Sushi Apron

Our cooking loving Sophie had grown out of her other apron. She was going to a Japanese cooking event with church, and requested a new one. So I made her an apron. 

Most basic sewing ever. I did a quick google for rough measurements, and sacrificed some more of this bright sushi fabric that Sophie already has in a bag. She loves it, and I'm happy to report, has also been wearing it. 

Denim Apron

A long time ago, when Sophie was only eight months old, I made aprons out of old denim jeans that we had lying around. Obviously she wasn't going to use them then, but I figured she'd grown into them eventually. Here we are, seven years later, and the denim aprons are getting their use at last. I thought I was organised with the Easter Dresses this year, but the aprons got a much larger head start.

Anyway, my sister Sarah was around one day and noticed the aprons hanging up on the hook outside and told me immediately that she would like one. Was that in invitation to use up more stashed denim and sew? One can only say yes.

So I did. I had a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts ready to go. If you are interested in making a denim apron, I realize my first post has less than ample instructions, and this one probably won't either, but feel free to leave a comment if you want to know more. Maybe I can be pursued to divulge more information for the people of the internet.

Denim aprons are super satisfying, completely functional and ethicially fabulous. Everyone should have one. 

Aprons

My parents love to travel. They travel a lot. I wish I could make it clear just how much they love to travel, but I feel like I'm failing, so I'll leave it there and hope you get it.

One of the places they like to travel is Antarctica, which is very cold, so on the expeditions they have been on, they also get an appropriately warm travel jacket to go with. They have one for every adventure to some very cold places, but very little use for these jackets post travel because they are living in Brisbane. These jackets, I'm sad to say, have become a rather bulky addition to their spare room cupboards.

Dad took me in one day last year and asked if I could cut them up and make "something". He didn't really know what, but he figured I could use the fabric and patches to make something slightly more usable than their current state. I'm not one to pass up the opportunity to sew, so I said I would think of something.

The only before photos I have are of the girls wearing these jackets, and this little video clip is much more fun than the photo. Behold the jackets, before I cut them up. I hope you are amused.

After ripping all the seams open and taking the outer fabric off I realized there was so much fabric in just one jacket that I wouldn't even have to open the other at all. I did take some of the patches off though, some I reused, but not all of them.

The other thing my parents love, as well as travel, is hosting people at their house. My mum is Greek, so there is always a lot of food involved. Both of my parents wear aprons when they cook, so I decided to make them each an apron out of the fabric from the jackets.

I used the back panel for one apron, and the front for the other. I had to use a bit of the sleeve pieces to pad out, but that was fairly easy. Because the front of the jacket had previously had a zip in it, I simply sewed that seam closed again to make the apron, and top stitched down both sides, for coolness I guess. I also managed to keep the zip pockets from the front exactly as they were - working and everything!

I stitched on some of the patches to the front as a feature, used some more of the red ribbon from our extension warming party for the ties (still have some left!) and I fully lined it with some bed sheet I found in the cupboard. I'm really glad I did that last step, because when I was looking at them just sewn they looked really messy, but once I had lined it and flipped it right sides out, they suddenly looked amazing.

Mum knew I was making aprons, because I asked to borrow one that she used as a template. Dad had no idea, and what Mum didn't know was that I had made one for her too. Here they are on Christmas with their aprons on. I think they like them.

Here is my dad at his BBQ ready to do some cooking.

Presents like this make me glad I can sew.

The Not Apron

As part of my exciting career in early childhood education and care, I get to claim face paints as a tax deduction. It's one of the perks. When I'm face painting, I have been using a random mix of face cloths and tea towels to clean my brushes, which were effective but ugly. I wanted to update to something else. 

When I made the Spur of the Moment quilt top, I had a few bits left over that didn't make it into the quilt, so I took that and an old bathmat we weren't' using any more, and got sewing.

I just stitched the material together into rough panels, and then quilted them straight onto the bathmat. Then I bound all the raw edges. I did extra with the binding, so I can wear it as an apron, but I actually don't see myself ever doing that. Good thing the ties are perfect for wrapping it all up so it looks pretty.

It's perfect to just put out on a table, set my paints up on half and then use the other half for wiping my brushes. And I can flip it over if I need to get a clean slate, for all those times I'm painting for four hours straight, like the kindy fete.

It's pretty and effective. I like it.

Painting Apron Presents

We are fortunate enough to live next door to some pretty lovely neighbors. The ones on the left have two girls and were very generous with hand-me-down clothes when Sophie was born. I've made them dresses for their birthdays in the past, but this year I thought I might go for something more practical. I've noticed the girls on the deck painting a bit, so some nice painting aprons seemed to fit the bill.

I got all excited and looked at online tutorials and found some old business shirts of my dad's in the stash that I could use. Hooray! Reusing old things to make fun new things! Unfortunately, I got so excited and carried away, that I had one finished apron and one cut-out-ready-to-sew apron before I remembered that the girls next door will be two and four years old this year. Here is the first one on the pedestal fan which is pretending to be a dress form.

As you can see, or guess rather, this painting apron is big enough to fit a child that is around ten years old. Not two years, or even four years. As I'd already cut out the second, I figured I may as well sew it up anyway and both aprons can be worn in about six to eight years time. Until then, they can either gather dust or maybe just be used as dress ups? I don't know.

In the end, I did make a smaller one for the two year old (because her birthday is in May) which can probably be worn fairly soonish. All in all, great sewing practice (bound the edges of the aprons with self made bias-binding and stitched on the girls first initials to the fronts), but rather disappointing result, given that they are pretty useless for a long time. Oh well.

Denim Aprons

Today's great new discoveries: Jeans can make more than a quilt and I can finish things I start. :)

I've made two fun aprons for future kids to wear while doing crazy dirty kid stuff like painting. It's just a leg of jeans that was split open and then the pocket reattached. I had a heap of waistbands left over from when I cut up all the other jeans for the jeans quilt, so I used them for the neck band and waist tie. I love the way the buttons and holes all clip in together. :) They are big for kids (they fit me around the waist easily) but you can just put some knots in the bands and hey presto, it's smaller! 

Now onto finishing some other things on the to-do list, the first of which is some things for Christmas presents, which of course, means I can't post about them without giving away the surprise. Expect radio silence from me for a while I guess. :P