Budget homemade nappies

So after making my first cloth nappy I have been collecting towel and fleece and have finally got around to finishing a batch of nappies and wipes.  I did decide to hem the pieces before stitching together as mentioned in the last post, I also used slightly narrower elastic this time round and I'm much happier with how they sit.

There is a total of 18 nappies and 32 wipes, so I'm sure I will need more but it's a good start.  I'm really pleased with how they've turned out, and incredibly pleased with the cost - or lack of.


In total I've used 7 towels of various sizes, six of which were old towels from our house or my mum, and one that I bought for £1 because I liked the colours.  In terms of fleece I used 2 baby blankets, 1 jumper, 1 dressing gown, 1 pair of PJ bottoms all of which were again old/use from us and my mum and then 2 fleece night dresses which I picked up at a charity shop, priced at £3 each but didn't actually cost me as the shop has a reward card scheme where every time you take in a bag of items they stamp the card and it is worth £2 to spend in store.  We have been clearing out a lot of bits in order to make room for our addition so I had some stamps to spend.

The only other thing I bought was some more elastic, £1.20 for 4 bunches (about 10 meters) off the local market.

So 18 size adjustable cloth nappies and 32 reusable cloth wipes for a grand total of £2.20.  I don't think I could have done any better! 

Of course the super saver aspect has led to compromises.  Much of the towel fabric and pretty much all of the fleece is not what I would have chosen.  Pink leopard and zebra print is really not my style!

If I had been making anything else I'm not sure I would have been able to resist the selection of cute fleeces available, stars, dots, owl prints, beautiful colours, but they retail at around £8 a meter which would have made this project a whole lot more expensive (roughly one nappy can be cut from a 60x60cm square).  I kept reminding myself that these were designed for my baby to soil!  They don't need to be high fashion, they needed to be practical and affordable, and I'm happy that they meet those goals.

That's not to say that I think they are ugly.  Overall I think the shape and style is very cute and some of the fabrics I do like, such as the towel I actually bought and a bright yellow fleece that came from an old blanket.

I will keep looking out for cheap towel an fleece to make some more, and hopefully will be able to pick up some patterns and colours more to my taste with a bit more time to search.

The nappies did not take a lot of money to assemble, but they did take a lot of time, and thread!  Seaming, zigzagging and top-stitching around every one (nappies and cloths) took its toll on me and the sewing machine.  I don't think I have ever finished a reel of thread on a single project before and this one finished two reels and made a dent on a third, and with cutting and sewing has taken well over 20 hours to complete.

Worth it though.  They are all now hanging out to dry having been washed (all very easily fitting in one load with room to spare, which is good to know) and I am very excited about putting them away in their drawers and hopefully getting them out for use in the next few weeks.