I finally finished one of the aprons I started 1,000 years ago. I needed a translator to help me and TFQ signed up for the job. Of course, I felt stupid when TFQ read the directions and explained what I needed to do, because it seemed so simple. I found it easier to hear from someone else what to do. It really makes me wish I had learned more garment sewing when I was younger. I am sure she didn’t roll her eyes at my lack of understanding.
Anyway.
The first apron is finished. I am happy. I wasn’t really very far away from putting it together and it didn’t take very long to sew it together. TFQ really helped, not only with the reading, but also with the pressing.
Finished is relative, however. I was sinking threads the other night and found a raw edge on the neck piece, where it slides into the body of the apron. I haven’t decided if I will take that part off and resew it or just use a bit of Fray Check.
I haven’t decided it I like this apron. I think I am still a little angry at the pattern for being written the way it was. I still have one more to finish (so I have a choice, you know). Soon I should be wearing the apron to keep grease and other food yuck off my clothes.
I bought this pattern a couple of years ago at a shop in Mt. Airy, Maryland called Patches. I finally dragged it out, as I said, to keep my clothes clean.
I took out the apron pieces I cut out last week, thinking I could whip at least one apron out on Saturday afternoon. Sigh. the first step has to do with making pockets and is virtually unintelligible**. I had no idea what I was supposed to do, so I did what I thought was best. I am sure the pockets won’t look as cute, but at least the apron will have pockets.
What I have accomplished
Sunday, I managed to understand step 2 and make the ties.
I also read through all the directions and just sighed again. How am I ever supposed to understand this pattern?
My mom came over yesterday and I asked her to read through the step for the pocket and she had to explain it to me about 5 times. I think what is wrong with the step is that it is stupid. The top of the pocket is turned down and then you are supposed to zigzag over the raw edge. That means the trim of the pocket isn’t finished. I like my stuff finished and I don’t have a serger. Mom said that the way I did the pockets will look better and stuff won’t get caught on the raw edges. I might turn over the top so that the text fabric shows on the top of the Phillip Jacobs print and visa-versa.
**Nota bene: I do much better when someone shows me how to do something, but I did turn off the podcast, slow down and read each sentence carefully, after which I let it sink in. I still had no idea what the heck to do with these pockets. ERGH!!!
I splashed grease on yet another shirt and decided that Super G and my Great Grama had a good thing going with the whole apron idea. I also remembered the aprons hanging in the shop in San Luis Obispo. I pulled out a box, which I remembered had some patterns in it. In the process found a huge cache of other bag, etc patterns –OOPS, I wondered where those were.
Apron Layout
When I can make more, why would I just make one? I might be in the mood for sedate one day and crazy another day.
Yes, I have cut out two aprons.
Apron Layout
Cutting is a good activity to do while at Sew Days as it does not require a machine, as I have said numerous times. I cut out one apron at the Sew Day and the other at the recent CQFA meeting.
I needed help with the layouts and even though the second pattern, the Church Ladies Apron Pattern by Mary Mulari, says it only needs a yard, you can see the layout problems I had when I used one yard of fabric.
I decided to use a nice Philip Jacobs prints for one side In searching for the perfect other side, I came across a text print and decided that would be fun. I am sure I will get some modern points for the text fabric. 😉
Apron Fabric & Pattern
The other pattern is from McCall’s and is called Fashion Accessories “The Retro Collection” (#2811). I don’t remember when I bought it, but it has been around for awhile.
I have not started to sew yet, but stay tuned for that step.
These had been on my list for a long time. I bought this pattern and two kits when we were on the North Coast in February. Making the aprons, which I think of as Cafe’ Aprons, has been on my list since then. I had washed and ironed the fabric and then moved the fabric carefully around my workroom for a couple of months. I finally got myself together to make them last week. I think my list, which has seen little movement in recent months, has been nudging me.
Apron Pattern
The pattern is on a little card, about the size of a postcard. I like the marketing idea, especially when I see a variety of these Villa Rosa Designs cards in stores on a rack. They are like candy and I want to buy 12. The idea is genius – one card, one project. Clever. Cheap possibilities. The size of the card, however, in terms of following the directions makes it very hard to read. I guess I am getting old, but I was squinting at the directions quite a bit.
The size also does not allow for very much explanation and several times I had to sit down, read the directions over and over, a little at a time, imagining the steps in my mind before I could take the next step. I can’t blame it completely on the size of the card. I am bad at following directions. This was especially true for the tie. Once I understood the directions, it was simple, but a photo would have been very helpful.
I see, now, also in small print, that Boutique Patterns has posted a page of tips and tricks regarding this pattern. The straps are covered on this page, so I should have looked; it would have been helpful. Once I figured out the straps, I liked the way they were attached to the apron.
As an aside, I liked how they show the apron, as made from the directions, looks on two different sized models. If I were making it for a more statuesque friend, I would definitely make the Apron front and backs taller than 13″ called for in the directions.
Bright Cafe’ Apron
When I finally made them I made three, one right after the other. I like to get accessories like this right and the only way I can do it is to go over the steps in fabric until I have the process down in my mind. I bought the kits to make a couple of gifts and the first one didn’t come out well, because I missed a crucial part of the pattern. I don’t think I want to give it as a gift, but we will see.
