Preemie T-shirt Anatomy/Cloth diaper memories

I purchased this preemie t-shirt hoping that the sleeves would cover the fabric on a 3/4 limb reborn without being too tight, and that the neckline wouldn’t reveal too much body fabric.

Turns out it fits just right for my Bindi, and easily covers what it needs to. The brand is called Perfectly Preemie, and the size is what they call “teeny” for babies 2-4 pounds. This seems to be their name for medium. My Bindi weighs in at just slightly over 3 pounds. (Reborned by Jlesser.)

It’s been a long time since I visited preemie babies in the NICU, over 20 years, and they weren’t my children. With all the tape, cords, tubes, wires, i.v.s, sensors and alarms, it was a big rigamarole just to hold them. They usually weren’t wearing more than just a diaper, and maybe a hat or socks. Dressing these tiny newborns was the last thing on their parents’ minds, with the stress of having to leave their children in the hospital and not knowing if they were going to live to see their next milestone.

So I wasn’t familiar with how simple this piece of clothing would be. I knew it would be somewhat adjustable with the velcro, but hadn’t thought about how that might look all opened up. I thought it was interesting, and at twenty bucks a pop, I thought this might be something someone who sews might be able to recreate. :slightly_smiling_face:
I tried to take detailed pix in hopes this might be helpful to someone.

![MG201121_pthload://creoMYNCHSa7O7jbFkUqzDVqWmN.jpeg)
The edging is made of bias tape made from t-shirt material.

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Love it!

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Thank you for that ! It’s very helpful ! I will certainly try to sew one !

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Let me know if there’s a measurement somewhere I might have missed! I’ve never posted so many pix before. :grimacing:
It could also be simplified by squaring off the rounded parts that overlap.

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Where is the picture of baby wearing it? :woman_shrugging:

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Thanks for this @EmOh :slight_smile:

I was also wondering if there is anyone on here who sews old fashioned terry towelling diapers in such a way as the picture but less bulky?

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Lol, still waiting on a few details before she’s ready for her closeups. But I was impressed how well her chubby shoulders fit into what looks like narrow sleeves. And in the pix from the company it looked like the kimono style neckline would be way too deep, and that isn’t an issue either!

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I’m also hoping someone makes something similar! I’ve got something on order, but not sure if it will work. If not, I’ll be ordering something from Etsy. The awkward bulk of fabric diapers is bothersome, definitely.
I might also consider some from Kinby, since their dolls are 16 inches long and 2 pounds. Their dolly diapers are $15. for three of them, and use velcro.

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I have bought quite a few different reusables that seem to be a cover that you put inserts into. They are nice but I guess I like the look of the white terry towelling as this is what I mainly used on my babies 38 and 36 years ago. Disposables were not very affordable for us back then so only used them when out and about visiting or rare weekends away camping.

My sewing machine is in storage or I would have had a go at drafting a pattern :slight_smile:

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I only used disposables, but want a more old fashioned look, and plain white.
My partner used both cloth and disposables on his kids, and showed me a couple different ways to fold and pin. I’ve tried with a few household rags, but they seem so bulky and it doesn’t come easy for me. It spreads my reborns’ legs more than I think it should. He keeps offering to buy some flat cloth diapers, but I just don’t think they would be right. Plus, since I need a preemie size I think they’d end up being cleaning rags and we have plenty of those.
Since they don’t have to be functional, I’m looking at doll diapers with velcro. The ones that look like they fit the nicest have some elastic. I can always use the pins as purely decorative. The kind of fabric is less important to me, I mean even felt would work, but probably wouldn’t hold up long before stretching and tearing. Just wanting something that fits and looks decent.

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I quite like the look of the Kinby ones - but they may be too small for my reborns (all 2 of them LOL - LouLou JK and Amelie Faber)

The diaper in the picture I posted I bought as a single and folded in what I call the kite, from an Aussie Reborn supplier. The pic on their website made it look like a pre formed type not just a square piece of terry.

I vaguely remember muslin squares were available to fold into diapers back then too - but they had less absorbency - we also used to cover the diapers with plastic pants…called pilchers for some reason in Australia :slight_smile: can’t say I have seen them recently when shopping for reborns in the baby sections.

