Mother/Daughter Emmeline Aprons

I'm currently avoiding cutting out more Halloween costume stuff, so am posting the final aprons as a semi-productive form of procrastination. 

I made my sister an Emmeline for her birthday back in the spring.  Well, technically her birthday is in the winter, but I didn't give her the apron until spring.  Not my proudest sisterly act.  It's a good thing she loves me anyway.

Tardiness aside,  I really, really loved how it turned out.

Side A

Side B

The one good thing about waiting so long to deliver the gift was that I got to give it to her in person.  This was especially advantageous because my niece LOVED it, and she had a birthday coming up, so her gift was a no-brainer.  She turned 11, so I made hers a bit smaller, but not a lot.  I think I cut the pieces 2" narrower and the skirt part of the apron 2" shorter.

Side A

Side B

You can't tell in the full-length photo, but the black and pink print has glitter in it -- perfect for a bling-loving tween.  The close-up also shows that despite declaring after the first time I made one of these that I would hand sew the final bits next time, I didn't.  I did discover that generous use of a fabric glue stick kept things lined up well enough for respectable machine-stitching.  Yay!

Okay, back to the costumes. I had hoped to get them pretty much finished this weekend, but am not even close.  After looking at all the things on our calendar this week, I don't think I'll get nearly as much done for KCW as I'd originally planned, either, but I'd like to get a couple of things made after the costumes are done. 

Butterick 4945 Apron II

Not the cleverest of titles for this post, huh?  At least it's descriptive. 

I made another Butterick 4945 view D this summer for our friends' mom's 60th birthday.  She's pretty awesome and threw herself a big party, because she knew her husband and sons wouldn't think of it.  Ha!  We've spend a lot of time at their house, especially before we had kids, and we adore her, so I was happy for a reason to make her something.  She's a fantastic hostess and great cook, so an apron seemed like a perfect fit.  Through a chain of texts (Ray -->  older son --> his dad, who we suspect just asked her), I found out her favorite colors and picked out this cute paisley print.

Oh, summer and sundresses, how I miss you both!

I made the same minor modifications as last time, mostly just adding a ton of topstitching.  I was quite happy with how this one turned out, especially since I sewed it up the morning of the party, as usual.  The flounce at the bottom is my favorite part.

Two more aprons still on the to-blog list!  I also need to finish up (er, start) Halloween costumes and get ready for the fall Kids Clothes Week next week.  Are you sewing along for this round of KCW?

More Raffle Aprons

As I was finishing up an apron to donate to a raffle basket at E's school, I realized I hadn't blogged yet about the last apron I sewed up for her school.  In February.  And then I remembered that there were three other aprons I made this year that haven't made an appearance on the blog yet either.  So it's going to be aprony around here for a while.

Up first is the one from February (Early Childhood always gets assigned kitchen things for their theme.  The apron from her first year is here).  This was view D of Butterick 4945, which was a gift from my friend Carrie.  I used two coordinates from Hobby Lobby that had been hanging out in the stash for a while and made the largest size, thinking an apron can't really be too big.  Or at least not if you're as messy as I am.

There were some issues with the facings at the arm edge being too long, but that was about it.  I also changed the waist ties to be turned and topstitched instead of hemmed and added additional topstitching in several other areas.

O. took this before school one snowy day in February, so less than ideal lighting conditions.

I really like this apron style, as you'll see when I get around to blogging the second one I sewed up.

E's school added a Fall Festival this year and moved the raffle baskets to October.  This time I chose the Urban Wrap Apron pattern again.  Stash fabric for this one too, including the fabric for the bias tape.  I always read the tutes that say, "You'll never buy bias tape again!" and get suckered into making my own, and then remember that my least favorite parts of sewing are cutting and ironing.  Which is basically the entire bias tape making experience.  Oh well, at least it's cute, and I have quite a bit left over for something else.

This apron is super quick to sew up, or would be if you purchased bias tape.  I also like that it's very adjustable size-wise.

