Designing a cloth nappy

Designing a cloth nappy take a lot of time, effort and testing. As part of our tenth anniversary, I thought I’d share the story of our pocket nappy, the Dinky nappy.

The early days

Back when my oldest son was only one, I had been using cloth nappies on him for a while. I decided, being as I was fairly handy with a sewing machine, to try my hand at making my own. At that stage, I wasn’t ready to try designing a cloth nappy, so I stuck to the patterns that I could find online.

Early days in the dinky nappy design process, a young boy in an orange cloth nappy

Over time, I experimented with different fabrics and different designs. I tried lots of different brands that were on the market. All the time, I was looking at the features that seemed to work well and that I wanted to incorporate in my ideal nappy.

An early woollen nappy cover on my son, early cloth nappy designs.

Designing the dinky nappy

When I first set up Nappyneedz back in 2010, I was making nearly all of the products that we sold. The first cloth nappies that I had were quite basic. But this soon evolved into the dinky nappy. This combined lots of the features that I had liked in my testing phases. Although some of these were things I had come across in other brands, others were brand new and unique to the dinky. These features are:

  • Deep leg gussets to help stop leaks and for a better fit around the legs.
  • Wide pocket for easy stuffing.
  • Extra elastic around the back.
  • Rise snaps to make the nappy fit for longer and grow with your baby.
  • Rear size snaps, to make the nappy snap-down extra small for newborn babies.
  • A stay dry suede cloth inner.
  • Bamboo fleece and microfibre trifold insert for maximum absorbency but quicker drying with no compression leaks.
  • A double row of snaps at the waist for a better fit and stop wing droop.
Features of the dinky cloth nappy design.

New nappy plans

Our dinky nappy design has been around for a while now and it’s one that lots of parents love. We’ve also got some new nappies in the pipeline. We’ve recently introduced an extra large dinky nappy. We have more on the way, with a couple of new nappies planned for the new year.

If you’d like to try anything from our range, then don’t forget that for the whole of November you can get 15% off with the code ywzff2yt at checkout. Happy tenth birthday to us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nappyneedz Cloth Nappies

Image
 Nappyneedz was a cloth nappy and reusable menstrual product business based in Dunedin New Zealand between November 2010 and December 2023. The business closed down, but rather than getting rid of the website entirely, it has been decided to keep the blog pages and other information. There are no plans to add to the blog posts that appear on this website, but hopefully you will find some of the information from Nappyneedz Cloth Nappies helpful. Please use the search option at the top of the page to track down anything that you need to know. You can also find some of our pages on the left. Nappyneedz was also the home of Ecobots cloth nappies. This was a business set up in Christchurch in around 2006 and then sold to Nappyneedz in 2013. You can find lots of information about this type of prefold nappy on the website. See the link on the left. You may find that links on blog posts and pages no longer work. I will try and update them over time, but it may take a while. You can use the sea
Read more

Black Friday Sale

Image
Black Friday Sales is something that Nappyneedz has never taken part in before. This year for the first time, we’re having a huge sale on 24th November with bargains bigger than we’ve ever had before. You’re not likely to experience a sale like this at Nappyneedz again. Time to save Nappyneedz prices aim to be great value for money all year round. This year though, we’re going to be offering even bigger discounts on everything. From our fantastic cloth nappies and accessories, to our popular reusable menstrual products. We really are going to be offering something for everyone. If you haven’t tried our dinky nappies before and want to give them a go, now’s your chance. This is a fantastic opportunity to stock up on reusable menstrual pads, or nappy inserts . We even have some great gift ideas for Christmas, with our washable makeup pads . Even more savings in our black Friday sale For those of you who sign up to our newsletter, there’s the chance to get your hands on a an even bigger
Read more

Living Greener In The New Year

Image
Living greener doesn’t need to be hard and a New Year is a great time to make some changes. Here are our tips for a more environmentally friendly 2023. Why to consider living greener Are you looking to live a greener lifestyle? Here are some simple swaps you can make in your daily routine to reduce your environmental impact: Ditch disposable menstrual products. Instead, try using a menstrual cup or reusable pads . Not only are they better for the planet, they can save you money in the long run. Say goodbye to disposable makeup wipes. Opt for reusable cloth wipes instead. They can be washed and used over and over again, reducing waste and saving you money. Carry a reusable water bottle and shopping bag. Single-use plastic bottles and bags contribute significantly to landfill waste. By carrying a reusable bottle and bag, you can easily reduce your use of plastic. Use a reusable coffee cup. Many disposable coffee cups are not recyclable, leading to a huge amount of waste. Invest in a re
Read more