Ditch the disposable cloth diaper liners & DIY your own fleece liners for cloth diapers while cloth diapering on a budget.

These are so easy to make, VERY cheap & best of all, there’s no sewing required!

If you are on a cloth diapering budget, you are probably scouring the web for simple ways to save money while using cloth diapers. After all, that’s one of the biggest reasons that parents choose to cloth diaper their children – the $$$ savings.

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One of the easiest and cheapest things that I’ve DIY’ed during my cloth diapering days is reusable cloth diaper liners. 

What are cloth diaper liners?

Cloth diaper liners are simply a piece of fabric that goes between your baby and their cloth diaper. The main difference from cloth diaper inserts to cloth diaper liners is that the liners aren’t used for absorbing.

There are a few types of cloth diaper liners, but they mainly fall under two categories: disposable and reusable.

Disposable diaper liners are a piece of very thin fabric, usually made from bamboo, and are meant to be 1 use only. Some are biodegradable and can be flushed and others are meant to be thrown in the trash.

Reusable diaper liners are usually made of a fleece material and are so cheap and easy to make!

So, why are cloth diaper liners even used? While they aren’t necessary to use with cloth diapers, they certainly have advantages:

• Cloth diaper liners help to keep baby’s bottom dry.
• Liners help to keep stains at bay. This makes selling used cloth diapers easier, if you decide to later. Plus, they just look better without stains!
• Cloth diaper liners make clean up a bit easier. Sometimes it’s easier to shake solids off a liner than a diaper. They are especially helpful when you are traveling with cloth diapers.
• Diaper liners help protect your diapers from diaper creams. Even cloth diaper safe creams can cause build-up on your diapers.

And when you DIY them, they’re cheap and totally worth the pennies you’ve invested.

DIY Fleece Liners for Cloth Diapers Supplies:

• Fleece fabric
• Scissors

Seriously. That’s all you need! The best part of fleece fabric is that it doesn’t fray so there’s no sewing required!

These reusable fleece cloth diaper liners can cost you cents, literally. I purchased the above purple fleece before Sophia was born. I had found an odd yardage amount of fleece at a craft store that had been deeply discounted, but you can also buy fleece online.

To make your own fleece diaper liners for cloth diapers, you’re simply going to look at your cloth diapers for sizing. There’s no perfect size to cut these liners to, just see what will work best in the diapers you have. You’ll want them to be a bit smaller than your diaper.

When should you use cloth diaper liners?

The main times I use my liners are with overnight fitted diapers. I like knowing that Moreaya has a barrier between fabrics so I know she’s not got a wet diaper against her all night. 

Remember I said fleece is a miracle worker? It is. Liquids pass right through it and it acts as a barrier. So, when a child pees onto the fleece, it passes through to the more absorbent diaper and doesn’t sit in the fleece, which makes it stay dry. 

That’s why a lot of your pocket cloth diapers are topped with a stay-dry fleece material.

I also like to use them when I am using a diaper cream, whether it be cloth diaper safe or not. If it’s not, I usually wash my liners with towel laundry.  Otherwise, the reusable diaper liners go straight into the diaper pail with the diapers!

Diaper creams can make your cloth diapers get a build-up and may cause leaking issues. The only way to remedy this is by stripping cloth diapers. You eliminate this worry when you use cloth diaper liners.

I also use these cloth diaper liners when we travel. While I always use our fleece liners for cloth diapers at home, I do buy disposable cloth liners when we’re traveling. Just because they are so easy to use on the go.

Have you DIY’ed a Cloth Diaper Project like these reusable cloth diaper liners?

This post was originally published in August 2013.