How to Make a Pair of Frilly Diaper Covers

Frilly diaper covers can add flair to basic cloth diapers.

Homemade diaper covers give parents a cheap, easy way to cover cloth diapers or to cover boring disposable diapers if the baby is wearing a fancy dress. Making a pair of these frilly diaper covers is fairly easy if you have basic sewing skills and access to some specialized material and sewing notions. Decorate your diaper covers to match a dress or with your favorite colors.

Things You'll Need

• Polyurethane laminate, wool or fleece
• Diaper pattern
• Thread
• Sewing Machine
• Scissors
• Velcro
• Foldover elastic

Instructions

Making the Diaper

1. Choose your diaper fabric. Most diaper covers are made from polyurethane laminate (PUL), wool or fleece. PUL is easy to wash; however, some people prefer wool because it is a natural fiber. If you have a hard time finding PUL at your local retailer, you should be able to find it online fairly easily. Search for a manufacturer that advertises the material for use in making cloth diaper covers. Choose a bright cover, one that will look good with frilly embellishments.

2. Cut out four pieces of material in diaper form to make two diaper covers. You can purchase a cloth diaper pattern, but if you would like to make one without the expense of purchasing a pattern, you can lay out one of your cloth diapers or a diaper cover and trace it. This will not give you exact measurements, but it is a free way to figure out how big the cover needs to be. After you make the first cover, try it on your baby, and then you can adjust the size for the second one if you need to.

3. Place two pieces of the fabric together with the wrong sides facing. These two pieces will make one diaper cover.

4. Sew the two pieces together.

5. Pin and sew Velcro. Cut about four or five inches of the loop part of the Velcro and sew it to the front top of the diaper cover. Cut two pieces, one-inch long each, of the hook side of the Velcro and pin and sew those to the inside of the diaper wings, which are the top sides. When you are finished, the folded diaper should hook closed with Velcro.

Adding Embellishments

1. Purchase a bright or girly color of fold-over elastic (FOE). FOE is sold by the yard.

2. Wrap the FOE over the edges of your diaper cover. The FOE serves as a way to cover your sewn edges, and it also adds stretch to the diaper cover to help hold in messes.

3. Sew the FOE around the edges of your diaper cover using a loose zigzag stitch.

4. Pull the FOE tight when you get around the leg opening area of the diaper cover to make it stretchier.

5. Embellish your finished diaper covers with an iron-on patch or embroidery to give them the frilly design you prefer. You can also sew rows of eyelet fabric or ribbon to the rear-end of the cloth diaper covers to give them a frilly look that will look good under a dress.

References

• Kayla's Cloth Kits: Swim Diaper Sew Along
• Dianna's Journal: How to Sew a Fitted Cloth Diaper