The beauty of cloth wipes is that once you are using cloth nappies, they are no extra work or cost at all. Just chuck them in the nappy bin and pull them out at the other end. Not only that, cloth wipes are much more effective than the alternatives of cotton wool, baby lotion or disposable wipes.
The reason is that the texture of the cloth is much better than the smoothness of a disposable wipe or cotton wool. We especially notice the difference with a pooey change, as a single cloth wipe will usually clean up the area effectively, whereas I might well need up to 3 disposable wipes or more to get the same result. You may be wondering what you do about washing when large amounts of poo get onto the wipe. The answer is to use toilet paper for the first swipe - this is then flushed down the toilet with the poo. That way you never get too much on the wipe itself.
You can make the wipes out of anything at all. A nice way to do it is to buy a pile of cheap washcloths (thin ones rather than the towel-like ones), but you can also cut up an old towel or teatowel, use old facecloths or anything else. You can then put them in a plastic container and add some water, so you have a pile of wipes ready to use at the changetable. Some people prefer to put the water in a spraybottle, and then they just wet the cloth at each change.
Many people just use water, but there are other options. A good one is to add some water to the bottom of the container, put in a good squirt of babywash and baby oil, mix it a little and then throw in the wipes. This cuts through the worst poos very nicely. You might wish to add some tea tree oil to this.
Another really nice one is to use camomile tea - just make up a batch and add it to your container. Camomile is extremely soothing on the skin, and it's a little extra luxury to use it at every change to clean the nappy area.
This is Elizabeth's little pet product, and it's just fantastic. It's a high pressure spray gun that you attach to your toilet, and it allows you simply to hold the nappy in the bowl and spray the poo off. It makes life so easy, she just can't recommend it highly enough. "At those times when my children produce something particularly sticky and horrible, I want to get down on my knees and thank the guy that invented it!" It costs around $50, and is worth its weight in gold. It's also extremely simple to attach - takes about five minutes, even if you've never changed a washer.
You can find all the details for the Little Squirt here.
These are the easiest thing in the world to make - we honestly can't figure out why people buy them at all. Just pop down to your local fabric store and buy some fleece. Microfleece is the best because it's less bulky, but anything is fine as long as it is 100% polyester. The fleece must not have any cotton content as the point of a liner is that it should not absorb moisture itself.
A metre should be enough to make at least 20 liners, which is all you need. You may cut them to a rectangle or hourglass shape, or any other shape that works well for you. The idea is simply to cover as much of the nappy area as possible. Feel free to experiment. You can start with a standard rectangle - try something 15cm x 30cm. And then go from there. You can make it wider at the top and bottom to cover more of the nappy area at the waist (front and back), and you can cut in the sides in the middle to give it a more hourglass shape. You would try making a huge triangle (pointing downwards when you lay it on the nappy)... Just experiment to see what you prefer.
There is no sewing involved as fleece does not fray - just cut to size and put them straight into the wash.