Aprons on the Brain

I haven't been in a sewing mood for a little bit, but I have done a little bit of sewing and crafting in the past few months that I haven't yet included on this blog. For Christmas I decided I wanted to make some aprons for gifts. I am in dire need of a new apron myself so I thought I would try to find a good pattern and use it to make a gift and later (when I feel up to it) I can make one for myself. In fact, I am remembering now that I even made an apron (reversible half apron) for my new sister-in-law Lexi for her bridal shower back in October.

For Christmas, my siblings and I rotate who we give gifts to and this year I had my brother Joel and sister in law Abby and their two little boys. Knowing how much my own kids love baking with me, I thought it would be fun to give them a Mom and Me Cookbook and a little cooking set  as well as some pint sized aprons for the boys (they are 3 and 1 1/2). Well I ordered all the cooking gear and before I sat down to pull out my fabric bin to see if I had any decent boy fabric, I checked out Abby's sewing blog and low and behold I sat face to face with a picture of her little guy in a cute but manly apron. What?! (oh and by the way it is a free pattern/tutorial and it is awesome!) So I crossed that off my list, and got to work on some aprons for her and my brother.

For Abby's apron I used this free ruffle apron tutorial. I just used what I had and I used lots of pink and some Amy Butler because I know she is a fan of both. And there is some yummy Heather Bailey fabric in there too. I really liked how it turned out and I know she really liked it too.

I am not really into sewing for men. Both my husband and my brother are very manly men and I much prefer sewing frills. The very first pattern I bought way back when I first started sewing and I was a new mommy was a simple apron pattern. I made several of them. My husband  wanted me to make one for him but he insisted it had to be made of some real fabric - nothing too flimsy, so he helped me pick out some real tough duck cloth/canvas. The apron I made for him 5 years ago has held up very well and he doesn't hesitate to wear it when he is grilling. So I figured I had better go the same route with my brother. I remember the first apron my dad ever had. It was a blue and white check apron with the words "#1 Cook" on it. I have fond memories of my dad working in the kitchen wearing that apron. I thought it would be fun to find some blue and white check fabric and put those same words on Joel's apron and cross my fingers that he would remember my dad's apron as well. So his apron is pretty utilitarian, but I hope that he will get some wear out of it. I know he can be a mean cook when he wants to be - especially when it comes to meat.

I also decided to make an apron for another one of my sister-in-laws, Maren, (I have a lot of sister-in-laws) and this is where the pattern comes in. I searched etsy for some cute patterns and I only found about 50 that I wanted. There are some seriously cute aprons on etsy and I really really loved seeing all the vintage inspired ones. After some serious deliberation I bought the Pretty Ditty Apron. I loved everything about this pattern. It comes in different sizes including little girl sizes. There is the option to make it reversible and it is just plain cute! So I made a darling apron for  Maren and in the hustle and bustle of Christmas and trying to live in the moment, I of course forgot to take a picture before I wrapped it up and gave it away. I know Maren loves yellow and I picked out Heather Bailey's Hello Roses in Gold fabric for the main fabric. I love me some Heather Bailey.

And as I have been obsessing over aprons, my talented sister in law Abby came out with an apron pattern of her own!! It is an apron for Mommy and daughter. And can I just say it is DARLING! I am in love with the pockets and the sweetheart neckline and all of the ruffles. Cute, cute CUTE!

So by the end of this year I am hoping to have an apron for my almost 1 1/2 year old girl who keeps stealing her brother's and sister's aprons as well as a drawer full of cute aprons for myself. Because you can never have enough!

XO,

Maren

Preschool ideas

I recently happened upon this great preschool resource and thought I should share the link. She has lots of links to good preschool activities of all types of subjects.

Pre-Kinders: Resources for Pre-K teachers.

Playhouse link

I know I've already linked to a little fabric house, but I loved the "extras" on this!! So, so cute. So far in my Christmas crafting I've made 1/2 dozen fabric eggs, and a handful of strawberries. lol. I better get sewing! I just wish we had a joann's closer so I could just go pick up a lot of felt easily. The felt I'm using for the food is wool felt from a quilt shop. Quality and beautiful, but way too expensive to do a play house!

Felt Playhouse found at homemade by jill
A spin off of hers is also found at fireflies and jelly beans

Celia's handcrafted Christmas link list

I just realize I TOTALLY dropped the ball on the challenges. Oops. My life kind of flipped upside down in Aug./Sept. and I'm just now kind of getting back into "recreational crafting".  With Christmas around the corner, I have a few things I'd like to make, but we'll see what actually materializes.


I saw a really inexpensive wooden kitchenette at kid-to-kid when I was looking for Dean's birthday present. I haven't bought it, but I'm hoping it's still there. If it is, I want to make a load of felt food. If Jess or Mar have favorite tutorials (since I know you've made some) let me know. That link is to a picture board with links to tutorials. I would love to make: eggs (whole and fried), sandwich items, Chinese take out box and food, all veggies and fruits, stuff to make tacos and/or stirfry (I'm trying to figure out how I can do rice...I was thinking of just cutting the white felt into small rice size pieces. Messy though...), and maybe a few cookies or doughnuts. Not sure how long the process is, so I need to get started! If I can't find a cheap kitchen, I guess I could make one! Those are sooo beautiful, but I doubt I'd have time/energy.

