Wool Longies Tutorial

(Pre-felted sweaters)

This is a rough low down of how to make a wool longie cloth diaper soaker..... Sorry there are no measurements. I was winging it.

Find a wool sweater that you no longer are using. Or one that you accidentaly shrunk in the laundry (this is a good wonderful thing. I found my sweaters at the Youth Ranch Thrift Store. Now that it is cooler out I had a greater selection than when I went shopping in the middle of summer.

(Felted Sweaters, can you tell a difference?)

I washed the sweaters in hot water, this is a process that is called felting wool. I did not do this initially on my first wool soakers and I learned it is a must if you want to prevent leaking. You also should lanolize the wool. I will do another post someday to teach you how to lanolize wool.

So after you have felted the wool sweater you cut off the arms. For this project we are using the sleeves for the longies.

Trim across the sleeve at a slight slant.

Take the scrap that you just cut off of the sleeve and cut it into a diamond shape.

Measure down about five inches and cut the seam out of the sleeve on both sleeves. When I make my second pair I will probably go down another inch or two so the finished product will cover the cloth diaper better.

Pin the diamond (with right sides together) to the sleeve where you just cut.

I used a zig-zag stitch, then later re-enforced with a straight stitch.

Sew diamond piece to the cut edge where you just cut down 5"

Pin other side from top of waist to top of waist back and sew.
Then finish off the longies by creating a casing for the waistband and add elastic.

The finished product. Not fancy or professional, but functional.

They look more uneven than they really are. Poor photo positioning I guess.

Now we are ready for the cool fall weather!