Upcycled vs New Wool Diaper Covers

Posted by Marina on 22 January 2023

Wool diaper covers come in two forms: upcycled ones crafted from old sweaters and knitted ones made from scratch. Upcycling old sweaters into diaper covers results in a fashionable result and has environmental benefits, as it reduces waste by repurposing discarded clothing. Knitted wool diaper covers offer a unique level of comfort and protection for your little one, as they are designed to prevent leaks.

In this post, we are going to dive into a thorough comparison of the two. As an important note, although we do not use wool diapers on a full-time basis, they have been great for us during both day and night. We love both the upcycled ones that we purchased from Etsy as well as store-bought knitted diapers! At home, we prefer relying on knitted diapers over fitted ones because of their excellent leakage protection capabilities and ability to keep our little one's skin dry.For additional security against leaks, fashion, and warmth when outdoors in winter months, we prefer upcycled diapers over all-in-one ones.

What Are Wool Diaper Covers Used For?

When it comes to safeguarding your baby's sensitive skin, wool diaper covers are an outstanding choice, providing superior leakage protection both during the day and at night. This is why many parents opt for this option when searching for the most reliable way to keep their babies' clothes and bedsheets dry. They are truly amazing, with the downside that they cannot be permanently attached to the absorbent part of the diaper, since they cannot go into the washing machine ( and I love having everything attached together).

Differences Between Knitted and Upcycled Wool Covers

The main difference between these two types of diaper covers is their knitting style. Sweaters (and diaper covers made from them) are typically made with flat knit (first picture), which uses right stitches on the right side and purl stitches on the wrong side, resulting in a thinner fabric that is common in clothing, creating less bulk. Knitted cloth diapers, however, use purl knit (second picture), with purl stitches on both sides of the fabric, resulting in a more bulky material with better absorbency and great protection against leaks.

Flat-knit Purl knit

Both types of diapers come equipped with rib-knit leg holes for extra leak protection and comfort; the upcycled ones employ cuffs from the sweaters' original design for this purpose, whereas knitted versions feature specially crafted knitting at that spot.

Leg hole of upcycled diaper Leg hole of knitted diaper

Not only do our upcycled wool covers feature rib-knit bordering the leg holes, but also around the waistline. When it comes to repurposing diapers for this application, the bands at the bottom of a standard sweater may be too small to use as a belly band; thus, our upcycled covers are crafted with a flat-knitted band instead—which is less stretchy.

Upcycled diaper band

Both diapers are composed of two layers of fabric. Whereas the upcycled diapers can only bolster the area between the legs owing to scarce material from the original sweater, designated diaper covers feature double layers everywhere across the diaper.

Environmental Benefits of Upcycling Old Sweaters

When writing a post about this subject, I cannot ignore in this post that upcycling old sweaters into diaper covers offers both cost savings and environmental benefits. Not only is it more affordable than buying or making a new diaper cover from scratch - old sweaters cost much less than raw materials - but it reduces waste by repurposing discarded clothing rather than throwing it away. It also allows one to get creative with patterns and colors while customizing their own unique design!

Difficulty in Making Each Type of Diaper

I will start from the bottom line - I ended up buying both styles of diapers, even though I have background in both knitting and sewing. Upcycling an old or thrifted sweater seems to be the easiest route for making your own diaper cover, but I did not have an old merino sweater that I didn't need, and finding one in the thrift store turned out to be hard, as most of the good stuff usually goes fast, and I was unable to find one. Knitting one from scratch will probably not save money either because of the high cost of merino wool yarn—not to mention the large amount of time it would take. This is why I found making any of these myself impractical.

Conclusion

Knitted wool diaper covers and upcycled ones both offer a unique level of comfort, protection and style for your little one. If you can find an old sweater to upcycle into a diaper cover, it offers great cost savings and environmental benefits. However, if can't, you may want to opt for a commercially available knitted wool diaper cover, or buy an upcycled one from Etsy. Whichever route you choose, your baby will stay comfortable and dry!1`

Baby in knitted cover Baby holding head in upcycled cover Baby sleeping in upcycled cover

If you enjoy using wool diapers covers, I recommend you read my post where I describe the absorbent layer I use under the wool cover.