A Whole Lot of Nothing…

So, what have I been up to lately? Lots and lots of nothing exciting, for sure.

In the past four weeks I have made over 3 dozen pocket diaper prototypes, and I’m still trying to decide which version I actually want to head into production with. I know that I prefer the prototypes with no leg casings and a slightly curved front panel, and I think I’m set with my pocket opening after trying three very different styles. Now I need to decide whether to go with an entirely turned and topstitched diaper, or the Fussybutt standard – part serged, part turned. Below are two fully turned and topstitched diapers I whipped up yesterday. Both of them fit Zella well, and neither has any visible serging.

I had/still have a lot of factors to take into consideration with this design. I’ll list just a few…

-I want to be able to embroider these diapers after they’re sewn together, so the pocket opening must be large enough that the outer layer of PUL can float on my hooped embroidery stabilizer without me having to hold back the edges of the diaper the entire time it’s being stitched on (embroiderers, you know what I mean, right?) Ah, I have a photo. Imagine the tee shirt is a pocket diaper. It’s basically just sitting on the stabilizer, the embroidery hoop isn’t holding it down at all.

-I had planned to make these diapers more affordable than my current fitted diaper and all-in-one diaper lines. However, it’s been hard for me to design something that I know could be done better. Most of the little details that make the diapers better, in my eyes at least, cost money.

-The front panel on the pockets behave differently than the front panels of my other diapers because the materials I’m using (PUL and microfleece) are stretchy and thin. This caused the front panel to flip down when worn, and the only solutions I could think of were to add elastic to the front panel or to contour the front panel. I went with a contour, but it’s super tricky to serge the front panel nicely now.

-I was hoping to get some sewing help with these, whether that means hiring a local seamstress or having the diapers manufactured by a USA-based sewing contractor. I think the decorative serging could be problematic because it might not be something a contractor is equipped to do, and none of the potential seamstresses I’ve talked to own sergers. Even if I were to buy a serger for my help, it takes practice and skill to do decorative serging well (especially on curves and PUL fabric!).
On a side note, I highly highly highly recommend the Baby Lock Imagine or Evolve to anyone who is in the market for a serger. I’ve tried three other brands of sergers – Baby Locks are by far the easiest to use, and they produce the best results.

That’s probably a long enough list, but there is so much more to it! The whole process has been pretty exhausting, to say the least. It’s also been fun, and I’ve wound up with a great stash of pocket diapers for Zella, even after sending out several rounds to testers.

If you’ve made it through this whole boring post, you deserve a cookie. I don’t have any cookies, but I do have a few reject pocket diapers to offer! “Reject” is the key term – they’re still perfectly functional, just not perfectly sewn. I’ve got two gender neutral larges, a gender neutral medium, and a lavender outer/brownish inner medium. If you’re interested in anything (one item per poster, please!) just post a comment to this post with the diaper you want.