How to Embellish Prefold Cloth Diapers

Prefold diapers are a favorite of many parents who choose to cloth diaper their children. Even though they do the job pretty well, they are pretty plain and boring. Here I will tell you simple ways to embellish your prefold diapers.

To embellish your prefolds, all you need is a piece of fabric the length of your prefold and a sewing machine. The first thing you need to do is iron your prefods. This way they lay nice and flat, which gives you are more accurate measurement and is easier to sew. Once you have all your prefolds ironed, measure the length. Then you need measure the thicker absorbant part in the middle of the diaper.

Now you will need to pick out a piece of fabric based on these measurements, but make sure you leave about a 1/2 inch all around. Choosing your fabric is really a lot of fun. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I chose lots of girly, flowery, pink prints for her prefolds. If you are having a boy, you can do the same and pick blue fabrics and prints most associated with boys. Once you've decided on your fabric, lay it wrong side up and fold over about 1/2 inch of the fabric. Make sure to press well with your iron these folds.

After you have finished ironing, pin the fabric to the diaper. Make sure it is lined up nicely with the middle and the edges of the diaper. Sew as closely to the edge of the fabric as possible. This will make sure that the fabric lays nice and neat without the edges folding up and wrinkling.

Embellishing your prefolds this way is a great way to use up scraps that you might have laying around. You could also use old clothing and blankets. Just make sure that the fabric you use is 100% cotton, remember it is a diaper and it will need to absorb as well. In addition to making the diapers look pretty, this method of adding fabric to the middle can also hide stains! Sometimes there's no way around a stained cloth diaper, but by embellishing it with fabric will hide the stain and liven up the diaper!

That is one nice way to embellish your diapers. Another way is to embroider designs along the sides. The sides are the part that is also known as "flaps" and is on the outer part of the diaper and is usually only 2 layers of fabric. Embroidering is very easy and you can find lots of free designs on the internet, you could also get a book from the library on how to embroider. Embroidery on diapers is probably better for girl diapers, but you could make some boy designs as well, or embroider your son's name.

If you have a sewing machine that has fancy stitches, try adding some stitches in colored or rainbow thread along the sides! This is a really nice, fast and easy way to embellish your prefolds! A lot of those machines that have fancy stitches, sometimes have letters. This way you could also add your child's name. If you're one of the lucky few who have an embroidery machine, then the sky's the limit!

For those of you who'd rather leave sewing to others, you could try your hand are tie dying your prefolds! This is very simple and there's many ways you can do this. The best part of tie dying is that you can choose any number of colors and combinations. You can find tie dye kits in craft stores and online. I'm sure there are many other ways to add some pizazz to your diapers, just use your imagination and a little creativity!