I will keep looking! and let you know if I find something!

PS edit - I have seen there are now special clips to hold cloth diapers in place…only ever had pins and a little trick to get the pin through all that fabric was to run the pin through your hair near the scalp - oil I guess…pin went in easily then :slight_smile:

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I’ve seen those plastic diaper covers in thrift shops.

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You bring back so many memories! Our oldest who will be 46 in March, wore a lot of cloth diapers. Not by choice, but Pampers were new, not nearly as good as they are today, and as you said, way too expensive for a young couple to use all the time. Only going out and such. Same for our daughter who is 41. Our “baby”, who is 39, wore disposable. So much better! Having to have a diaper pail and go to the laundromat was a pain! Smelly, too. We put Borax in the water in the pail to help with the odor, I guess. Anyway, and the plastic pants, as we called them! They would get smelly, too, after awhile. They were fairly inexpensive, though. That is the only thing that helped keep us dry when we held a baby that was urinating. Oh, man – the days gone by. And who said “I want to go back to the old times”??? No one on here that I have read. :slight_smile: But, so many say that, and I think about it a little and think, not me! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. :slight_smile:

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On the other hand, if you add up the cost of disposable diapers in the baby’s first year or so, you could likely buy a washer and dryer with the money saved by using cloth diapers instead. I wouldn’t want to be washing diapers again, but the old way sure saved a lot of money. It was a stinky job, but we did what we had to do back then. And when disposable ones showed up they looked like miracles, expensive or not!

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I for one would go back to the “olden days” in a heartbeat!! Times were simpler, families closer, children more appreciative and respectful. VuIgar language wasn’t flying out of everyone’s mouth every minute of the day, I could go on forever about the simplicity of life “back then” but won’t. Things were harder, that’s true but we grew up learning how to “cope” with life and understanding you couldn’t always “have” what you wanted. Technology has invaded our lives to the point that people can’t even sit in the same room and converse without doing it on a ‘device’ in text form. We are losing the ability to communicate with one and other, our entire language is at risk these days, not to mention we are losing our ability to empathize (proven fact) due to communication thru devices. Technology definitely has it’s place, I am thankful for all the medical technology that we have today and thru technology the ability to send “warnings” to areas in danger from Mother Nature. However, I would love to see children being taught in school the things we were taught. Guess I’ll stop now as I suppose this will be taken out of context by some and that’s NOT what I intended--------I Loved “The Olden Days”, I wish the younger generations could experience them for just a month or two!!

p.s. My daughter was raised in cloth diapers and rubber pants, sign of the times!! LOL

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Can’t agree more, I just learn that one of my cousin has cancer. Through Facebook. Yeah.

As for clothes diapers, today they are much more practical than back in the days. They are almost like disposable diapers, wash easily, waterproof and cute. I used them with my kids along with the disposable when outside.
I am currently working on a nice pattern to sew some for my reborns. I do not understand the foldable ones, tho. I personally don’t think they look nice.

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I remember one time we were going camping and I thought I’d get some of those new fangled ‘disposable diapers’ (just came out) to save myself from having to deal with so many cloth diapers in the mountains. OH MY GOSH, what a mistakes that was!!! Because they were brand new out on the market they were NOTHING like todays disposables. First of all, you had to Pin them on just like a regular diaper----well, that was OK, I was used to pinning on diapers------However, I had NO idea that they would literally ‘fall apart’ when wet!! Every time I went to change her there was a million pieces of ‘cotton-y fiber’ stuck all over her!!! The worst part—it did NOT wipe off, you had to literally pick every piece of it off her skin-----what a freakin’ nightmare!!! Never did that again!!

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Very well said :slight_smile: I am so glad I was born in 1960 - the world has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 100

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That is Sooooo true!!

You are so right! It did save a lot of money. In fact, when our third one came along, money was tight. I had a washer, but hung my clothes on the line. So, the new baby came in August, and hubby bought me a dryer. We lived in a much colder climate and we didn’t want to depend on the weather to dry them. :slight_smile: There were plenty of disposables by that time, but we just couldn’t afford them. Plus the W and D meant no more trips to the laundromat!

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