Apron Love

I am waiting on some duck fabric for my owl bag to protect the bottom, so in the meantime I am already dreaming of the next projects...A couple of aprons and a very special bag for a very special older girl (something to hold those girly products that are a monthly necessity). Those folks at Fabric Hound are sure speedy with their deliveries.

Joanie loaned me The Apron Book by EllynAnne Geisel which is full of fun apron lore, history of aprons, and some simple patterns. I pretty much devoured it in one sitting and it got the wheels turning.

First off, I'm going to try a simple waist apron, from a pattern in the book:

The main fabric will be the green floral, the contrast the pink polka dots:

Next, and this will require some help from an experienced seamstress, perhaps Joanie, I fell in love with this very feminine and oh-so-adorable vintage apron---no pattern, just the photo:

In these fabrics, again the floral as the main, with contrast/edging in brown with white polkas:

But before I will allow myself to cut out any apron fabric, I ironed all of my skirts for this week and am about to do some homework for my internship. I am a work before play kind of girl...Happy Sunday to you!

The Sewing Adventure is Beginning

Beautiful fine-wale corduroy at right, and a nice dotty print to go with.


Well, you may remember that I decided to overcome my sewing-machine fear, in large part thanks to all the sewing bloggers that I am inspired by. Thanks, ladies. So what will I be making? Some tiny little purses for our favorite tiny little girls who are about two-ish. (Ravenhill measured her own Lily, so I have an idea of how long the strap should be!) Hopefully this is simple enough for me, and will be a useful item to carry some small treasures in. Today I have a date with Joanie for a little sewing!

My machine has been spruced up by the Sewing Machine Wizard, Donald Sabins, who lives just ten minutes down the road. He is a sweet older fellow who has been doing machines for quite awhile and is teaching his daughter the art. Apparently savvy sewers from all over Maine bring their sewing machines his way. Since the timing was off in my machine, I guess it was no wonder that I had some trouble with it.

So then I started reading MoonChild Handwork Studio a Waldorf dollmaker extraordinaire and lover of organic fabrics, and she has some links to her frequent suppliers listed on her blog. So amidst my week of family nursing, I spent some evening hours therapeutically ogling fabrics (fabric porn?).

Here are some goodies from Bunte Fabrics, run by the very nice Yvonne, out in the Pacific Northwest somewhere. She imports lots of amazing European fabrics and embellishments...

Floral fabric for the outside of the purse, chickens for the lining:
Hello hedgehog ribbon, how could I not buy you?
And these birdies make me think of happy sunshine:
Yvonne put in these little squares of other adorable fabrics in, scraps just the right size for making pillows and aprons for the dollhouse people:

I also made a visit to Fabric Hound, and WOW there was a lot to look through---my eyes were goggling and I was saying, oh just five more minutes and THEN I'll go to bed. I settled on these two, I think for some satchel type things for my own boys:
I think the owls are some kind of Japanese fabric. I'm thinking owls on the outside, green flowers inside. God, I just love those guys. And the picture at the top of the blog is also from my Fabric Hound order. I am saving that pretty pair for when I am good enough to make a bag for myself!

So that is the beginning and end of my fabric stash!