The one with an apron

Let me start by saying I love aprons! I think they are cute, adorable, feminine and above all practical! Everyone should have one. These past few years I've started making aprons as gifts and recently as a little extra income. They are great for birthdays, wedding showers, mother's day...you name it! Fast forward to me thinking I can do a tutorial. Wish me luck! Here goes...

I start all my aprons by walking up and down the fabric aisle at least 10 times to ensure I have seen every single kind of fabric the store has to offer. At this point I usually have about 5-6 reems in my cart that I need to narrow down to two. Much harder than it seems! My motto as of late is to pick a loud, bigger fabric for the body of the apron and then to accent it with a smaller print, softer if you will, ruffle. For this tutorial I went with an abstract black and white floral and then a yellow polka dot for the ruffle.

Hopefully at this point you also have a pattern in mind. I've been using the same pattern for quite a few years now and I love it! Through trial and error I've made modifications to it to tailor the apron to my tastes. I feel comfortable that the end result is the best of the pattern and my creativity combined. The pattern is one I picked up at my local craft store.

The directions are pretty straitght forward. Lay out your material, line up seams and cut on the dotted line. The one major modification I made is widening the waist band (more retro looking in my opinion) and adding a trim to the pocket. The following picture illustrates the size the band should be and the size that I actually cute it.

This modification only came about after making the apron true to pattern and finding that I wanted a more substantial band. Of course you may like a thinner one and in that case make no modifications. Once all the pieces are cut it's time to sew! I follow the patter directions with say to start with the pocket. I find it easiest to cute your contrasting piece double the thickness as you want the trim to be. From there fold it in half with the right side out. Line up the rough edge with the top of the pocket and sew along the top.

From there you need to do a baste stitch along the rounded edge of the pocket to encourage to seem edge to fold in. To do a baste stitch you need to adjust the length of your stitch, I go from a 2 to a 4.

Once you've finished with the larger stitch you need to gently pull the top string until the edge curls under like so. At that point pin the seem as you like it.

You are now ready to sew the pocket on to the body of the apron!! Once you've mastered the pocket you've mastered the whole thing! Just make sure to center it and put it as low or as high as you like it.

The ruffle, neck band and waist band are pretty straight forward on the directions. Once you are ready to sew your gathered ruffle on the apron it is important to keep it as even as you can. I usually line up the edges and center and then loosen the ruffle until the edge lines up with the edge of the apron. Then sew them together!

Now it's time for the waist band! This is another modification I made. The full apron instructs you to just do tie ends. I did not care for that, therefore I took the wider waiste band from the half apron and positioned it on the body of the apron where I thought it fit best.

Once in position just sew straight across. And now you're done! Woo hoo! My model graciously wearing my fresh out of the shop creation:

You'll notice the wider waistband, nicely gathered ruffle around the entire edge and extra long ties to make a big bow. Hope this was helpful and informative or at the very least entertaining!

Until next time,
Anna

The one with pigs

Hello crafters! I'm finally starting my blog! And because it's the first post I thought I would start out with an easy craft of re-purposing a few knick knacks I had laying around the house with a little spray paint. My inspiration for this craft came from Sherri and John over at www.younghouselove.com I love what they do with spray paint and tiny items so I decided to try it myself. And it didn't turn out too bad!

While roaming my local thrift store I spotted a tiny little piggy bank that was just screaming to go home with me. And while it's not a looker, I immediately had grander plans for it! Key lime spray paint was in it's future!

(Before the spraying commenced)

(During the beautification process)

(New home amongst his people)

 After my trip to the thrift store, I raced home to see what else I would paint and I found this. This little guy has been sitting on my shelf for over 2 years holding a candle that was never lit.

He's just a plain glass candle holder I found in another thrift store during my travels. He looks okay but he is definitely missing something.  Perhaps a little paint? Yes!

(Doing his new job: q-tip holder)

This little guy now sits in my powder room serving the very important job of holding q-tips. And the pop of color makes him so much nicer looking.

Awhile back I told my dad, from here on out he shall be known as Papa Marx, that I was looking for some brass candle sticks. Not only did he find me brass candle sticks galore I got a tiny brass vase. It was a fine looking vase but I didn't really know what to do with it. Sadly it's been sitting in a closet since I received it. Continuing with my green kick I decided to spruce it up a bit.

(Pre- makeover)

(Post- makeover in it's new home)

The brass took the paint very nicely and now it is very nicely holding a plum flower amongst my crystal.

Lastly, I found this faux starfish amonst the treasures at the thrift store. By nature I am drawn to anything ocean related. I immediately went in for a closer look. 

It looked fine all on it's own but since I was on the painting kick I thought I would give it a healthy coat of white just to spruce it up. I am happy to announce it worked just how i had hoped. It looks brighter and whiter than I could have hoped.

She now rests amongst my books as an accent piece. I feel like it could transition to many spaces through out my home so who knows where it will end up.

Overall it was a very nice first experience with spray painting. I can definitely see myself spray painting a lot more in the future.

Until then,

Anna