Apron Angst :(

As is typical for me, I left my apron swap to the bitter end. Send date June 10th = Completion and Mailing date. I knew it would go down this way....... I'm just happy to have it out on time. Whenever I have a project, whether it be a craft of something for work, that I feel will be difficult, I put it off. And put it off.......And put it off. I have had a crazy busy past month, in my defense and had set aside time on the weekend to work on and hopefully complete the apron project for my Swapbot swap. I did accomplish what I needed to Sunday night and did manage to finish off the remaining bit the next night. Just making the mailing deadline on time...... Whew!

I tossed around apron patterns in my head for quite some time before settling on the pattern I eventually chose. I went with a McCalls Pattern 3979 for an "American Diner" style apron. My partner claims to like pink, vintage style apron, and is a size 14-16 in people sizes, not funky pattern sizes. The "American Diner" apron looked to be fairly one size fits allish in it's design so I figured it was a pretty safe bet as far as fit goes. The pattern is a vintage reproduction of an old McCalls pattern and I was fortunate enough to hit the $1.99 McCalls Pattern sale at the local Fabricland. Also lucky enough to find the fabric which I just LOVE both for its pattern and just the feel of it. It is 100% cotton, but must be a highly polished one as it is very smooth to the touch compared with most quilting cotton. Better yet, it just happened to be on for 75% off at the same sale. You know, or maybe you don't...... I LOVE a sale! I was so taken by the way the whole project went, I may just make another one. I sure hope my partner likes it, because I really do.

The thing I liked the most about the pattern was its use of 1/4 inch double fold binding. I have only used binding to finish the outside edge of an item. I was very intrigued at its use in this pattern. The seams in all cases were sewn wrong sides together, and then the binding was used to bind and disguise the cut edges. It was a very functional and decorative use of the binding and certainly has a very vintage look about it. It also has the additional fabulousness of leaving you with a finished back side since those seams were all sewn wrong sides together. I am contemplating making another apron from the same pattern which also uses copious amounts of this bias binding. Although before such an exercise, I will bring my machine in for a tune up as this project was bit of a head ache since my feed dogs are not running properly........ or so it seems. Could be that I just needed to change my needle. What would grama say?