Wanting to make cloth wipes.

Rachel - posted on 03/10/2010

It's much easier than this! As HeatherAnne wrote, just cut them from material that doesn't need to be sewed and doesn't fray, such as t-shirt material. We all have old t-shirts, or get some at goodwill! I liked 100% cotton but the 50-50 blends word too. I just cut them into squares with regular scissors (HeatherAnne said she used pinking shears). The edges curl quite a bit, so cut them bigger than you want them. I use a solution similar to HeatherAnne's to soak the wipes in as well, only mine is just water with lavender essential oi and a skin oil (such as sunflower or olive or almond). Just plain water works fine too. I keep a small amount in a peri-bottle next to my changing table. I have a small bowl there that I put the cloths in and squirt some solution on them, and squeeze them into. Have fun and good luck! I love my little cloth rags... they are awesome for blowing little noses and all the other small messes of babies :)

Jan - posted on 03/09/2010

The best cloth wipes I have are fleece, you don't even have to sew them if you don't want to because fleece doesn't fray. You want to use a fairly cheap fleece because a good polar fleece will repel water, the cheap fleece blankets you can buy at bargin shops and dollar stores work great, or check your local thrift stores for old blankets, 1 fleece wipe willl do the work of 3 or 4 flannel ones because the pill of the fabric grabs all the mess. I like to serge the edges of mine just for appearances sake but they would be fine left just cut.

Andrea - posted on 03/09/2010

We bought a box of painter's rags at Home Depot for $10 when my son was born. We are still using the same ones (14 months later) and they work great for stuffing in a container and pouring in the solution. The edges don't fray they just curl up a bit so they never shrink :)

Shannon - posted on 03/08/2010

I use receiving blankets and sew the edges so they won't fray. Easy!

Jen - posted on 02/27/2010

I love cloth wipes! I use a combination of wash cloths ( I received a TON as gifts), velour wipes (very soft and nice), and flannel. I'm not a big fan of the Terry cloth wipes because of the loops in the fabric and I don't think it's very soft either. Velour is my favorite but when making my own I recommend flannel- cheap and doesn't fray much. I like all the posts about reusing and repurposing materials :)

HeatherAnne - posted on 02/25/2010

I don't sew mine... just use a pinking shears. I make them out of old T-shirts, old flannel shirts and sheets, whatever scrap fabric is available. I wash and reuse, but I never felt guilty about just tossing them if I had to. I can always easily make more in a couple minutes with the pinking shears.

As for wipe solution, per cup of water, I use 1 Tbl baby/unscented Dr. Bronner's soap (Target has the best price I've found), 1 Tbl oil (I use just canola or vegetable oil rather than the petroleum baby oil), a few drops of Tea Tree Oil and a couple drops of a nice smelling essential oil. Lavender is always popular. The essential oil isn't really necessary... I just like the smell of it and don't really like the smell of tea tree oil.

Roz - posted on 02/25/2010

My friend made me some from a receiving blanket she had. I also just went to target and bought their Circo washcloths that were 8 for $2.49 and I bought $10 or so worth. They have cute fishy/stripes design on them and they don't have a big outer edge seam (I'm sure you can tell I know nothing about sewing lol). They work really well and fit in my wipes warmer perfectly.

Kelly - posted on 02/25/2010

I made a ton from a few old t-shirts of my husband's. I cut the fabric in to squares, stacked two on top and sewed them together with a zig-zag stitch in a contrasting color. You don't have to worry about the material fraying and they are super soft.

Jennifer - posted on 02/24/2010

We found some flannel sheets on sale and cut them in squares and hemmed the edges so they wouldn't fray. It did take some time but it was well worth the money saved.

Jennifer - posted on 02/24/2010

I was going to make my own as well, but found it cheaper to buy. Mine are made of a thin white flannel...they work great. If you are interested - you can find them at http://www.clothdiaper.com/PRODUCTS/Clot... - they are $9 for a 15 pack ($8 if you buy more than 2 packs - I bought 3). I've been using them for 8 months - they're still almost like new and they work 100 times better than disposable wipes!

C - posted on 02/23/2010

I bought some that are squares with flannel on one side and terry cloth on the other. I must admit I never sed them for wipes but they are awesome in the nkitchen for face washings!

Leanne - posted on 02/23/2010

I just made a whole bunch of cloth wipes for my son!
I made them out of his old burp blankets (all 100% cotton, so very soft and fairly thick).
I folded in the edges and did a zig-zag stitch along the cut edge to keep it from fraying.

Cheap, and since im recycling I think it's more environment friendly. :)

If you want a thicker wipe than the burp blanket can give you, just put two cut pieces together and Wah-La! A thicker wipe. :D

Selia - posted on 02/21/2010

I used 100% cotton sweatshirt type material with one side textured and one smooth, got a yard on sale for only $4 and made 30 small wipes! I turned under the sides to prevent fraying.

Hannah - posted on 02/21/2010

i was going to make my own, but once i figured out how long it would take, it wasn;t worth it! Instead, I bought a ton of Gerber white wash cloths- these really thin ones that are terry on one side and smooth on the other. I got them for like $3.50 per 8 pack- I don't think I could make them for that!

Aicha - posted on 02/21/2010

use flannel or terry cloth then use a sewing machine and hem the edges so they don't fray