softest flat diapers

Diaper Junction One-Size Cover and Unbleached Flats Review & Giveaway

July 26, 2014 by Anne Marie 148 Comments

What’s colorful, trim-fitting, versatile and only $7.95? The Diaper Junction (aff) one-size cover! I’ve been really impressed with my purchase of a few months ago and wanted to share a review with you, just in case you’re on the fence about this product.

For my Diaper Junction review, I chose the Cobalt color, a nice deep blue that looks pretty sharp on both my guy and my gal.

Here are the basic features of the Diaper Junction brand diaper cover:

It’s made of waterproof TPU. TPU is slightly softer and more pliable than PUL.
The inside of the cover has a flap at the front and back to help secure inserts or diapers. The back flap is elasticized for even better performance.
The inside is wipeable, which means you can reuse it a few times if it isn’t soiled with #2.
The rise features 3 rows of snaps, which translates to 4 size settings (three snapped up and one completely open).
The wings close with 1 snap and then have 2 additional hip snaps for further adjustment.
The snaps are covered on the inside with a thin white piece of fabric.

After about four months of regular use, here’s my feedback.

WHAT I LIKE:

The TPU fabric is silky smooth and makes for a very trim-fitting cover. It’s a little thinner than some of my other covers, and for that reason I was hesitant at first, but it has performed just as well.
The covers has washed and worn extremely well, with absolutely no visible wear or fading of colors.
The leg elastics are snug and comfortable and haven’t loosened up at all.
It fits well on both my 1 year old and my 2 year old, although I’ve been using almost exclusively on the younger one.
The wings are nice and stretchy.
It’s a roomy cover that fits well over fitteds, prefolds, flats or whatever else I feel like putting inside. Sizing is very comparable to a Flip diaper cover, with the only noticeable difference being the wing style and roominess in the rear (DJ cover is a bit more generous).
It’s performed great overnight.
The elastic sewn inside the back flap helps hold inserts in place better (in my opinion) than other covers with regular flaps.
You can choose from 12 different colors!
It’s only $7.95.

WHAT I WOULD CHANGE

Looking at the photo above, you can see how the snaps on the waistband are angled somewhat, and not straight up and down. This is the only thing I would change about the cover – to have the snaps straight up and down. Every once in a while, I feel like I can’t quite get the exact fit I want with the waist snaps.

This is the Diaper Junction cover on Erik; in this picture he is about 14 months old and 21 pounds. Scroll down to the end of the post for a picture of the cover on a toddler.

These would make an ideal cover choice if you’re working on building a budget stash. My recommendation? Pair these Diaper Junction covers with Diaper Rite flats (also a DJ product). Diaper Rite birdseye cotton flats are sold in packs of twelve; you can choose from sizes small (27×27) and large (32×32) – measurements are prior to washing and drying. I bought unbleached Diaper Rite flats, since they are softer than the standard white. Flats are just one big square layer of fabric, so they wash and rinse out fantastically and dry super quick. I have a dozen of the smalls, and typical of cotton, they do not shrink up perfectly after the initial prepping. That is, they aren’t perfect squares, but they’re close. After you fold them up it doesn’t really make a difference anyway.

Small flats are $21.95 for a dozen, so that comes to $1.83 per diaper; one dozen larges are $26.95, bringing the cost per diaper to $2.25. Super economical!

There are two very easy ways to use Diaper Rite flats with the Diaper Junction covers. Pad-fold the flat (click here for quickie tutorial) and insert into the flaps of the cover:

Or try this simple fold with a Boingo or Snappi fastener if containment of messy poo is a going concern. This flat fold is one of the easiest you’ll find (sorry, I don’t do Origami, Kite, Mini Kite or Adapted Kite – LOL). It doesn’t even have a name that I know of. I call my creation the Custom Fold because you pick the width and length that you want.

There are only 4 steps. Easy, easy, easy!

Something else I really love about my soft unbleached flats: in a pinch I can grab them for other uses – burp cloth, clean up cloth or even an emergency changing mat for our bed (folded in half). Fitted diapers, AIO’s and pocket diapers just aren’t that versatile.

If you are thinking of grabbing a few of these bargain covers for your little one, here are the vibrant colors you get to pick from!

A closer look at the two new colors (Rainforest and Antigua) plus my favorite of the new prints – Scottie!

