Joyful Baby Store Summer Schedule

 
 
 
 

Summer is a busy time around my house. We live on a small farm and the farm chores seem to grow. Add in the weeding and taking care of a large garden, canning and freezing fruits and vegetables and summer BBQ's and camps then summer time seems insanely busy! Because of this, I won't be adding as many new already made items to my main store as I usually do. I am still available to work on custom sewing requests though. Just email me with your request and I will write back to you with a price and estimated completion time. Is the price and timeframe works for you, I charge a $5 deposit to which will be applied to the price. I will bill you for the remaining balance upon completion.

I will still be adding new items to Avant-Garde and Serenity Tree as usual. I really appreciate your understanding and business! You can keep up on the happenings on our farm and my business by following me on Twitter too! Thanks! April Ross

One Size All-in-Two Cloth Diapers w/ Bamboo Velour and Zorb

 

 

I just finished this order or diapers for a local mom. She is planning to use them with her newborn baby girl due in three weeks. She picked out the outer fabrics that she liked from my fabric gallery. Then, I made them up using her fabric choices and using bamboo velour, bamboo fleece, and zorb for the inserts. When my 97/3 wool comes in, I plan to also make her some doublers to place underneath the snap-in insert as a new baby present.

I really like working with the zorb so far. It is thick and more rigid than any other fabrics, but it seems to work well. And, I much prefer cutting and sewing zorb compared to microfiber. I don't think my fold down style soaker will work with the zorb, but the standard style works fine. The zorb is just so rigid that I don't see it folding down very well.

My 97/3 wool should hopefully be to me within a week or two. I love this wool because I can super-felt it and then it becomes washable. I plan to use it as the backing to diaper doublers because wool will absorb so much liquid. And, since it if completely machine washable, you can wash the doublers with your diapers on hot and not experience any shrinkage or warping! I'm very excited for it to get to my door.

If you are interested in having me make a diaper order for you, check out my custom order policies for the details!

My First Time Using Zorb

 

 

 

Zorb, from Wazoodle, used in cloth diapers seems to be all the rage lately. I've heard countless stories about how zorb diapers absorb more wetness than anything else. I've also heard the skeptics who argue that Wazoodle won't disclose what is in the product, so it must be harmful, and probably doesn't work anyway. I received my first custom order for inserts made from zorb last week. So, I've been moved into the "Zorb Arena".

At first feel, this fabric is different. It is thick and more rigid than the other materials I am used to sewing with. It almost feels like a cross between batting and sew-in interfacing. Did I mention it is thick? It measures 3/16th of an inch thick - or almost 4 mm.

I usually sew four layers together for my inserts. I tried this for the first zorb insert that I made. My serger groaned the whole time. It made it around the whole insert, but it certainly didn't appreciate the job. I ended up with rather ugly serging. I tried one more four layer insert (bamboo velour, two layers of zorb, and bamboo fleece)and didn't make my serger do corners this time. It did a little better, but not much. For the remaining inserts, I dropped out one layer of zorb and reduced the insert to three layers. My machine simply can't handle the thickness of four layers of fabric when two layers are zorb!

The three layer inserts serged fine. So, that is a thickness I can do without risking damage to my machine. Now, the ultimate test is to see how well they work. Zorb isn't something that I've decided to use for my own son, so I havne't personally tested the claims of the fabric. Why not? Honestly, because my son is the last one to get diapers made for him. Most of his diapers are my boo-boo's and since I haven't used zorb before, I don't have any boo-boo's from it. I guess if he was wetting through every diaper I owned, I may have tried it earlier - but he isn't. Maybe I'll have to make him one just to try.

Butterfly Spring Twirl Dress

This is my latest custom order for a twirl dress. The client picked the fabric and trim from pictures I took of choices at my local fabric store. The butterflies and glitter are perfect for a little girl! I hope she likes it! The proceeds from this dress are getting added to my "buy a sheep" fund. So, I am almost halfway to sheep ownership!