Retro apron

This is really a ¨wardrobe refashion¨ of an emmeline apron I did a few years ago which used a pretty overpowering over-retroed fabric. My husband couldn´t eat his dinner while I was wearing it. So I made it into a half-apron. Its still a bit too retro, but as a half apron, its not quite as overpowering hopefully.

Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

Apron from Simple Sewing book

I wanted to make something for a friend of mine who just miscarried, and I thought an apron might let her know we were thinking of her. The pattern is from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing book. I didn't have alot of material, so I didn't include the side panels, I just did the centre panel. I'm not sure it even needs the side panels.

Another child's apron

Here is another child's apron, this one with ruffles along the edges, which I made this morning for a 2 year old's birthday today, along with an eco-friendly bag to wrap it in.

Sunday-dinner Hostess Apron

Next on the list was the Sunday-dinner Hostess Apron in Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing book. My son wanted an apron, and liked all my fabric scraps (otheriwse I would have chosen more boyey fabric!), so I made a miniature one for him. He puts his cars in the pockets. He wants one for his teddy bear too. Its my sister-in-law's birthday (today actually), so I'd like to make a grown-up one for her as well. It was really fun to make because there are no rules when making an apron. I used lots of clashing fabrics and thread colours where I felt like it.

Compact emmeline apron

This is my favourite emmeline apron I've made. I finished this a few weeks ago but hadn't had a chance to take a pic. I think I have enough of these aprons now... ;o) I noticed that I'm often out and about, and we stop at a cafe, and that's when I spill food/drink on my clothes - everything seems to land on my huge 6 mths pregnant tummy. I really need to be able to on-sell my maternity clothes once the baby is born and I can't if they get stained. So I made a lighter weight, non-reversible emmeline apron that I can fold up really flat and small and keep at the bottom of my handbag.

The straps at the neck don't tie - I tried it on and made it so it is the same strap that goes up one side of the bodice, around the neck, and back down the other side of the bodice. I did that strap with the grain, not on the bias. Somehow I prefer it that way. Also, I made the bodice taper about 0.5 cm on either side only right at the top, so that the bodice lies flatter at the top & doesn't gape. I made the straps at the back shorter too - the apron can only be tied up at the back. I did line the bodice and and a tiny bit of the top of the skirt, as I felt the stripy material was so thin it might not protect my clothes on its own if I spilt tea etc (sometimes I drop whole cups of tea on myself - unbelievable!). Finally, I cut about 5 inches from the tapering out of the skirt at the bottom. I think I could have cut another 3 inches off either side of the tapering again, because I only wear this as an eating apron, not a cooking apron. It would make it fold up even smaller.

I'm really happy with it, and its saved my clothes more than once. Phew.

Another Emmeline Apron

Here is another Emmeline Apron I made for Jellyspec who got her mum to bring Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing book in from America for me!! Can't wait to sew lots of things from that book.
I really liked Jellyspec's fabric choices. I think they are lovely and bright and cheery. This photo was taken up at a bach they were renting up on the Raumati coast. We had a wonderful day.

Emmeline Apron

Here are my goes at the Emmeline Apron. I’m a messy eater, cook, drinker, messy everything really. I usually have t-shirts liberally spotted with tomato sauce, tea, etc, so this apron was a godsend. I wear it almost all day, every day, and have pretty much resigned myself to even wearing it at restaurants – that’s just how uncoordinated I am!

Because I wear it all the time, and I don’t like having a weight on the back of my neck, I’ve made the straps cross-over at the back. I like the original version which ties at the back of the neck better, but I just couldn’t wear that version for any length of time. The ties are wider than they look in the pic - I just didn´t get a chance to iron it before taking the pics. I added a cm to the vertical length of the bust, as otherwise the bust panel just seemed to make too thin a horizontal line on my build. I also took a cm off the centre top front band (meaning that it simply gathers a tiny bit more on the top side of the panel), because otherwise the top of the apron gaped open a bit. I didn´t cut the ties on the bias, which saved fabric. Also, I pull the ties quite tight when I have the apron on and when I tried having ties which were cut on the bias (as per the pattern), I cut them off and replaced them because they pulled too thin & out of shape when tied tightly.

Here is the second one I made below. I tried for retro colours with this one. But I think I over-retroed! My husband said he couldn't eat his dinner while I was wearing the first side... :o) My friend Maree modelled these for me (because I was 6 months pregnant at the time). I can only explain my choice of fabric on my pregnancy... I´ve since cut this apron up into something else as I no longer liked the fabric. What was I thinking?