Well, I’ve given it a fair try, but flannel just won’t make it for diapers in my book. One set looks pretty good yet, a little pilly but not faded. The other set is both faded and pilly and just plain looks bad. There’s no way I’d put my business name on those dipes. What a bummer, I love flannel’s softess and bright colors, but it just doesn’t wear well enough for me.

It’s great for wipes though! I wanted to make some wipes to stock, so Teacher and I went to the fabric store on Sat for one type of flannel to get me started. It turns out flannel was on sale, and Teacher got into the hunt, picking out six or seven different prints for me! I also got some of the nice thick terry/velour that I like to use with the flannel. It was our lucky day - the terry/velour was on sale too, and some of the flannels had so little left on the bolt I got the remnant at 75% off! We went back on Sunday for a zebra striped flannel my hubby saw on Saturday. I got a brainstorm Sunday morning and realized that the zebra print would be perfect for freebie wipes once the tie-dye ones are gone. I love fabric shopping!!

Z-Man is going through a major Elmo stage - he just LOVES Elmo! He’s also getting to the point that he doesn’t want to be changed, but is showing some interest in what diaper he wears. His favorite was a cookie print and he’d ask for one at every change. Since we only have 3 cookie dipes that made for some difficult changes! I decided to get some Elmo fabric to make him Elmo dipes.

I went to both of our local fabric stores, but all they had in Elmo was fleece or flannel. I knew I didn’t want fleece since I don’t trust local stores to have heavy enough fleece for waterproof outers so I was stuck with flannel. I’ve always avoided flannel for dipes because I thought it was a “lesser quality” fabric choice - I thought it would pill, get thin and look old way too quickly. But since all they had in Elmo was flannel, and I was making them for us instead of for the business, I got two different prints to try.

I prewashed the flannel on hot and it came out very thick and soft with no pilling. The colors are gorgeously bright and there are so many cute choices at the fabric stores that would make adorable diapers. I think I’m changing my mind about flannel for dipes! I ended up making 6 Elmo dipes - flannel outers with microfleece inners. He was so excited to see the Elmo dipes and doesn’t fight changing time nearly as much as he used to - hooray! I’m going to test these for a while to see how they hold up, and if they’re OK I may add flannel to my Zany Zebra fabric choices.

Flannel for dipes - I guess I learn something new every day!