That is in no way doctored. Without even taking his clothes off, he was able to get his diaper off. All he did was swipe at one side. I fixed it 3 times before this, and he obviously got both sides this time. Thankfully it was dry and clean. Anyway.
I searched the internet and found a wonderful Youtube tutorial on converting BGs from velcro to snaps. Part 1 and Part 2. I borrowed a snap setter, a zillion snaps, a few tools to fix mistakes, a ruler, and some fabric markers and pencils to do this project, all from my mom. She was going to do this for me but we only have one day worth of diapers if we give up all our BG's so I figured I could do it faster (it takes some shoulder strength and it would bother hers too much to go quickly).
I didn't do it the way she did exactly to a "T" but I came pretty close, and got the same results.
First, I started out making my template.
I did all my velcro removal yesterday, and didn't take any pictures. I just used a seam ripper. This was the most time consuming part. Here is the raw diaper, no velcro.
I put on my template, taped it down, and marked it up with the purple marker there.
This part was different than the tutorial. According to my mom, snaps can come right through fabric over time, so the more layers they have to bite through, the better. So, she gave me some fabric glue and flannel. I cut a panel of flannel to glue into the backside of where the diaper would go. I really think it gave it a lot more stability than it would have otherwise.
I started out doing all of the female ends, across the front of the diaper. I had 5 diapers to do. This is 80 snaps total, 16 per diaper. By the way, I did not pre-poke any holes in the diaper. As you can see, the snap setter I am using is much more "industrial" than the snap pliers the woman uses in the tutorial. The snap caps are pointy, so it was not necessary. It just liked the pokey part up behind the marker dot and snapped. No problem.
The finished front. Yes, the velcro left an unsightly dingy ring around where it used to be. Hopefully this will wash away.
Here is the snap setter at work on a different diaper. By this time, I had it down to a science and it took just a few minutes per diaper.
Here is the one and only diaper I screwed up. It happened to be the last one. If you look carefully on the right hand side, there are 4 holes there. The template was far too low, so the snap I put in was practically on top of a snap that was already there. I had to use the tools my mom sent with it (think a big industrial tweezer and big industrial toenail clippers) to take them off. Basically I had to clip at it until it was disintegrated. You can also see the marker marks and the pencil marks if you look carefully. The pencil marks were at the correct spot, the markers were the original. WAY OFF.
You can see the holes where the bad ones went, this is the finished item.
Another mistake I made, again on the last diaper (I went back and had to change to the male-end snap attachment, so I did all female then all male). Very last tab on the very last diaper...I put the second from last snap in upside down. This one didn't cause much damage because it was placed correctly, just the wrong way, so I used the old hole to set the right one.
Here is everything I used.
Here is the finished product, minus one diaper which was on my kid at the time.
Here is what the first one I did looked like all snapped up. I improvised the tabs just a little bit on the end. I didn't use the template at all for them, I just went right outside the corners of where the velcro used to be.
On the kid. Not 100% childproof, but much improved!!!!
Tonight I am doing one more snap conversion. I searched the internet and could not find any tutorials on converting a Happy Hiney's diaper from velcro to snaps. I have 3 of their velcro diapers, and one snap diapers, so I am using the snap diaper as my template. The velcro on those is actually pretty good but there is so much of it SO MUCH NASTY STUFF gets stuck in there and I have to use a toothbrush to get it out. Ick.
I didn't do it the way she did exactly to a "T" but I came pretty close, and got the same results.
First, I started out making my template.
I did all my velcro removal yesterday, and didn't take any pictures. I just used a seam ripper. This was the most time consuming part. Here is the raw diaper, no velcro.
I put on my template, taped it down, and marked it up with the purple marker there.
This part was different than the tutorial. According to my mom, snaps can come right through fabric over time, so the more layers they have to bite through, the better. So, she gave me some fabric glue and flannel. I cut a panel of flannel to glue into the backside of where the diaper would go. I really think it gave it a lot more stability than it would have otherwise.
I started out doing all of the female ends, across the front of the diaper. I had 5 diapers to do. This is 80 snaps total, 16 per diaper. By the way, I did not pre-poke any holes in the diaper. As you can see, the snap setter I am using is much more "industrial" than the snap pliers the woman uses in the tutorial. The snap caps are pointy, so it was not necessary. It just liked the pokey part up behind the marker dot and snapped. No problem.
The finished front. Yes, the velcro left an unsightly dingy ring around where it used to be. Hopefully this will wash away.
Here is the snap setter at work on a different diaper. By this time, I had it down to a science and it took just a few minutes per diaper.
Here is the one and only diaper I screwed up. It happened to be the last one. If you look carefully on the right hand side, there are 4 holes there. The template was far too low, so the snap I put in was practically on top of a snap that was already there. I had to use the tools my mom sent with it (think a big industrial tweezer and big industrial toenail clippers) to take them off. Basically I had to clip at it until it was disintegrated. You can also see the marker marks and the pencil marks if you look carefully. The pencil marks were at the correct spot, the markers were the original. WAY OFF.
You can see the holes where the bad ones went, this is the finished item.
Another mistake I made, again on the last diaper (I went back and had to change to the male-end snap attachment, so I did all female then all male). Very last tab on the very last diaper...I put the second from last snap in upside down. This one didn't cause much damage because it was placed correctly, just the wrong way, so I used the old hole to set the right one.
Here is everything I used.
Here is the finished product, minus one diaper which was on my kid at the time.
Here is what the first one I did looked like all snapped up. I improvised the tabs just a little bit on the end. I didn't use the template at all for them, I just went right outside the corners of where the velcro used to be.
On the kid. Not 100% childproof, but much improved!!!!
Tonight I am doing one more snap conversion. I searched the internet and could not find any tutorials on converting a Happy Hiney's diaper from velcro to snaps. I have 3 of their velcro diapers, and one snap diapers, so I am using the snap diaper as my template. The velcro on those is actually pretty good but there is so much of it SO MUCH NASTY STUFF gets stuck in there and I have to use a toothbrush to get it out. Ick.
OMG...I have been going back and forth on snaps vs. velcro, but this settles it! Snaps it is.
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