Little Black Dress 2 Cafe’ Apron
I think that this is a fairly easy pattern to modify slightly, as described above or in terms of pockets. I thought the small horizontal pocket was kind of a dumb size so I made it larger. I also didn’t hem the pockets, but doubled them in size, folded the fabric in half and sewed them closed. This made each pocket fully lined. That kind of pocket is easier to make than doing the hems. Less chance of burning my fingers on the iron, too. I thought that not having the wrong side of the fabric showing and having everything fully lined made the apron nicer.
Little Black Dress Cafe’ Apron
I wasn’t that happy with the kits I bought. I loved the fabric, of course, but there wasn’t enough for the Apron back and the fabric for the large pocket was not wide enough. Fortunately, I have plenty of fabric around and was able to fill in the gaps. It could be that this was explained to me when I bought the kits and I forgot.
I think this apron would be a nice quick gift for quilt or cooking friends. It is more of a work apron than a hostess apron, but would work for a variety of crafts as well as not-too-messy-cooking.
You might remember I had high hopes of making a skirt. This past weekend was the weekend, because TFQ was here to walk me through the process. On Saturday, we pulled out the patterns, the fabric and got busy.
We cut out the pattern pieces, measured my waist (UGH!!) and TFQ read the directions for the Butterick pattern. We chatted, she read and then she told me that we needed 60″ wide fabric not the 45″ wide fabric I had. I flew upstairs to get the other yard I had, but it still wasn’t enough.
She reminded me that I had bought two skirt patterns, so I ran upstairs (our plan was to cut on the dining room table) and got the other pattern. Again, we chatted, she read and then she told me that I had bought the wrong size. Bleah.
Our options were to go get 60″ wide fabric, get a different sized pattern or bail. I had had enough of skirts for one day, so I bailed.
I had hoped to have a new skirt this week, but, alas, that was not to be. Don’t worry, I am not completely demoralized and I am not giving up. I’ll go get some 60″ wide fabric and the other pattern in a different size and we will try again.
Lessons learned:
Measure before buying pattern
Learn where the pattern tells the maker what size fabric to buy.
I have to refresh my work wardrobe. I am at the point where the collars and cuffs of my clothes are fraying, etc, because they are so old. The problem is I dislike shopping for clothes. I have been doing a bit on my days off, but I need to spend more time than I have. I need to replace everything, so this is an opportunity to revamp my entire wardrobe, get a new look and feel better about the clothes I wear.
One of my ideas is to start wearing more skirts. I haven’t been able to find the kind I have in mind. I do have a Study Hall Skirt from Anna Maria Horner, but haven’t done anything with the pattern….yet. I was at Joann buying an Accuquilt Go! mat and decided to look at skirt patterns. I was inspired by reading a Threads magazine that was in my stack from a few years ago.
I found these two patterns. I know they are similar. I don’t know if this style will look good on me, but we will see.
I brought them home without buying any of the notions, because I want to read the pattern and consider before going back and getting zippers, etc. I have enough of some dot fabric (who is surprised? Raise your hand) to make a knee length skirt, so I may only need a zipper. I may make a test skirt out of muslin or something.
I’d really like to find a pattern I can be friends with and make over and over (kind of like the Multi-tasker tote by Anna Maria Horner). I don’t know if these will be it, but we will see.
Jennifer at CraftSanity is running in a race for charity in May. She is part of a special training group called the Road Warriors. The Road Warrior team members get training mentors, have a blog and train together. She has been paired with a domestic violence shelter. In order to be part of the Road Warrior team, she needs to raise a certain amount of money for a charity. Instead of going door to door to gather donations, Jenifer is organizing an apron exhibit. To do that she needs aprons. I decided to make and send her one.
Apron Right (Tarty view)
I had listened to the Patchwork and Pacifiers podcast just before listening to Jennifer’s newest CraftSanity podcast that mentioned the apron contest. The P&P podcast is one to which I just started to listen. On that day, I heard Jennifer Ruvalcaba (P&: host) briefly mention a petal skirt her daughter had. Then, when Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood (too many Jennifers doing podcasts??) mentioned the apron contest an image formed in my mind. Then, I was looking the One Yard Wonders book. That combined with the various other sensory inputs and I was off and running.
The Kitschy Kitchen Apron from One Yard Wonders was a big help with sizing and length of the straps. I had a good time working on it as well, though I found it to be quite a solitary endeavor.
Apron Front (Supermodel view)
One of the requirements of the exhibit is to add a piece of tie fabric to the apron. I wanted to put a flower made from the tie fabric on the apron, so I had to go and find a pattern, which, through the power of the ‘craft’ web, I was able to do quite easily. I found a site, Tip Junkie, which had a number of different patterns. I ended up using Pink Paper Peppermints Rounded Petal Fabric Flower pattern to make my flower. The tie fabric frayed quite a bit, so it wasn’t a particularly fun process, but I learned how to make fabric flowers. I could have used Fray Check, but I was afraid it would stain the fabric.
Apron Side
I spent most of the weekend working on the apron. I had actually been thinking about making one for awhile for no particular reason.. This was the perfect opportunity. It isn’t a quilt, but it may have gotten that particular wish out of my system.
I didn’t take pictures of all the steps. It just didn’t seem right. I feel good making the things I have for charity lately. I feel like I am doing some good in some small way. I hope you will join in and send an apron to Jennifer at CraftSanity as well. If you can’t make an apron read the post to find out other ways to help.
