A Different Kind of Holiday Give-Away

This season, I want to do a holiday give-away. I want to do something a little different than my usual annual diaper shower cloth diaper cake. I want you to think of ANOTHER family you know that is expecting a new baby (their due date after January 1st) and wants to cloth diaper but needs some support. Someone you know personally in your area. Maybe even a relative.

Write me a letter telling me about this person/family (no real names.) Tell me why you want to help them and what the gift of giving diapering help would mean to them and you.

Letters must be received by December 14th because of Christmas shipping deadlines.

** This contest is open to anyone in the United States of America (I WISH it could be open to more of my international readers, but shipping outside the USA would just be too complicated and expensive for me.) If you are outside of the USA and really want to participate but would be able to help me with shipping costs, write that along with your letter.

- The winner will receive a mixed variety of about 10 newborn size cloth diapering options. You can choose boy, girl, or gender neutral for colors/prints that may be included. It will be packaged attractively and ready to be your holiday gift to them. I don't say "Christmas gift" because I am not personally a Christian, and I can only assume many of you out there in the internet universe reading this are not either.  :)

- Two honorable mentions will receive a box containing diaper-sewing supplies. PUL, absorbent fabrics, hook & loop, snaps, fold-over-elastic, microfleece or wicking jersey, etc.

I will publish the letter from the grand prize winner on my blog.
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Update: The winner of the diaper give-away is Kelly. Here letter is below:
"I would like to nominate my sister in law who is expecting a baby April 4, 2016. This is her 4th baby and she contacted me when she found out I am cloth diapering my son to ask for advice and to ask about buying seconds from me since she's thinking of trying cloth for the first time.  She already had 3 boys (and 3 nephews) so she and grandma were both wishing for girl. After much anticipation finally came her gender reveal, and we found out she'll be having a little girl. Obviously we were elated. Unfortunately the excitement has been dampened. Last week we found out my niece has a rare heart defect and she will require open heart surgery as soon as she is born. This is very troubling news of course, but I'm sure this will also be a major financial burden due to the medical bills for my niece's care. (She works in childcare and Daddy works for a tv service provider) so I would love if I could help her with being able to cloth diaper this little angel when she arrives."

The two runner-ups are Megan and Melanie.

Congrats guys. I'm sending you three emails now to get your shipping addresses.  :)

Reversible Heavy-Wetter T-Shirt Fitted Diaper

One of my husband's work shirts got a few holes and stains on it, and this morning he said to me, "you can do whatever you want with it."  Muah ha ha...  So, I'm sure you all know immediately where my mind went!

More T-shirt diapers!!!

I also got a free Seahawks T-shirt at one of the home games last Winter, but they only had large sizes.

So...  How about a reversible 2-T-shirt fitted diaper? Great for older heavy-wetting babies or overnights.  :)

 I used my M/L fitted template for this. I cut off the sleeves to begin with.

I traced it on the first T-shirt, and used scissors to cut out just one layer.

 View with the shirt opened up.

Really, the T-shirt is just like cotton jersey fabric yardage. 

 Then, I used my rotary cutter to cut out all the other layers.

 2 layers of one shirt, and 2 layers of the other.

 Faces inward, and from here you just follow my basic diaper tutorial for the shell.

 Next, just cut up the remaining yardage into your soaker/insert.

I decided to use my non-serged insert/soaker method.  It seemed the most practical.

I had enough fabric for a 7-8 layer soaker/insert out of each shirt.

 Everything all ready to stitch up.

All sewn up! A walking foot is your best friend with jersey fabrics.

 For smaller size babies, you can fold down the rise and just use one of the inserts.

 Then add the second when they start to pee more or move up to the higher rises.

Side-Snapping Katrina's Soaker

There is now a VIDEO tutorial for this style of fleece cover up on my YouTube channel!

 Katrina's soaker patterns can be easily modified to make side-snapping (or velcro) covers.

All you do is extend the sides of the body piece about 3/4" at the sides.  Then you don't sew the leg and waist pieces all the way to the ends, and just fold over the edges of the body piece so you have the thicker edges for applying snaps.

 Then just apply your snaps or velcro.

 Go Hawks!   ;)

 Sea-hawks.... I have mentioned I am in Seattle before, right?  ;)

Wool Covers from Old Sweaters

I went through my old box of wool sweaters (some merino wool, some lambs wool, and some wool+cashmere blends) and decided to have some fun with Katrina's soaker patterns again.

I googled for some easy applique designs and cut up the scraps to make appliques.  I will do some girly fleece applique designs soon too (none of the sweaters I had were suitable for very girly covers this time.)

How I sew up a Katrina's Soaker

I posted a VIDEO tutorial for this on my YouTube channel!

 I have seen many methods for assembling Katrina's soaker covers.

These are my favorite ways to do them.

Cut out your polyester fleece or your wool to the pattern templates.

**You can keep the waist band in one long piece, or you can cut the waist band in half length-wise and sew in to the front and back separately.

For very thin wool, I do 2 full body layers rather than the wetzone contour.

 Pin your wet-zone layer onto your body layer.

 Zig-zag stitch around the edge of the wet-zone layer fabric.

 Now, with the outside up, place your folded leg fabric folded (where the leg holes will be.)

 You can now either serge or zig-zag stitch it to the body.  Pull only the leg cuff piece as you sew.

 Repeat on the other side.

 Fold the front up to the back.  Inside facing outward. Pin or clip the sides.

 Serge or zig-zag the sides together.

 Now fold and sew or serge your waistband.

 Fold down so the seams are hidden inside.

 I like to roughly align my seam with the middle of the back.

 Serge or zig-zag the waistband to the body.

OR, do the waist band in two segments:

 Now just serge or zig-zag it all the way up the sides.

 A yarn needle is your friend for dealing with serger tails!

 Tails trimmed.

 Ta-Da!