The Sew Weekly Sewing Circle

Strawberry Lemonade Apron (My First Challenge!)

How exciting! My first challenge! And, it only took me a week to figure out that if I wanted to write this post and add pictures I couldn't do it from my iPad. (Duh!)

Well, I have dozens of aprons so my husband couldn't figure out why in the world I was making another one - but it was for the apron challenge, of course! I went through my huge box of patterns, sure that I would find one with aprons - but no such luck. I could run to the store, but I was too excited!

I decided to just trace around a basic apron that I use regularly. That would have been really simple and easy except my blue point Siamese, Gracie, was just way too much help.

I have stacks of fabric, but hardly any cottons. Not that you would have to use cotton, I suppose, but it just seemed to be what I should look for. 

Knits galore, chiffon, charmeuse, crepe, terry cloth, organza - nothing that said "apron" to me.

Finally I came upon a cotton piece with diagonal lines that I'd been wanting to do something with. I purchased it about a year ago from fabric.com for next to nothing so that I could practice with diagonal stripes. It does have a selvage to selvage stretch but I decided to use it anyway even though half of my apron has stretch and the other side doesn't.

I found a yellow fabric that I chose as a contrast which I believe is older than me - I found it in some very old boxes belonging to my grandmother. (It doesn't quite show in the picture, but the striped fabric has a yellow line on each side of the coral stripe the same color as the yellow polka dot fabric.)


All in all, I'm rather proud of my little apron. It's a little cheerier than I usually go for, but that made it all the more fun. My sister-in-law said it made her think of strawberry shortcake. I'm thinking more along the lines of strawberry lemonade. :)

I do have a problem with trying too many new things in one project (It's a problem because each new thing I try increases my chances of messing up my project - I'm very experienced at doing that!). I've read over and over to limit the challenges in each project so that you find more success and thus more confidence as you go along. Yeah. Well. I need to work on that one. :)

For example, I decided to make my own bias tape. Key word: bias. Oh, right! I was supposed to cut it on the bias! But it was so much easier to rip strips from the thin cotton than to line it up correctly and cut. On this project that didn't really matter because I just needed it as a border - it didn't really have to stretch. Next time...

And then, I watched a tutorial on applying bias tape but it didn't show how to manage the corners as it was a tutorial on using it for a round neckline. So I, rather than look for another tutorial on the subject, decided to make it up as I sewed along. Again, for this project it's not a major deal, but if this was a great clothing item out of one of my nicer fabrics I would be upset. I obviously need a tutorial for that one. Once upon a time I watched a really good one but I don't seem to have bookmarked it. If anyone has a suggestion I'd be happy to hear it. I can use all the help I can get (obviously).

Other than that, I'm pleased with the way I matched up the stripes and I made it look fun enough that my daughter (12) and my 6 year old son both want to sew my next challenge with me. :)

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