Mermaid Tails!

A few weeks ago, my sweet little girls asked if I could make them mermaid tails for swimming! I took out my handy roll of butcher paper and traced each girl to make their tail patterns. For the tankini and shorts, I used a darling pattern from Peekaboo Pattern Shop.

I made them out of shiny swim/dance fabric and Babyville Boutique Foldover Elastic from my local JoAnn Fabric store. I absolutely LOVE how they turned out!

We tried them out the next day at my sister's community pool and they work perfectly. So much so, that my niece knew exactly what she wanted for her birthday present this year. :)

Minecraft Pillowcases!

For Christmas I made pillowcases for my children and nephews. I used one of my very favorite fabrics that I designed and had printed through Spoonflower...Minecraft!

I did a simple monogram with swatch fabric with the first letter of each of their names. The kiddos loved their pillowcases and have been using them ever since. :)

My Spoonflower shop:

JoyfulRose Cupcakes and Swirls Pattern Collection

I'm so excited to introduce our newest fabric!

Presenting: "JoyfulRose Cupcakes and Swirls Fabric Collection".

Now available at our: JoyfulRose Shop on Spoonflower

All of the designs are color-coordinated for perfect mixing and matching. You may purchase them individually or as a special 1-yard grouped fabric that is arranged perfectly to fit our "First Birthday Pinafore and Pants Pattern" (coming soon).

Click images to view larger!

Sneak Peak at our new Fabric Design and Pinafore Pattern!

I've been hard at work designing the perfect fabric (printed through Spoonflower, of course!) and pattern for baby girl's 1st Birthday outfit. Here's a sneak peak!

Fabric is available at Spoonflower. I'll be asking for pattern testers soon!

Soaker Sack Tutorial

This is a picture tutorial I made for Joanna's "Soaker Sack" pattern.
Final looks like this!


The original pattern is by Joanna (aka homeschoolmama6), my friend from the Diaper Sewing Divas forum. :)

Please let me know if everything makes sense!

1 - Print/cut out pattern (I also wrote Joanna's instructions on mine so they'd be close by when I was sewing)

2 - Cut out fabric

3 - Hem/Serge bottom edges of Top and Bottom layers. Fold up bottom edge of Bottom layer as indicated on pattern.

4 - Place Top layer on Bottom layer, right sides together. Bottom layer's folded bottom should be fairly even with Top layer's hemmed/serged bottom.
Mark left side of Top and Bottom layers as indicated on the pattern.
Sew/Serge right and left sides of Soaker Sack, being careful to catch all layers.
On left side, be sure to leave opening as indicated on pattern.

5 - Hem/Serge left top sides of both Top and Bottom layers (don't sew the Top to the Bottom layer though!)

6 - Hem/Serge both sides of Waistband.

7 - Fold Waistband in half lengthwise, right side out, matching up hemmed/serged edges. Use a pin to mark the middle of the Waistband.

8 - Place Waistband inside Soaker Sack, right sides together. Line up one of the hemmed/serged edges with the Bottom layer of the Soaker. Raw edge of Waistband should be even with raw edge of Bottom layer.
Stretch the Waistband and pin the middle to the other side of the Bottom layer of the Soaker.

9 - Sew/Serge Waistband to Bottom layer, stretching Waistband as you go.
Remove pin when you get to the middle of the Waistband and continue to stretch Waistband and sew/serge to Top layer.

10 - Waistband serged to Top and Bottom layers; on the top right you can see where the opening is.

11 - Turn Soaker Sack right-side-out and Topstitch along top edge of Top and Bottom layers. (This step isn't necessary, but does make for a more finished-looking Soaker Sack).

Soaker Sack closeup showing top-stitching:

12 - With Soaker Sack right-side-out, turn flap from Bottom layer inside-out and center Snap Socket on wrong side of fabric.

13 - Turn flap from Bottom layer right-side out and center Snap Stud on right side of Top layer.

14 - On the right-hand side of the Soaker Sack find the hemmed/serged opening.
Set one Socket in the middle of the Waistband, about 1" from the edge, and one Socket about 1.5" below the first, on the Bottom layer.
Set matching Studs on the other side of the Waistband and on the Top layer.

15 - Snap everything together and you're finished!

16 - Soaker Sack modeled on newborn-sized bear:

17 - Soaker Sack un-snapped at bottom and folded up to show the amount of room for the "newborn's" toes. :)

Thanks so much for a fantastic pattern Joanna! Excited to try it on our newborn in a few months. :)

Diaper Testers for "Busy Bums"

Jerrica is making a new diaper pattern and I'm excited that I was able to test it out!

Note: This post is very picture heavy. :)

I tested the NB and Small front aplix patterns. I decided to do 2 other patterns at the same time for comparison's sake, and naturally forgot to add a seam allowance for the Busy Bum pattern. Ack!

So I made a 3rd Busy Bum and added seam allowance to that one. Sorry about that. I must say on the first NB one without adding in seam allowance it makes for a really, really tiny, adorable diaper! LOL.

Specs are the same for all diapers:
Outer - Fun knit
Hidden - Stretch terry
Inner - Bamboo fleece

Tri-fold soaker with 1 layer microfiber; 1 layer Bamboo fleece. *In my hurry to get these done I forgot to account for the amount of stretch the diapers would have in the rise. I'll be re-making the soakers so they're longer - teehee.

I took the waist and thigh measurements of my son's bear and discovered he's exactly the size of an average newborn (waist: 16", thigh: 7"), so "Cosmo" is our model for today. We'll have an actual model in about 6 months. :)

Click any image to view larger:

All 5 diapers next to a 7" ruler.
From L-R: Busy Bum Small (*forgot to add seam allowance), Darling Diaper Newborn Small, Busy Bum Newborn, Goodness Gracious Newborn, Busy Bum Newborn (*forgot to add seam allowance).

3 BB diapers on top (Small w/o seam allowance, Newborn, Newborn w/o seam allowance); 2 bottom are DD and GG:

Backs of diapers:

Insides (some of the microfiber towels were green; others yellow - makes for some with a strange hue in the pics!)

Three BB diapers insides:

Side view of three BB diapers:

Inside of BB newborn w/o seam allowance, with tri-soaker unsnapped:

My hand next to the BB newborn w/o seam allowance:

BB Small w/o seam allowance:


BB Newborn with seam allowance:



BB Newborn w/o seam allowance:


DD Newborn Small:


GG Newborn:



Jerrica, thanks again for letting me test the pattern! It was a lot of fun and the diapers turned out really cute.