How To Make Cloth Diaper Wipes

Although you can buy cloth diaper wipes online, and even in some baby stores, sewing your own cloth diaper wipes can save you money and allows you to make wipes in just the size and style you need.

Choose A Fabric

Before you can make cloth diaper wipes, you’ll need to choose the fabric. Well, you might be wondering, “What Fabric are cloth diaper wipes made of?”. That’s a great question and the answer is many.

Flannel is inexpensive and readily available at most fabric stores, and it comes in a wide variety of plain colors and fun prints. You can even cut up worn receiving blankets or use fabric scraps to save even more money.

What Fabric Should I Use For Thicker Diaper Wipes?

For thicker wipes, you may want to try sherpa, fleece, velour, or terry knits.

The texture of these soft fabrics can be useful for cleaning up extra messy diaper areas, and you can even combine one of these fabrics with a layer of flannel on the back.

Keep in mind that if you can find these fabrics made from cotton fibers, they may be easier to wash than polyester fleece or other synthetic fabrics that may retain odors.

If you can’t find what you need at your local fabric store, the Wazoodle online diaper fabric store has high-quality flannel, sherpa, cotton fleece, bamboo, and organic cotton fabrics, as well as precut wipe making kits.

If you buy fabric by the yard, make sure to wash and dry it before cutting the wipes so that they’ll be pre-shrunk. If you use precut wipes or fabric scraps, wait to wash the fabric until after the wipes are finished.

Choose A Size

If you use a wipes warmer that’s specially designed to handle cloth diaper wipes, you’ll want to make sure your wipes can fit easily inside.

If you use a spray bottle to moisten the diaper wipes and clean the baby, you can make the wipes any size you want. Wipes 8 inches square is a popular size since you can use them flat or fold them as desired.

How Do You Make No-Sew Wipes?

To make no-sew wipes, you can cut the wipes with pinking shears to give them a finished edge. This technique works best with flannel wipes since materials such as sherpa may be too thick.

How To Sew Single-Sided Cloth Diaper Wipes

For single-sided diaper wipes, you can simply cut the fabric into pieces the size you want the wipes, then zigzag or straight stitch around the edges of each wipe, about 1/4 inch away from the edge.

The edges will fray in the wash, but only up to the stitches. If you have a serger or sewing machine that does overlock stitches, you can serge the edges to prevent fraying if you prefer.

Although hemming wipes is time-consuming, it does give the wipes nice finished edges.

Cut the wipes 1/2 inch wider and taller than you want the finished size, then fold the edges of the fabric over 1/4 inch toward the wrong side, then fold them over another 1/4 inch.

Press the folds flat, then stitch them in place. A rolled hem foot can make the job easier, but many diaper wipe fabrics are too stretchy or too thick to roll effectively. Be sure to test the rolled hem foot on one wipe before cutting the rest.

How To Sew Double-Sided Cloth Diaper Wipes

To make double-sided wipes, you can simply stack two layers of fabric together, with the right sides facing out, and sew them together around the edges using a zigzag or overlock stitch.

If you prefer wipes with finished edges, you can cut the wipes 1/4 inch taller and wider than you want the finished wipes, place two pieces of fabric right sides together, and stitch them together along three sides.

Then turn the wipe right side out, press the edges flat, and topstitch the opening closed.

Once you have your wipe-making technique down, you can make several dozen wipes, so you’ll always have one (or more) available during diaper changes.

Do You Use Cloth Wipes with Cloth Diapers?

Most of the time if people want to cloth diaper, they don’t want to use disposable wipes, so using cloth wipes are preferred. Not only is this more economical, but it’s also better for the environment and generally better for your baby’s skin as contact to chemicals in disposable diapers and wipes is drastically reduced.

How Do You Wash Cloth Wipes?

You wash the wipes the same as you wash the diapers. Many people recommend using warm water with a laundry detergent and then washing and drying- although some recommend air drying to keep your diapers and wipes in the best condition.

How Many Wipes Do You Need?

We recommend having around 50 wipes to start with if you’re starting to cloth diaper from the newborn stage as you’ll go through more wipes and diapers the younger they are.

If you’re switching to cloth diaper and cloth wipes as the baby grows, your quantity needed will decrease as diaper changes will decrease.

Where Can I Buy Cloth Baby Wipes?

Okay, so maybe you’re looking to use cloth diapers and wipes but don’t want to make them yourself- no problem. They’re easy enough to buy.

You can check on your local Mom Facebook swap and sell groups, Marketplace and even Amazon.

Good luck cloth diapering your little one!

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