sew your own diapers

So! I have found by cruising through the thrift stores that the best best best sweaters for making into soakers are usually found in the men's clothing, and it is usually those really expensive sport sweaters used by rich men who play polo with some sort of club logo on it. They are soft, and nice looking, thinner and stretchy. Usually these  "rich man" sweaters are 100% wool, and are just so comfortable looking.  I love them!!! I found a great pattern for a little bum sweater that has worked really well for my little girl. I'm addicted!

can you post a picture??  i would love to see the finished product!!

I will when I figure out how to upload pics from my phone..... I'm a technological dunce.

I went scouting for wool sweaters at the thrift store today.  Found a few, but not too many with good colors/patterns.  And jeez!  That acrylic had me fooled a few times!  And what's with WOOLrich making their sweaters out of acrylic?  It's not called Acrylicrich, is it?  Well, we'll see what I can come up with.  Wish I knew how to do some sort of decorative appliqueing or something.  A plain ol' brown soaker isn't going to be too cute.  Any ideas?

I checked my thrift store as well and didn't find all that many. You really do have to check the labels to see the fibre content, I was frequently fooled by things that turned out to be mostly acrylic. Does anyone know if they are at least, say 80% wool and 20% something else if they might work as soakers? I'm pretty sure they will still felt.

I have a 70% wool 30 % acrylic soaker that works just fine, I'm going to try making a soaker out of a 50/50 one. Since acrylic is a plastic product, some people use it for diaper covers like wool, but it might not work as well, I think Jessica said that it has a tendency to retain odors. I've even read on some forums that even as little as 30% wool will work for soakers.

i bought my first wool sweater at the thirft store today to make into something   

any suggestions as to where to get started??  do i felt first??

I felted mine first (washed and dried on hot).  Of course, that's as far as I've gotten . . .    Some of mine didn't felt up too thick, though.  Anyone know if they're still going to work ok?  I read somewhere (maybe on here?) that it's more about how well they are lanolized, rather than how thick they are.

i poked around online and read that if a sweater doesnt felt great the first time, do it again!!  but cut it along the seams and felt the parts . . . .mine felted great on the first try, so i am just passing what i read, not actual experience . . . 

check out my first longies!!!

Thanks, maevemom!  I'll try washing them again and cutting them first.  We'll see how it goes!  Should I ever get the chance to sew, I'll post some pics!