The summary: for those like me who are, shall we say, extremely thrifty, cloth "muslin" diapers/nappies can be made from any thin-ish cloth, so long as it is a plant fibre (cotton,
linen, etc). I suggest maybe an old cotton sheet? Maybe even some old cotton t shirts would work (and might be easier to tie on). Wool wraps can be made from any thick-ish felt, so long as it is an animal fibre (wool, angora, cashmere, etc); lanolin is optional. The nappies are folded and tied onto baby, and the wool covers are wrapped around the nappy and secured with pins or a Snappi. Change when baby's bum feels warm!
Now for the details:
I did a little research on cheap cloth nappies and learned about muslins. They are cheap to buy, easy to fold and use as nappies, and very quick drying. However, as the self-reliant person I am, and somewhat of a fabric hoarder, I made my own "muslins" out of materials I had in my stash. None of these were purchased: they were all given to me over the years, so these nappies were free! I also made these nappies all by hand: a sewing machine is optional.
The nappies
I used: two cotton tablecloths, one linen tablecloth and three cotton flannel receiving blankets and made 15 nappies total from them, each measuring around 60 cm square. I only just got around to hemming them, six weeks into using them daily, ahem. I got four nappies from each tablecloth and one from each receiving blanket. To use: we fold into the Origami Fold (search for instructions, it's very easy), and simply tie it on our baby, as shown. We do a wash every day, as 15 is probably the absolute minimum for us (I originally just had the 12 made from tablecloths, and that was cutting it very fine indeed--sometimes two washes a day were required).
The covers
As a cloth nappy needs some kind of cover to keep the wet from leaking out, I made six wool wraps out of pieces of old felted sweaters, also from my stash. All of these I originally bought secondhand, from charity shops--and all of them have been in the stash for a while because they're no longer wearable (moth eaten, shrunk, etc). I cut them up to make rough trapezoid shapes, as shown--the best ones have the back length 40-50 cm which is about twice the length of the front (the pink one shown is not quite this optimal ratio); some are from sleeves (just cut them open at the underarm seam) and some body pieces. I whip stitched stretchy ribbing (again from stash) onto two of these wool wraps, but the rest are just unfinished pieces with no ribbing or indeed any sewing. I experimented with the T shape (cut from the body of a sweater) and it works too but not as efficiently as the trapezoid shape.
Now, just to mention, the internet insists that wool nappy covers are great but they must be lanonlinized (lanolised?) before they are used, otherwise they'll just leak like crazy. Ok, this is
not my experience at all. I have used thick wool covers and thin wool covers (and actually two of these are cashmere!) and none of mine have lanolin, which is expensive and to my mind just a faff. Too much effort. The wraps get wet, but mine don't leak. The felted wool will soak up the liquid (they are called soakers after all), but will only start to seep out the other side if baby is left wet for too long. That's what makes cloth nappies so much fun, right? Lots of nappy changes! Unlike the nappies, the wool wraps don't need washing unless they have poo on them. If they are damp, I hang them up for a few hours to dry. If they have poo on them, I quickly swirl them in the bathroom sink to wash (takes about 30 seconds tops), squeeze out the water, and hang up for a few hours to dry.
Securing it all
Next, the wool covers need to be secured. For this I have what is sold here as a Nappy Nippa, but is also called a Snappi. I love this little device, bought on ebay when our oldest was in nappies. We first had pins with him, but I really didn't like them, not trusting myself to use them during night time changes. But pins are absolutely fine for these wool wraps, as you are only pinning the wrap to itself, and the pin should not go through the nappy, or near baby's skin at all. Note: the nappies themselves also can be pinned if preferred; we found the Snappi doesn't work well on the smooth cotton or linen of our handmade nappies (I understand it works fine on actual muslin). Hence, the nappies are tied and the covers are wrapped around, which secures them well.
The wipes
Finally, we need a stack of washable wipes, right? Because I'm as cheap as possible, I delved into the stash once more and came up with some old worn out pairs of boys and mens cotton briefs. Using two layers of the fabric, I marked out small squares and rectangles (anywhere between 7-10 cm) and sewed around the markings with my sewing machine using a zig zag stitch. Once again, I actually sewed some of these by hand, using a whip stitch around the edges; however, since I wanted about 30 of these, it was kind of impractical to do them all by hand! But for a person who has the time (and no sewing machine handy), why not? Do it while watching tv or something. We use almost all 30 of these wipes every day--they go in the nappy bucket too.