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[patandchickens]

Cloth diapers too. Do you have a pattern for cloth diapers

There are like a million (well maybe six ) styles of cloth diapers, ranging from plain rectangular prefolds (all you are doing is folding together several layers of the fabric, with extra layers in the middle third, and serge the ends and sew down along where the extra-layer part meets the regular part; these are used with diaper pins or snappies, plus plastic pants or wool soakers), to separate covers and diaper inserts, to all-in-ones. Cruise the web, you will find LOTS of websites with different designs. The more complex ones require a pattern, which are available. For the fancier versions with the waterproof covers you tend to have to buy special material for the covers, from special suppliers.

However if you knit, you could try finding a pattern for wool soakers instead, a lot of people seem to look for them and they are VERY hard to find. They could be knit in interesting colors/stripes/etc I suppose. Although I think I am mentally drifting off into "things you could sell" from your original intention of "things you might use yourself" and I have no idea if you personally would USE cloth diapers (and if so, what style) or wool soaker pants

Pat

 

[TanksHill]

NC I say if you want to make something do it now. Which would be way easier than actually waiting until you have a baby. Because I guarantee you you wont have time then.

Make some of those little infant gowns. We used a silky, for lack of better description, ones in the summer and a heavy ones in the fall and winter. Forget the socks all together and use a draw string or elastic at the bottom.

I never cared about color. I did receive all the appropriate gifts and I didn't balk at the lace and ribbons. I was just thankful to have it. But my girls both wore all the clothes that came from their big brother. If I was questioned in public I said just that. She has a big brother. They got it.

I think that wanting to take the time to make gender neutral, organic, hand dyed items is very noble. But after the first baby at least in my case was not a realistic goal.

If your gonna do it do it now.



g

 

[patandchickens]

NC I say if you want to make something do it now. Which would be way easier than actually waiting until you have a baby. Because I guarantee you you wont have time then.

Truer words were never spoken!


Pat

 

[FarmerDenise]

TanksHill, I did just that. Once we decided to have a baby, I started sewing, knitting and crocheting. I also perused second hand stores. I wanted stuff that had been washed many times so the fire retardent would be washed out.
I got lots of stuff for my baby, that I never used. I did not put nylon on my baby, or anything that had scratchy lace on it. She had so many dresses (gifts) that she wore many of them just once. I gave about 1/2 of my new stuff to a friend who really needed stuff for her baby girl.
Even when she got older, people were still giving her fancy party dresses all the time. I let her wear them for every day wear. She loved it. She was a girly girl her choice, not mine.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Just so you know and are clear where I stand, I DETEST the color pink for girls (almost as much as I detest the color blue for boys).

If I had had a girl, I would have banished everything pink. Instead I bought everything I could find that had (usually yellow) ducks on it.

Good info, Pat, about tie dye dyes, as I was planning to get some tie dye outfits. I will have to be careful. I know of a place that sells tie dye baby clothes, so I'll have to check with them about it.

 

[moolie]

Thanks for the ideas Homemaker--I will definitely check them out!

When it comes to sewing cloth diapers, I found that the patterns that have elastic sewn into the leg openings and the top front and back edges worked really well. I made mine with the soft velcro across the front and the poky velcro bits on the top corners that wrapped around that attached to the front--I sewed an extra piece onto the back bits so that I could fold it over to cover the poky velcro so it wouldn't pick up fuzz in the wash. Hope that makes sense!

My girls had very little pink clothing, and it was all shower gifts rather than anything we had bought or sewn. They are now 13 and 14 and have never really gravitated toward pink/purple, even when they were little--my youngest loves green and my oldest loves blue.

 

[FarmerDenise]

My DD was totally into pink Before she was 2 she refused to wear "boy" socks. I used to buy boy style socks, because they were better and cheaper. The next thing was pants, "girls don't wear pants, mommy" I don't know where she picked that stuff up, daycare probably. I could get her to wear pants if they were pink, so guess what, I started to get her pink pants, easier than fighting over it with a toddler. She had a couple of outfits given to her by assorted family that she loved. They all were, ....you guessed it, pink.
Oh well, she is a well adjusted adult now though, in spite of loving her pink and frilly clothes, when she was little

 

[raro]

I made all my kids' clothes long before I was ever pregnant! I discovered pretty quickly that some things were useless. I loved the nightgowns that had a zipper (great for middle-of-the-night changes, and babies never keep blankets on!) or else elastic at the bottom. I made a pile of cloth diapers out of any flannel I could get my hands on...my kids had leopard print, plaid, or striped diapers! I cut out the diaper shapes and then used the scraps for padding. My diapers had velcro and elastic, and I used diaper liners (very hard to find nowadays) that you just dump in the toilet when they're messy. Made cleanup a snap.

I found that diapers were the most useful to make. Making most baby clothes, however, is really mostly futile, because they're cheaper to get at thrift stores and yardsales. I decided to save my sewing skills for things that would be cheaper and easier to make. I learned to sew mostly anything (i made and sold Barbie clothes at craft fairs for awhile years ago, so tiny little seams didn't faze me), but I learned to save my time and energy for "older" clothes, maybe size 2T and up, because that's where you can really save money. It costs next to nothing to make a pair of toddler pants...you can make them out of old pants of your own, even...don't need to go buy expensive fabric.

As to color, I remember reading about how the blue/pink thing came about...the greeting card companies developed it. In other areas such as the Middle East, there are no "boy" or "girl" colors. We're the only ones who have been brainwashed into thinking of particular colors being masculine or feminine.

 

[kitchwitch]

I love making baby clothes. I knit baby clothes because I love fancy yarn and I'm a bigger gal, so knitting for myself would probably bankrupt me. With baby clothes it usually only takes one or two skeins so I can try out all the fancy yarns I want!

I am starting to make a lot of my own baby stuff as I am hoping to have a baby in the next couple years. I've started making bedding and toys and such. It's kind of exciting.

As far as the terrible pink, I never buy pink when I find out someone is having a girl. I know they'll get a lot of it and many times I find that there are some really cute yellow, blue and green outfits for girls that don't result in her looking like a frilly pepto bottle.

What I do *love* is watching mom panic when she's already had one girl and bought EVERYTHING in pink (bedding, stroller, car seat, etc.) and then she finds out her next baby is a boy! <evil laugh>

 

[Neko-chan]

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