Organic cotton sherpa Quick Dry Diapers are not a regular item for Firefly Diapers, but our shelves are currently full of beautiful colors of cushy sherpa diapers.

We like to emphasis our basic diapers, but when our fabric supply ran low in early summer, we had to get creative. When we made Strawberries and Cream sets a while ago for our sister company Fuzbaby’s Diaper Garden with Firefly Quick Dry organic sherpa diapers, customers loved them. Since we had dyed colors on the shelf and a roll of sherpa just waiting for inspiration, organic cotton sherpa diapers it was.

What exactly is sherpa? Organic cotton sherpa starts as a heavy knit terry, often called burley knit terry. At 12 stitches per inch, this is a loose knit. Just for comparison, when the organic wool knit we use for Easy Wool diaper covers is fulled and ready for production, the fabric has about 36 stitches per inch. [See more close up images comparing the structure of burley knit terry and sherpa.]

The burley terry has long, loose loops. This creates more surface area. The more surface area (I recall from college physics), the more contact with moisture in this case. This is why the terry is very absorbent. But the terry is also quite loose, so what moisture isn’t absorbed can go right through it.

To make sherpa, heavy knit terry is brushed and beaten and pushed around until the tiny fibers are teased into a cloud of organic cotton. This not only creates even more fiber surface area exposed to moisture but it creates more of a barrier that traps the moisture while the fibers are in the process of absorbing.

The extra absorbency of organic cotton sherpa makes it a great cloth diaper fabric. Those loose fibers also pill up into small balls, but those can be picked off to keep the diaper looking relatively smooth.