Edit: Here's another link to some great felt food that I just found on Sew Mama Sew. It has a few things I didn't see on the other sites. 

The felt fort-table cover at Make it and Love it that Lisa linked awhile back. I kind of want to make it fit my kitchen table so they have a larger play area, but that's a lot of felt! I think they'd love it.

Mini car mats by Serving Pink Lemonade. I think the car mat could be cute in a quiet book. I'd love to do other quiet book things as well. She also has a very cute mini take-along toy barn, though I doubt that will make the cut this Christmas for me.

I have stuff for Walt's car quilt to match Dean's. The back fabric has a brown base, and the outer edges are a bright blue. I would love to do that, but it may be too big of a project between now and then if I want to do anything else.

Halloween totes

I had every intention of making LeAnne's tote that Maren made, but the night before Halloween I found that I hadn't started or gathered materials, and I was babysitting for a friend all night. About 10 min. before I headed out the door, I grabbed a few fatquarters I thought might work, some batting, and my sewing machine. I thought I'd have internet access while there, but their computer was turned off. So, instead of making LeAnne's, I decided to make/modify a little basket I made a couple years ago that I kind of remembered. I had a piece of the brown pleather stuff I used last time for the bottom already cut the right size, so I made the two other pieces the same size as the bottom and cut the batting and lining to fit it once the three outer pieces were sewn together.

I'll tell you what I modified on her pattern: all 3 outer pieces were 6 in. X 9.5 in. and the batting and lining were modified to fit that once they were sewn together. The sewing process is essentially the same basket as pink penguin's scrap basket but with slightly taller and solid sides (so you don't have to worry about the patchwork steps), so please, check her basket and tutorial out!

Each basket took me less than an hour I think...

 Here it is in action. Absolutely the perfect size for a 3 year old trick-or- treater. I think the size would also work very nicely as a scripture tote for a mini quad.

Orange Flower Girl Dress

My brother got married last month and he and his now wife wanted to have their three nieces in orange. My three year old and my new sister in law's three year old niece had matching dresses and my challenge was to make something that coordinated -without seeing in person the other two dresses. This is a picture of the dress online.  My best bet around here was to find something at JoAnn's which can be pretty limiting. I found the only fabric that I thought would fit the bill. It was close enough. In fact, one of my sister in laws had offered to make ties and bowties for all of the nephews and she used this exact same fabric. It is a costume satin. I am glad that it worked out for the wedding, but it does not hold up very well. I had to wash it after the wedding and the dress now has a lot of nice little snags in it. I used my favorite little girl dress pattern for this. Simplicity 2767. I bought matching tulle to put on the outside of the skirt to match the others but decided that I didn't like the way it looked with this dress and because I knew that there was a good chance that the tulle would get ripped to shreds. I was right on that account. After the wedding Bella's dress had a hole in her tulle and I will now have to trim it or cut it off completely if she wants to wear it again.

Because I don't really care for the flowers in the pattern I wanted to try something different on this dress. I have been wanting to make some burned edge flowers for a long long time and this seemed like the perfect chance. One of my cousins recently directed me to this wonderful tutorial so I used that for guidance. It was so fun I ended up making a bazillion of these. I made a few for hair accessories for the girls and one for myself and several others I had intended on sharing with any of the girls in the wedding party that were interested, but it turns out my new SIL has a very talented sister who made cute flowery hairbands for all the girls. So I now have a lot of these laying around my house. Some on brooch pins like this one. And some on hair clips, headbands and bobby pins.  I'm not sure what I am going to do with them so maybe they will end up as gifts. I found some pink and yellow satins in the remnant bin the other day so i am excited to make some in those colors as well.

XO

Maren

Trick or Treat Totes

 LeAnne's Trick or Treat Totes have been on my list for the last two years so I am happy to say that I finally made them this year.

While I was at JoAnn's before Halloween I noticed that all of their Halloween fabric was on sale (40% or 50%) so some of it was super cheap. I bought some Halloween fabric for the first time in my life with the intention of making these... and hopefully a few other fun Halloween things in the next year or two. The kids loved picking out their favorites of what I brought home. Buddy wanted the green bat fabric and Bella picked out the purple trick or treaters and my two favorite fabrics were the black/silver/sparkly spider web and candy fabric. So I put those together for the baby. I had fun cutting the shapes out of felt and doing a little embroider work. And I won't lie - sewing the spider onto the bag was a beast. It was worth it though because I love it and Bella decided it was her favorite. I think they are so cute though and the kids loved them. Even little Lou grabbed onto hers when we got in the car and didn't want to let go.

These cute Halloween totes made our Halloween even sweeter! Thanks LeAnne for the great tutorial!

XO

Maren