E's First Day

E had her first day of Early Childhood this morning.  I planned for her to wear an outfit I'd made during Summer KCW, but some of you may have seen my panic yesterday on Facebook about how it was going to be too cold to wear it.  I considered sewing up something warmer, but decided in the end to go the more sane route and just add layers.  I rarely make reasonable decisions when it comes to last minute sewing, so maybe this means I've turned a corner.  Not likely.

Last week when it was 90 degrees every day, I was thinking she'd wear her yellow Ottobre tank with her bee skirt -- she loves her bee toy so much that she even has one at school for motivation, so I knew her teacher and para would think the bees on her skirt were fitting.  It was much too chilly for that this morning, though, so she wore a white Jalie tee under a RTW knit blazer, and we added some tights as well.

She's also on her third year of using the owl bag (tutorial here).  I am beyond thrilled with how well it has held up! 

The Third Grade Tee

When I asked O last week if he wanted to wear his purple and silver tee for the first day of school, he said, "Aren't you going to make me a new shirt?  You always make me a new shirt!"  Which is true, except for last year when he was adamant that he did NOT want a special shirt.  I was a little sad that he had outgrown that tradition already, so I was happy to have a request again this year.

We went through my stash together and looked through some Ottobres before settling on a color-blocked Charlie Tee.  He was very specific, so I sketched it out for approval before starting. The pattern comes with some color-blocking suggestions, but he had other ideas, so I used the base pattern and split the front piece into equal thirds and added seam allowances.   It must have turned out how he envisioned, because I can't remember the last time he was so excited about something I made him.  His face lit up and he started clapping.  It was adorable.

Tie Dye!

An awesome friend of mine has been throwing an annual tie dye party for the last several years (which I thought I had posted about other years, but I apparently not).  I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with tie dye.  On one hand, I think it looks so fun, and O. really enjoys designing his shirts.  On the other hand, I like precision.  Which, you know, is pretty much the polar opposite of tie dyeing. So every year I agonize for way too long over everything, and it ends up turning out just fine.  Two things I have learned over the years, though, are to use way more dye than you think you need and that looser rubber bands = less white (shocking, huh?).

Here are our finished products from this year:

Skirt for me, tee and dress for E. (skirt and dress blanks from Dharma)

O's tees -- he's really into purple at the moment

Napkins

Tie dye obsessing was aided and and abetted by Pinterest this year.  I can barely remember life without Pinterest. Heh.  Here's my tie dye board, if you'd like to check out the inspiration and instructions for some of the folds.

KCW Days 6 & 7: More Tees

What happened to Day 5?  I had good intentions, but never got around to sewing.  Whoops.  Day 6 was spent cutting and prepping, two things I always say I will do before KCW starts and have yet to do. Maybe for the Fall challenge.  But probably not.

When I asked O if he had any requests, he said he wanted a purple shirt with silver stripes.  I suggested grey, thinking that would be easier, but no, he wanted metallic silver.  I wasn't sure what to do with that one, but decided to try cutting strips of freezer paper and painting on stripes.  He originally wanted the whole shirt striped, but I was concerned that would make it too stiff.  Not to mention it would take forever, so we compromised and did three stripes instead.

 

I used the Charlie tee pattern again. The only thing I did differently this time was a narrower neckband, since I used the existing one from an upcycled tee.  I think I like it better, so I'll have to remember that for the next time I sew one up.

When O saw the finished shirt last night, he immediately said he loved it and asked me to make him a long-sleeved one just like it for winter.  That was high praise coming from him!

I made E one more tee also.  Hers is Jalie 2806, which is one of my favorite patterns.  This is her third (one, two).  The knit is from a box of fabric a friend passed on to me, and I had it slated for this right away.  I really like the white on white floral.

I'm a big fan of the tulip sleeve too.  It adds just a little extra touch of girliness without being over the top.  It's especially cute on, but my model is still sleeping this morning.  I'll try to get an action shot later.

And that wraps up Kids Clothes Week for me. It was fun!  And this time I made a conscious effort to clean up as I went, so instead of being left with a disaster of a sewing room, it's still functional.  Woo-hoo!

Did you sew along this week?