Socks to baby pants Part 3 – The 5 min Bonds nappy cover hack [tutorial]

NOTE: This post is a part of a series, check out the other posts here and here.

When my kids were babies, I always loved the look of Bonds brand nappy covers, (Bonds is an Australian brand so in case you don’t know what I am talking about these). As my kids wore cloth nappies I was especially drawn to the design because of all the room in the back for the nappy butt :), but at $11 per pair, a whole set of these was never in the budget.

I have since devised this hack which takes about 5 min and costs around $1 depending where you buy your socks.

How to do it:

Choose a pair of short/ankle length socks (these are a ladies size 5-8)
turn your socks so that the sole of the sock is flat on the table and the ankle is pointing up – just as they would be if you were wearing them.
Cut off the toe portion.
Cut down the side towards the heel as shown in the picture stopping at the heel.
Turn one sock inside out and put the other sock inside it lining up the cut edges
Serge or zigzag what is going to be the crotch seam leaving the top open. (my apologies, I forgot to take a picture of this step so please excuse the substitute)
Measure a cut a length of elastic to fit your bubs waist and sew the ends together to make a loop
Sew the loop of elastic to the top opening of the nappy cover on the inside using a zigzag stitch.
fold the top of the nappy cover and elastic inwards one turn (enclosing the elastic) and zigzag (or use a double needle) around the bottom of the elastic.
Your done!

These are super stretchy and will fit nicely over a cloth nappy, the fit depends on what size socks you use and the length of the waist elastic. I don’t have a baby in the house anymore, so for your reference, the ‘baby’ in the pics is a 41cm long baby doll wearing a newborn cloth nappy under the nappy cover. A little bit creepy I know but it is the best I could do 😉

Here are another couple of pairs that I made. These both have a higher rise (because the waistband is added not folded down) and will fit a wider range of sizes because the waistbands are made of stretchy sock parts. I used the waistband method from this post.