Wipe Making...

Last night I finished my first batch of home-made baby wipes.  I chose to make the majority of them out of flannel.  I showed you the original fabric selection in this post, although I also cut up one of the receiving blankets we received at the birth of our son that we rarely used.  All the wipes I've made so far have been dual layered.  I put some "knit jersey" fabric on the back of some.  I even cut up pieces of an old towel to put terry cloth on a couple.  The rest are dual layered flannel.

I chose to cut 8 and a half inch sized squares.  This size allows for an approximately 8 inch square wipe, large enough to cover your hand.  I used the technique of sewing the two squares right sides together.  Then I trimmed the corners, leaving a few inches un-sewn so that I could then turn the wipe inside (or right-side) out.  I pressed the wipe and top stitched the entire outside to hold it together.  In some cases I tested out the zig zag stitch on my lovely machine (which I definitely need more practice using).  I think the end result looks pretty, but function becomes the next discussion.

Lastly I washed and dried the wipes and folded them to fit in a Huggies disposable wipe container.  Again, my praise goes to YouTube and to the maker of this video, a great demonstration of how to fold, store, and use home-made wipes.  I ended up with 12 wipes to start.  This will work for the time being since my son doesn't need many diaper changes a day, but when the infant arrives this will be inadequate.

I saved a few pieces of the receiving blanket as well as the old towel to try a completely new technique I'll have to blog about later.  When I was looking for instructions on how to make wipes, I found a few designs that suggested using a serger or overlock machine.  I happened to ask around and a good friend of my mother in-law had one she'd never used.  To be honest it's still in the box, but that's on my list of things to try before the baby arrives.  In any case, with the serger I can make single layered wipes, rounded edges, I look forward to experimenting.

See, single layered wipes might work best, especially with the terry cloth model.  I used one of the dual flannel ones today with the morning change.  This was just a pee diaper though, so it wasn't very messy.  In any case, I use an eight ounce travel bottle with pull nozzle to store the wipe solution.  I have a Clean B concentrate that I then add water to.  The solution did not absorb into the wipe quickly.  This makes me want to change my solution container to a spray bottle as suggested by the YouTube video.