We all know velcro cloth diapers are easier to get on and off little ones, but sometimes it just doesn’t hold up very well in wash after wash. After over 2 years of use, Aamina’s Grobaby (now Grovia) covers are showing some serious signs of wear on the velcro tabs. I heard it is easy to convert cloth diaper covers to snaps, but had yet to try it myself. Well, my experience was surprisingly easy once I had the right tools!
So, the right tools… I learned this the hard way. The local craft store was not the place to find what I needed, unfortunately. At least now I have a snaps pliers that will put on metal snaps for whenever that need arises. Luckily, there’s a starter set on Amazon that has everything you need to get started:
Step 1 – Remove velcro
Side note – start with clean covers! You don’t want to lock in grime under the snap, so make sure the cover is freshly washed before starting.
Find the thread that is holding the velcro on and get a seam ripper and some time to kill. It isn’t rocket science. Don’t mind the hair in the velcro – just another reason to switch to snaps! I swear, this thin velcro is very hard to keep clean. Some covers also have a velcro strip on the body of the diaper, but the Grobaby/Grovia diaper covers just use velcro-ready fabric, so that’s one less step for me. Yay!
Step 2 – Mark spots for snaps
When I did this the first time, I marked a piece of paper every 3/4 inch. Then when I was disappointed with how crooked the snaps were, it dawned on me… why didn’t I just use a hard ruler? Duh! So, I just used a plastic ruler every time after and the snaps lined up straighter thereafter.
3/4 inch seemed to work well with my size 20 snaps. The Grovia covers I have that have snaps look like size 22 snaps or larger and they are farther apart. Really, it’s up to you. On the tabs that will snap to the body of the diaper, it’s nice to have one tab that has three snaps: two facing the body of the diaper, and one facing the opposite way so the other tab can snap to it for a slender baby.
Step 3 – Add snaps!
Using your handy dandy snaps pliers and the instructions that came with them, add the snaps! I had to use an awl to pierce the fabric before putting the snaps on.
Then I put the back part of the snap through the pierced hole, attached either the socket or the stud piece on the other side, and press together using the pliers.
Unless you use a snap press, which is quite a bit more expensive, I would say to only plan on doing a couple covers each night because your hand gets sore from pressing snaps after just a few covers.
One thing to note: when you do it yourself, the back side of the snap will not be hidden between the layers of fabric like if it was done by the manufacturer. This isn’t a big deal to me, but just something to note when you are choosing snaps because the back side will be against baby’s skin.
And that’s it. Ta da!! You have a cover that now uses snaps! I’ve had about four covers converted to snaps for a couple weeks now and I now reach for them first, before grabbing any of the velcro ones. I love how easy it is to switch them over and I plan on getting some more snaps to finish off the rest of my set. These Grobaby/Grovia diaper covers still have a lot of life in them, and switching them to snaps is going to help lengthen that.
Hi. Thank you so much for this tutorial. The velcro pices on my Grovia hook and loop diapers are very tired and so I have decided to put snaps on them just like you did. I am worried about doing it right though. Thank you for the tip on spacing, but how did you decide how far down from the top to place the snaps, and how to place them on the tabs. Any other tips you can give on snap placement would be greatly appreciated.
I just tried to find the center of the strip, and go from there. From top to bottom, it wasn’t too difficult to just eyeball it. For the double sided snaps, I just tried to line it up before I started making holes. It’s been a while since I’ve done it, so that’s about the best I can recall right now. đ