Prints poll and more about diaper fabrics

A big thank you to everyone who took the time to help with decision making on some potential fall 2010 prints. [Edited: Polls are now closed] The comments were helpful too, and some of them really cracked me up!

If you are interested in learning more about diaper fabrics, read on.

The prints I pulled for the poll were from general purpose sources -- meant for adults, kids, pets, home dec. and so on. Now why didn't I just have all juvenile prints?

Think to the last time you looked at kids clothes in a store. Mostly cotton knits, right? So if you are a diaper maker who uses cotton knits, like for fitted diapers, you have hundreds of cute juvenile prints from which to choose.

Back to the store, how many of those kids clothes are made of lightweight 100% polyester knit? None! If you make diaper covers or AI2s, and you want to have a laminated diaper fabric that will not wick moisture out, how many juvenile prints are on the market? Almost none. There is no broader market for this type of fabric.

So, being clever diaper mamas that we are, we have found a couple ways around this situation. One is to use general purpose prints that can be obtained on poly knit (as with the prints I asked you to help choose).

Another is to find a company willing to license their prints and have the design custom printed on to the right type of fabric (for example, all the ooga booga prints, the chickadees, the retro owls, giraffes) -- there aren't many of these, so it tends to be the same few prints in different colorways. I get all of these that become available.

A third way to get diaper print fabric is to do it yourself. The Turtle Friends print was my own artwork. First I created the line art.



Then added colors.


And arranged the motifs into a print.


The print was based on my childhood memories of going to a summer cottage on the lake, where my sister and I would catch (and release!) turtles and frogs. I had this fabric custom printed, and then laminated, for use in my diapers. Custom printing is time consuming, expensive, and involves huge quantities. It's more fabric than I could use up in years, so I shared the Turtle Friends fabric with other diaper makers. In turn, sometimes I obtain fabric from other diaper makers who get their own artwork printed.

Right now I am working on some new diaper prints. I'll also be getting some fabric from another artisan - a hedgehog print, a safari print, and more. The whole process of printing and laminating takes months and months, but it is worth the effort. The more cute prints we can bring to little bums, the better!