Here’s your chance to try the Diaper Junction one-size cover for your baby….for FREE! Enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter form below, and you’ll have a shot at TWO one-size covers (choice of in stock colors) – thanks to our friends over at Diaper Junction! Open to US and Canadian residents. Allow 2-4 weeks for prize fulfillment. GIVEAWAY CLOSED

Mini Pad Fold (a Newborn Flat Diaper Fold)

January 14, 2013 by Anne Marie 17 Comments

There’s a first time for everything and for me that includes trying out flat diapers on my newborn son, Erik. In November I posted a quick tutorial about how to do the easy “pad fold.” It takes a mere 10 or 20 seconds and is very simple. Here’s the photo again for a basic pad fold. I use this easy fold for my older babies:

I quickly discovered that I could not use the pad fold for Erik, however. It renders a rectangle-shaped diaper that’s too long to fit in his newborn covers. And when I tried to fold the top down there was way too much bulk, and it caused the waistband to gape open.

I did a little Googling and got a bit intimidated by tutorials for the “trapezoid,” the “origami” and the “mini kite” for newborns. I just wanted something similar to my pad fold that did NOT require pinning and that could be laid in a cover. And so because there’s no right or wrong way to fold a flat….I just figured out my own quick and easy way to fit it in our tiny covers without creating too much bulk in the front or back. I dubbed it the “mini pad fold.” Here’s the rundown:

I’m holding up the diaper so you can see that this method creates the same number of folds at the front and back, so you don’t get a lot of bulk at one end and not the other.

And here’s Erik sporting a flat inside a Bummis Super Brite newborn cover:

Erik in a Thirsties Duo Wrap – this cover is roomier in the rear, so it easily accommodates bulkier diapers, which is great if using fitteds or when adding a doubler to your flat.

See all my newborn diaper cover reviews here!

Covers I’ve found that work well with fitteds and flats are the Thirsties Duo Wrap and the newborn sizes from Imagine and Nicki’s, all available at Nicki’s Diapers.

Flats are amazingly absorbent for newborns because there are so many layers of thirsty cotton fabric. And the unbleached flats are so soft they might surprise you. I like them better than thick prefolds! Other perks: flats are just a big square piece of cotton so they wash and dry better than any other diaper in our stash. And I’m using the same flats for Erik that I am for Samuel and Susanna – just with different folds. Later on, they work great as burp cloths or doublers. Flats also have a good re-sale value.

The softest flat diapers I’ve found (that are within budget) are the unbleached birdseye flats at Diaper Junction; it’s their exclusive Diaper Rite brand. It’s important to choose the unbleached diapers, which are a natural color. The white ones are not as soft and smooth.

Hope you have fun with flats!

How to Pad Fold Flat Diapers

November 15, 2012 by Anne Marie 92 Comments

First of all, what is a flat diaper? It’s basically a big square or rectangle of cloth that you fold and then wrap or pin around your baby. It’s your great-grandmother’s cloth diaper. After 4 years of cloth diapering, I thought it was high time that I went back to the basics and gave flats a test drive. But what kind to buy? Well, I wanted them to be soft and economical. Although the flour sack towels that you can pick up at Walmart or Target do work as flats, I know that they aren’t quite as soft or quite as absorbent as “real” flats, and that they have a seam at the edges that can create annoying bulk when folded up. And while receiving blankets can also be used like flats, they are typically made of flannel, which is not as absorbent as cotton.

And muslin flats, although very soft, are just too expensive for me, averaging $5.00 to $8.00 each.

For this post, I’m using small cotton flat diapers (birdsye). These diapers have a thin edge seam, which means that after you fold them up, there’s not a lot of bulk due to the hemming. The unbleached organic fabric is softer than bleached cotton or flour sack towels.

Before prepping they measured about 27×29; afterwards they shrank to 24×26.

My first experience with flats has been great! I can see why mothers say flats are so easy to wash and dry and get stains out of. There’s just one layer of fabric. I would estimate that drying time for a flat as compared to my Chinese prefolds and Flip organics is 50% less. This is my guess because it always takes a full cycle to completely dry my prefolds, but the flats are done about halfway through. That’s a huge difference and a hefty savings in energy.

Here is a comparison between a Flip organic cotton insert (trifold) and a pad folded flat:

Are they hard to fold? Is it really time-consuming? Honestly, no. I had this impression that flats were complicated and required expert folding techniques. Nothing could be further from the truth when you start with something super easy like the pad fold. Here’s what it looks like. For a modified newborn flat diaper fold click here):

This takes about 10 seconds. No big deal. And then you can lay in a cover or use pins/Snappi/Boingo to secure.

I truly love these flats! We have used them both day and night and the absorbency level is impressive. Because they aren’t too bulky, it’s easy to pair them with other inserts, to stuff them in a pocket or even to double up!

* How to Win a 6-Pack of Eco Dia Flats *

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