or... how to turn fitteds into training pants.



I've half heartedly had Charlie potty trained for awhile, but last Saturday I woke up and decided it's time to stop changing diapers for good. I never really hated the diaper stage (as much as I hate say...reality television or traffic on the five), so I wasn't in a terrible hurry to potty train. I think my ambivalence this time definitely had to do with cloth diapers. They were so cute, and soft I didn't want to give up that last vestige of babyhood. (even though in full disclosure, I switched to disposables after Charlie turned two)

Charlie, like his brother before him, transitioned fairly seamlessly to life in underwear, unlike Jamie, it did not require shooting Charlie's diapers with a 12 gauge to accomplish the transition. However, sometimes you just need pullups. Naps, road trips, gymnastics, life is too full of opportunities for major accident catastrophes, but pull ups are outrageously expensive. So I pulled out a box of half-made fitteds, back from Charlie's newborn days and re-purposed them into training pants.


Charlie was born before I finished these and quickly discovered two things. There was no way my five pound newborn was going to wear those diapers, and I became addicted to pocket diapers instead of fitteds. The pattern I used was for a small, but clearly I did something wrong, because they fit Charlie fine right now at over two. These aren't water proof, but they do have four to five layers of microfiber wash cloths in them. Charlie doesn't even come close to soaking through the layers when he has an accident (and thus saving his pants), but that might be abnormal...I'm not sure what the peeing volume statistics for toddlers are.


Two layers of flannel, one layer of decorative stretch fabric for the outer layer, five layers of the aforementioned microfiber as a super soaker layer, then I turned it right side out.



Sewed up the tabs where you would normally apply velcro or snaps, and put elastic around the waist.



And ta-da! Homemade pull ups. They would never be suitably leak proof for a baby, but in their new life as training pants for a toddler they are a lifesaver.