Tag: Garment sewing

The other day I went and sewed with Gerre. A number of small projects and small elements on larger projects, have been bugging me. I brought a number of those things with me and made good progress.

One project was the Flapper Apron I promised to make for my mom. This is a real garment sewing project, so I had to lay out the tissue and prepare to cut.

One of the things I like about this pattern is that you can lay the fabric out, folded on the bias, lay the pattern pieces out and cut them all from 1 yard of fabric. If you want a reversible apron, you need two yards. Still that is a lot of bang for your fabric buck.

Gerre and I tried a lot of different things to get the paint tubes on the fabric to line up straight on the fabric. We couldn’t figure it out. We decided that since it was an apron, it would probably be ok to not cut it on the bias. If have more fabric if I need to remake it. I am doing it this way so the motifs are oriented properly.

Sadly, there was no information on the pattern focusing directional fabric. The directions are complete, but brief.

Folding the fabric lengthwise parallel with the selvedge posed some challenges. One challenge is that the whole piece is on the straight of the grain. I figured that, since it is an apron, it will probably be fine. I did put the tie on the bias to enhance tying. The motifs will not be straight, but I think that will be fine.

The larger problem is that the folded fabric is not wide enough for the whole pattern. I plan to add some small pieces on, matching as best I can.

I suppose nothing is simple.

This is the last apron I made from the marathon of cutting I did at Sew Day way back in August.

It took me time to make them all, but repetition is good for projects like this.

SIL #1 is also a Cal fan and a Cal graduate who attends football games regularly. She got the last of my Cal fabric.

I learned that the pattern prevents the maker from laying out directional fabric in a certain orientation, but I am ok with the logo being on the diagonal when it is worn.

The front looks good and I hope it won’t show the dirt.

I was pleased to finish the last apron well in advance of Christmas. I didn’t work on any of them in a particular order. I picked one up and went to work finishing it and they were all done in time for Christmas.

The flowers on this one are really vibrant and I hope SIL #3 likes it. The reverse side is more her style.

This is the urban chic + Football crazy version of the Flapper Apron. It is for DH’s youngest sister and I know she will love the Cal side. The urban chic side was hard to choose, so I picked something that I liked and thought had a good chance of being on target. I bought the Marsha Derst fabric in Portland at Pioneer Quilts.

I am not sure which side will be the front. I wear an apron often when I am working in the kitchen and I tend to always wear the same side as the outside.

I have to say that I was annoyed with this pattern when I first started finishing up this project, but as I finished them up, I started thinking of making two more – one for another friend and another for myself.

One thing about this pattern is challenges with directional fabric. I couldn’t make the fabric line up properly to be read horizontally while it was being worn. It can still be read, so I am not too worried, but it would have been nice. Perhaps the slightly off kilter nature of it will look edgy?

After Thanksgiving, I worked on the group of aprons I wanted to give to my SILs as gifts. Since some of my SILs read here, I couldn’t post until after Christmas. I was also working hard to get to a 100 yards used and each of these aprons is 2 yards.

I fumbled around quite a bit on the first one in this group.  I had already finished one a few months ago, which I posted about a few days ago. I finally got the hang of the process, put all the small pieces together and was, eventually, able to zoom along.

The pattern says “finish the neck as desired,” which is about as useful as ‘quilt as desired’ in quilt patterns. I ended up folding the neck by hand and trying to match both sides so the other side wouldn’t peek through. I decided to double top stitch around the neck and the outside to make sure the raw edges, even inside, were sewed down.

I wasn’t sure what fabrics to choose for this apron as I don’t know very well what motifs this SIL likes. Brown and turquoise go together and who doesn’t like butterflies? This is an apron, not a dress, so I am not going to worry too much. I am pleased with how this one came out.

I made this apron back in September. I couldn’t show it because it was a gift for one of my SILs.

I cut 5 aprons out at Sew Day. You know I love to cut things out on Sew Day. I cut it out in August and thought it would be hard to get them sewn for Christmas. Over Labor Day, instead of making the binding and sleeve for the Aqua-Red Sampler, I finished one of the aprons.

I was so pleased that I got one done. One down four to go.

I used the Flapper Apron pattern I bought in Portland with Amanda. I like this bias pattern and the fact that a person can make it with one yard of fabric. I make mine with a yard and a quarter, because a yard and a quarter folds into a square and it is always good to have a little extra. 😉

All of them will be two sided. These fabrics don’t necessarily go together, but it is hard to find something that goes with Cal fabric. I decided to make a two sided apron that had two personalities. When wearing it people won’t really see the other side from the front. Of course, other people will see the other fabric on the ties.