My little man wearing his Babyville Boutique diaper cover
A while back, I mentioned that JoAnn Fabrics was now carrying a line for DIY cloth diapers and I was super excited about them. I began cloth diapering with my first child around 3 months, and really wanted to start at birth with baby #2. But since babies only wear newborn diapers for 4-12 weeks (depending on the size of your child), I didn’t want to spend money on purchasing some newborn cloth diapers that would barely get worn. I figured I could save some money if I made my own and thought this might be the answer I was looking for.
I woke up to a lovely surprise in my inbox this morning. JoAnn Fabrics has launched the Babyville Boutique on their website, which is full of adorable PUL fabrics for making waterproof diaper covers, cute snaps, fasteners, and elastics, and books and patterns for making cloth diapers.
I’ve read that potty training a cloth diapered child is easier; generally it’s because cloth diapers don’t pull the moisture away like disposable diapers, and as kids get older, they start to get uncomfortable with the wetness much quicker.
When I had my daughter and decided to use cloth diapers, I knew I also wanted to make a reusable pail liner instead of using trash bags (both to save money and to be more “green”). Most pail liners retail for anywhere from $15-30 online, but I knew I could make one cheaper by purchasing PUL (polyurethane laminate) at Jo-Ann Fabrics – especially if I used a coupon.
10. A travel-sized wetbag. This is a waterproof bag that can be washed. It will hold all your dirty diapers while you are out and about and usually does a really good job of containing the smell as well.
Having cloth diapered with my first child, I can personally attest to how much money it saves and how easy it really is to do. [Learn why I cloth diaper] Most moms who cloth diaper will tell you that it becomes a sort of addiction; you learn to truly love it. It did, however, take me a while to find my groove and it didn’t come without its frustrations.
I knew long before I was ever pregnant that I wanted to attempt to cloth diaper. While writing an article for another mom website years ago, I read that over 27.4 billion disposable diapers end up in landfills across the U.S. each year, and it is estimated that it takes 200-500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose. That means that your grandchildren’s grandchildren will still be living on an earth that is filled with your child’s disposable diaper waste… um, gross. I felt compelled right then and there to do my “duty” (pun intended) and reduce the number of disposables that end up in landfills.
Once I actually had my child, life quickly became about saving money. I was shocked at the price of disposable diapers, and equally as shocked at how quickly my newborn daughter went through them. Even with coupons, I was spending anywhere from $50-100 a month on diapers.
