Samantha loves to help in the kitchen. Actually, she and Ray do a lot of the cooking around here together! She asked for an apron for her birthday this year. Her birthday was not quite two months ago. In my defense, though, I did take her fabric shopping on her birthday, and I took her out for lunch, coffee and book-shopping.
She found an apron that she liked in the book, A is for Apron, by Nathalie Mornu.
This is one of those books, though, that requires you to enlarge the patterns by 400%. I’m not totally sure how to do that. (I would love suggestions if anyone has done it!) Rather than try to enlarge the pattern, I just redrafted it, making a few little changes to make it exactly what Samantha wanted.
Samantha agreed to model the apron for me this morning. Can I just say how nice it is to photograph a cooperative model? She did roll her eyes a little when I handed her one of my vintage Pyrex bowls and a wooden spoon and suggested she pretend to bake cookies, but she went along with me.
These fabrics are the ones that Samantha chose on our birthday fabric shopping trip. She loves aqua and red, and the vintage-style of the apron works beautifully with the fabrics.
The original apron from the book uses bias tape. I do not do bias tape. (It’s just evil . . . mean and evil.) So, I made the apron reversible! So much easier than sewing bias tape all the way around, and you get two looks in one!
I love this pull-over collar. LOVE it! It’s so much less fussy than ties or D-rings.
The rick-rack on these pockets was the first rick-rack that I ever sewed! I actually worked on these pockets at the Sewing Soiree a few weeks ago, and I secretly threw one of the first pockets that I cut out into the trash can after ripping it apart and sewing it back together so many times that it was going to fall apart. I just couldn’t seem to visualize the way to baste the rick-rack so that when I sewed the pockets and turned them, it would look nice. As you can see, I did finally get it! Yay!
Samantha loves her apron! And she’s thrilled that I’ll actually allow her to use it now that I’ve photographed and blogged it. (Anyone else tell family members, “Here I sewed this for you, but you can’t have it until I get a chance to take pictures for my blog!”)
Hmmm . . . How long do you bake fake cookies? (I love this girl!)
I just love that her hand is all the way in the bowl for that last shot. LOL!
Awesome apron! That pullover style might be just the thing for me. Halter styles make my neck ache just thinking about them.
Good job.
I love that apron! Everything about it. The colors and actual fabrics are perfect for it. Your DD is so pretty. I love her hair. My oldest had hair like that until she cut it all off in a pixie. Belated Happy Birthday to her.
Love it! She is beautiful! Her color choices are great!
ADORABLE!!! The apron and your sweet girl! I know she and my girls would have a blast together….wish we lived closer! 🙂
So cute! And I love your kitchen.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a young lady look as pretty in an apron as this. 🙂
Love it! Do I smell a new pattern in the works?
How to enlarge 400%: use your copier or take it to an office supply place and use theirs. Easy-peasy.
That sounds easy, but an 8 1/2″ x 11″ page would then print 34″ x 44″, so you’d have to find a place that you could not only enlarge 400%, but also then print onto a 34″ x 44″ page. I’d normally use Staples for that, but I’ve been told time and again that they absolutely will not copy and print copyrighted material. If you go in there with a book, they won’t even consider it.
Love love love that apron! Very cool. Will have to go find that book for myself! I’m with you on redrafting the patterns. That enlarging is a pain in the buttinsky!