The newest
Tie One On apron theme is Paris. It's been a while since I've made an apron so I thought this would be a fun challenge.
I pondered over what to do. I'm no expert on anything French and since the theme was Paris I decided to stick with the obvious...Eiffel Tower. I knew that I wanted to embroider it on whatever style apron I decided to make. Deciding on the style of apron was where I stalled. After thinking about it and drawing a few ideas I decided to go with a cheeky French maid style of apron. I mean, come on, that would be cute, right? My original plan was to go all white with only black embroidery.
Sometimes things just don't work out like you plan, so I improvised and I am very pleased with the result. I wanted this apron, although cute, to be sturdy and wearable while cooking so I bought 100% cotton duck cloth from the local fabric shop. I love the thickness and sturdiness of duck cloth. I decided to line the apron with pink and black fabric from my stash. (left over from the
detective cape) Perfect. So I found a great graphic of the Eiffel Tower and traced it on my fabric
with a water erasable marker and embroidered away.
It turned out just as I had hoped. Then on to the pocket. I've got to have a pocket and I wanted it to say
bon appetit. I found the perfect font and again traced it and embroidered that, too. That wasn't enough so I embroidered a tiny little coffee mug on there as well.
Then it came time to assemble the whole shebang. Well, let me just say that trying to make a ruffle for a French maid style apron out of duck cloth...
not gonna happen. Not at all. The wonderful thickness that drew me to the material in the first place was the very thing that put a kink in my plans. Then I remembered that in a box of fabric from my Grandma there was a big long piece of
premade ruffle...black with white dots...PERFECT! Oops...sorry for yelling, I was a little excited. Then came the assembling of the pocket. I thought I'd try a fancier stitch on my machine and it worked great. Love it. So then I thought I'd use the same stitch all the way around the edge of the apron. Well, wouldn't you know that I ran out of black thread.
Grrr.
Well, since I decided to line the apron with the pink and I had plenty of pink thread I decided to just use that and it would help bring it all together. Add a couple of buttons at the top for extra cuteness and you've got an apron. Oh, then I tried to add the apron ties.
Again with the thick duck cloth. I broke my needle when I was only inches from being finished. Thankfully I had extra needles already. So by
carefully sewing through the thick layers my Paris apron is finally complete.
Now, I suppose I should go wash the dishes or start working on dinner...wearing my new apron.
Sorry, for the picture heavy post, but my mom needed to see lots of pictures. Happy Wednesday.
xoANG
My very part-time after-school tutoring job has become more time consuming this month, and will continue next month, because my boss/friend had spinal surgery and I've taken over a lot of her responsibilities. (Pray for her as she recovers. It will be a long road for her, but hopefully a successful road that will lead to a pain free life.) Which means that any time I spend on the computer is usually working on progress report related documents or sifting through and managing emails from a multitude of teachers that have questions and need support. Also, and most notably, keeping me from this screen is the fact that my dear 90 year old grandfather passed away last Sunday.
Please keep my family in your prayers...my Grandma and my Mom mostly, but the whole family. It is a loss that was not a surprise, yet deeply saddening as there will be a void that used to be filled with a wonderful, hardworking farmer, extremely talented bluegrass banjo player, man of few words but spoke volumes through his example for anyone who had the pleasure of knowing him. 
I will try to peek in here to say hi, and maybe share a picture or two as often as I can. xoANG
