About $5 + A Little Bit of Time = Reusable Swim Diaper!

It's swimming season!  I decided to make a reusable swim diaper for Clyde.  I usually like to come up with my own pattern, but since I'd never done this before (and I REALLY wanted it to work!), I decided to use someone else's tried and true.  I hardly ever pay for a pattern.  There are so many free ones online and, after searching on google, I found this: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2011/06/aquarius-swimmer-swim-diaper-tutorial/

This is the picture from "Sew, Mama, Sew."  She tells you how to make two different styles.

I made a few alterations, of course.  My 6th month old is 16lbs but pretty chunky, and I want this to last the entire summer, so I made medium size.  I extended the wings a little to make room for another row of snaps, switched around which wings go in front (because it was cuter and didn't really hurt performance), and just hemmed the end of the FOE instead of folding it over three times (to reduce bulk and save some elastic).  You could also just use one piece of FOE and go around the entire diaper.  Also, on the tutorial she uses three layers of fabric (swimsuit material, PUL, and athletic wicking).  You really don't need the outer layer.  They have so many cute PUL prints.  I just used two layers, PUL for the outer layer and AW for the inner.

Here's how it turned out:

Athletic Wicking (AW) inner

PUL outer

Smaller setting (fits him now)

Larger setting (probably will fit later in the summer)

Ready...

Set...

Swim!

Tips:
It's best to use is a very thin (the smallest you have), ball-point needle. 
If you need to, use pins.  The tutorial doesn't, I think, because you need to be careful with both PUL and elastic.  If you do get little holes in the PUL, most (depending on the brand) can be thrown in the dryer on high for 20 min. to reseal those holes. 
This was my first time ever using fold-over elastic (FOE).  It can be a little bit tricky at first but I think it turned out ok all things considered!  Just take it a little bit at a time and make sure to mark on your diaper where to start stretching.