Using Flour Sack Towels as Flat diapers

I restocked on Flour sack towels I bought from Walmart, in preparation for my second baby due next month. They run about $5 for 5 of them.

I use flour sack towels as flats for my 18 month old toddler. They are cheap and easy to use. They clean thoroughly, dry quickly, and I get a perfect customized fit every time. I can increase absorbancy either by folding together two towels, or by adding an insert or microfiber towel.

I never have to strip clean the flour sack towels. I only have "stink" issues with my other diapers. The inserts and fitteds. With those I have to strip clean them every few months, but my flour sack towel diapers are always ready to go.

Many of the negative reviews I hear about using flour sack towels as diapers, I have personally not experienced. I've heard people complain that they are not very absorbent. By themselves, the flour sack towels where absorbent enough for my son to wear for 2-3 hours, up until he was almost a year old, after that is when I starting adding inserts, or trifolded microfiber towels to increase the absorbancy. I've heard people say that flour sack towels felt rough. Compared to minky, velour, and microfleece, it's definitely not as soft to the touch. But I don't see my son complaining...

The only cons I experience is family, friends, babysitters, and daycares not knowing how to put a flat diaper on a baby. Handing them stuffed pocket diapers, they can quickly figure it out. Handing them kite folded flats with a snappi and a diaper cover, you will probably get question marks.

Because I am a stay at home mom that doesn't regularly use the service of a babysitter, flat diapers is the best choice for my family. They are very cheap, economical, easy to clean, easy to customize, long lasting. They are also great for multipurpose uses, I have used them to wipe down kitchen counters, juice spills, spit up, sticky toddler hands and faces, and many other messes associated with babies.

For one baby I would recommend 25 flats. That should be enough if you do diaper laundry every other day. If you are buying flour sack towels, that's a little over $25, plus the cost of waterproof diaper covers. It is a great way to get started with cloth diapering if the price tag of other cloth diaper styles is off putting.

Completed my Newborn Diaper Cover Stash

Our baby girl is due in August. We decided to use flats, prefolds, and lay in inserts to diaper her. All of which I currently use for my 18 month old Toddler.
 I have been working on Newborn diaper covers using the Turn and Topstich method I've been using with my son's covers. They have double gussets to hold in all that Breast milk poop, and has a dip on the belly panel to avoid rubbing against the umbilical cord while it is still attached.

 Admittedly this diaper cover was MUCH more difficult to sew because it's so tiny. This diaper cover doesn't lay flat. It "concaves" to better fit around baby's legs and bum. It doesn't drape over my sewing machine like most projects. It curls around my sewing foot as I am trying to sew the tiny diaper pieces together.

 But I am VERY happy with how these came out. I plan on making Small sized and One Sized diaper covers so that I have a stash that can take her all the way to potty training. I don't think I will be getting much sewing done while I have 2 under 2.

The Pattern I use is Rocket Bottoms In A Snap cover pattern. It can be found here.
Tutorial on how I did the leg gussets can be found here.

Rocket Bottoms In a Snap Cover Turn and Topstitch Tutorial.

This is a partial tutorial on how I did the Leg casing using the inner gusset material. The pattern I used for this diaper cover is In a snap Cover OS -by Rocket Bottoms. For more detailed instructions on how to sew this diaper cover, the pattern can be purchased on their website.

This smiley face piece is the inner gusset, cut out 2.

**Repeat!!

Leave a FOE tail, you can snip it later, it helps when you need something to pull the elastic through the machine.

I have already sewn the "flaps" right sides to the diaper cut. Here I will sew the inner gussets to the diaper cut.

 Excuse the wrinkly fingers! I do a lot of bare handed gardening :)

Here I use a Longer 3-Step Zig Zag so it won't take away the elasticity long term. Increase the length of the stitch.

I really hope this was detailed enough to follow. This is by far my favorite diaper covers in my son's rotation. They are a perfect fit! It is high enough in the front and back to completely cover flats, prefolds, and fitteds. My husband loves that he can use the flats to lay in prefolds so he doesn't have to try and Snappi a wiggly toddler. And best of all, they are mommy made :)

The Staple of my household. Cloth diapers for $80!

  Making the decision to cloth diaper was not an easy one for me. I already had a laundry pile mountain high waiting to be folded. And I couldn't imagine cleaning poop! eeewww!

 But the money savings was something I could simply not ignore. People spend on average $3000 on disposables per child. Cloth diapers would cost as little as $200 and can be used for multiple children. I am no environmentalist, saving money is my motivation!  With my son being 2 months old, I dived right in!

  I started off with flats and covers! I purchased 25 flour sack towels from wal-mart at $1 a piece. Two days worth of diapers for only $25! I was lucky enough to have a cloth diaper store in my area where I purchased 6 diaper covers for $54. So far, that's about $80 bucks for two days of diapering!

I have been an intermediate seamstress for about 8 years so I began to sew cloth diapers for my son. I made everything from pockets, fitteds, All-in-twos, covers, Hybrid Fitteds, and many others. But my favorite most reliable diaper till this day is Flour sack towels "stuffed" with a microfiber towel.

I sew my own diaper covers now. The material for each cover come up to about $2. So If I had to restart my entire diaper stash. I wouldn't spend more than $70!

$25- Flour Sack Towels x25

$30- Microfiber Towels x30

$12- Mommy made diaper covers x6

$69 for 2 days worth of diapers!!!

$70+ on cloth diapering vs $3000 in disposables. For that amount of savings, I can handle scrubbing poop!