Aprons, aprons, aprons...

I tell you, this apron swap has been so much fun! Go and see all the cute and creative summer aprons at Abby's site-- it is definitely worth a peek! She has a flickr gallery with all the pictures that have been posted. LOVE IT!

So my projects were finished and finally sent on the last day. I was really pleased with myself for not procrastinating the apron swap, although I barely made it in the mail on Monday. I am such a finicky crafter, that is probably why I haven't done much in a long time. I had to continually add, subtract, adjust, redo in order to get my final pieces the way I wanted them to look.


I made 3 aprons in the past 3 weeks. The first one I finished was for my friend Kristy. She had a birthday the end of last month and I really wanted to do something nice for her. Turns out, she uses aprons (I didn't know that until I took her the present) and she was tickled to get a cute apron to wear, since she said she usually uses non-cute ones. YAY! I was so glad she loved it!

I originally had it a basic flat apron, minus the green ribbon trim, with a polka-dot bottom edge. I wasn't so crazy about it. It nagged at me... so I ripped the whole thing apart, and turned the body of the apron so it was shorter and wider, and added two pleats to make the waistband fit. Then I found this ribbon I had hanging around in my craft box (you can see it, bottom left... ugh) and the color was just right for this fabric. It is grosgrain ribbon, so I was able to gather it to create the ruffle for the waistband. After that, I wanted to add something to the bottom-- but not polka dots. So, I took the same ribbon, stitched down the center, gathered it and stitched it in place. PERFECT!

My next project was to finish my swap apron. I decided not to use the tutorial that Abby had on her site, because I ended up just tweaking it anyways with Kristy's apron. So I kinda made it up as I went on this one. I cut out the waistband the way I wanted it, and cut out the body of the apron larger than the previous apron. I went for a gathered body, with the same tie pockets as above. These pockets I lined with a coordinating fabric, which I used in the body of the daughter apron. My mom had some ric rac in her old sewing stuff that was exactly what I needed. In the end, I still made some minor adjustments, and I am so happy with the final pieces! These were sent to Jill and her daughter-- I am so glad that they love them!

Here are my models-- I love how thrilled Riley is to help me with my "presents" (as he calls them). Colton, on the other hand, is wearing his emotions on his face...


This was definitely an inspiring project. Thanks Abby for the push!