Newborn Cloth Diaper Cover Tutorial

Waterproof Cloth Diaper Cover – Newborn Size, Velcro (Aplix) Closure

I decided to cloth diaper my second boy after cringing every time I bought diapers for my first son. After doing countless hours of research and pricing out options, I’ve decided to make my own. I’d classify myself in the “moderate” sewing skills category and while this may be a challenging first time sewing project, it’s not as hard as it seems! I’ll walk you through every step, with pictures. I looked at many different patterns and then just started sewing, so this may be a combination of many styles. Enjoy!

**I’m a “close is good, don’t stress the small stuff, make it up as your go” kind of seamstress. If you’re a perfectionist sewer, you may not totally love this tutorial 🙂 Life is too short to stress though!*

Items needed: (I ordered most of my supplies on diapersewingsupplies.com)

PUL or waterproof fabric. (Amazon sells 3 packs of PUL fat quarters. You can get 2 newborn covers from one fat quarter which is 21inX24in)
1/4 inch elastic (about 2 feet)
1 inch wide Loop velcro, that’s the soft side (8 inches)
2 Hook velcro closures (or regular rough side velcro)
Newborn cover pattern (just google and find any pattern, all the shapes are basically the same)

Start by cutting out your pattern. I decided to add little pockets in the ends, in case I got lazy and just wanted to stuff the diaper instead of diapering with the prefold first 🙂 Just leaving my options open!

2016-09-02 18.49.58 — Diaper cut out. (I also sewed my logo label in the top, not necessary of course)

2016-09-02 18.58.45 — Cut outs for the pockets on either end. I just cut these out to match the two ends.

1a. Here is the elastic and Velcro (loop side) I also cut out. Your pattern should have markings where the elastic goes, Mark these spots. To cut the elastic length, I cut it half the length between the markings. You are going to stretch it double that to reach both markings. I put elastic on the front, back, and in the legs. You can leave off the front if you want 🙂

2016-09-02 19.01.34 — Picture includes: Front and back pockets in yellow with coordinating elastics, soft side velcro for front, laundry tabs, and overlapping hook tab, along with the 2 leg elastics.

2. Sew on the Velcro. (I just cut the velcro to fit, any size is fine! Don’t stress it too much) Sew the long strip onto the short side of the main cover. Here I’ve also sewn the laundry tabs onto the large pocket. If you choose not to do the pockets, sew the laundry tabs onto the INSIDE of the diaper on the long end. This will provide a place to stick the hook velcro (sticky side) while in the wash so it doesn’t stick to everything else.

**This is the SAME diaper I promise! I just took pictures of 2 different diaper colors but it is the SAME PATTERN! Don’t stress, there are no tricks here….**

3. Sew the pockets on, RIGHT sides together. If you decide not to put the pockets on, no big deal. Just skip this step and step 4 🙂

4. Flip inside out to look like this!

5. OK, here’s the hardest part. You are going to top stitch the diaper and sew the elastic casings. There are two options for this.

2016-09-02 18.31.17 — OPTION A. This is holding down the stretched elastic on one end, and folding over the side to make the casing. A little tricky!

Option A. You can top stitch around the diaper and sew the elastic in in one sweep.

Simply sew around the edge (as close as you can, as seen in picture). When you get to the elastic mark, stitch down the end of the elastic, then stretch the elastic to the next mark, hold down the stretched elastic (or pin it I guess), sew the casing (casing=the pocket for the elastic, don’t stitch on the elastic though), and stitch the other end down when you get to the mark. Then continue top stitching until you reach the next elastic, repeat. This can be tricky to hold the stretched elastic, sew the casing without hitting the elastic, and stitching the end. The benefit is you can sew around the whole diaper in one sweep, without having to start/stop.

OPTION A (Variation) Elastic stitched in place first. Next step would be to top stitch the diaper/sew in the casings.

A variation of this option would be to stitch down the elastic ends first, making the diaper look a little odd like in picture. But then you wouldn’t have to hold down the ends while sewing. Same concept though, just a few more starts and stops.

Option B. Sew in the casings where the elastic will go first. Do this by folding over the sides of the legs and make a little “pocket” for the elastic to go in. If you chose to put the large pockets on either end like I did, just sew a casing over the top. (If you choose NOT to have the large pockets in the ends of your diaper, just sew the casing by folding over the tops just like the legs.)

Then, top stitch around the rest of the diaper. Once all the stitching is done, then pull the elastics through the casings and stitch down on either end. You’ll have more starts and stops this way, but it may be easier for a less experienced sewer, or the more perfectionist type 🙂

6. Here’s what it should look like!

2016-09-02 18.47.21 — All elastics sewn in (ignore the two velcro hooks on the ends until the next step..)

7. You’ve made it past the hardest part! Almost done 🙂 Next, sew on the hook (sticky part) Velcro tabs to the large end of the diaper. Just ZigZag stitch these on, sticky/rough part on the inside of the diaper.

8.On one side, I also stitched on a small piece of loop velcro (soft side) so that I could over lap the tabs if I wanted, making the waist of the diaper even smaller. I figured for a newborn size, this might come in handy. This step is NOT necessary if you don’t want to do it 🙂