. 

   Measure the width of the crotch area.

3. 

   Measure the width of the back of the diaper
   
   If the area has elastic (like the back of the dipe) you need to be sure that you are measuring the full piece of fabric, so stretch that puppy WAY out.

4. 

   Measure the full rise of the diaper from front edge to back edge.

5. 

   Now that you've got your measurements, jot them down on the corner of your paper. Do it in pencil, b/c they might change a bit. (mine changed, so don't be shocked when you see different numbers there later).
   
   Also, I have to make a few adjustments along the way in my pattern b/c since I'm using a diaper COVER it's a little bigger than an actual diaper would need to be (in order to cover the full diaper). IF you're measuring from a diaper, you should be okay without much adjusting.

6. 

   Take your "back of the diaper" measurement (mine was 17) and draw a straight 17" line on the bottom of your paper. Mark the center.

7. 

   Take your rise measurement and draw that length (17" on mine) up from the center marker

8. 

   You should have somethin' like this

9. 

   Now at the top of your rise line, make a line as long as the front of the diaper measurement. On mine that was 8 inches, so I lined up the rise-line with the number "4" on my measuring board, and then drew a line 4 inches to the left of the rise and 4 inches to the right.
   
   Then go a little less than 1/2 way down your rise line, and draw a line the same length as your middle measurement (the crotch of the diaper).

10. 

    At this point, I took 2 more measurements.
    I measured from the top of the front of the diaper to where the elastic for the leg started (the front rise)

11. 

    And I measured the thickness of the tabs that would come around her body. I did adjust this # a little, b/c i don't love how this cover fits her.
    
    Add to measurement list

12. 

    Take your front rise measurement (mine was 4") and measure 4 inches down from the top line on each end
    
    Take your measuring board and complete those lines straight down

13. 

    If you feel fairly confident that your crotch line is where you want it to be, you can go ahead and do this (like I did) or you can adjust if need be...
    but from here, you'll sketch out from the bottom of the front rise lines to the crotch line, giving it a curved leg shape.

14. 

    If you feel fairly confident that your crotch line is where you want it to be, you can go ahead and do this (like I did) or you can adjust if need be...
    but from here, you'll sketch out from the bottom of the front rise lines to the crotch line, giving it a curved leg shape.

15. 

    I then took the width of the tabs that I had written down previously, and I measured that distance up from the edges of the bottom line. Then I took my board and drew straight lines going up that distance (mine was like 3" i think). From there, I sketched out from the leg lines, into the tab lines.

16. 

    Shape your tabs to your preference
    
    erase unnecessary lines
    
    Trace with a pen/marker and add a roughly .5" seam allowance around entire panel.

17. 

    For the sake of conserving paper, take the scraps and cut out your soaker panel. Make it as large as you prefer.
    I happened to find a scrap that was exactly the size I wanted.

Tips & Warnings

• It is strongly recommended to not identically copy any diaper design. Use a diaper you have on hand to get approximate measurements so that you are able to create your own diaper design with a perfect fit for your child.

Resources

• Making a Diaper Pattern

[yusuf77]

on 8/8/2009 very nice.. ..