My first aprons. Some shirts, too.

Several months ago (I'm embarrassed to say how many, exactly) my sister had a simple request: could you please make myself and my granddaughter matching aprons for my birthday? No problem, I said. Piece of cake. Well, her birthday rolled around at the beginning of July, and still I had not done the aprons. Yikes!

Finally, about a week after said birthday, I decided I needed to get serious about this. I went through my fabric stash, thinking it would be easy to find something in enough quantity to make matching aprons for an adult and a 2 year old. No! I ended up having to go out and BUY fabric. I can't remember the last time I bought fabric for a specific project. I mean, I have a fabric store for heaven's sake - I have fabric coming out of my ears! Of course, you don't make aprons out of bamboo jersey, but still.

Anyway, it took forever to make these because I couldn't understand the Lila Tueller pattern directions to save my life. I must stress that this was NOT the fault of Lila Tueller, but rather my own preconceptions of how the bodice was supposed to go together. I was trying to make the directions fit my (mistaken) vision, and it just was not working. I probably lost two days right there.

Well, I got the apron sewn up and I think it turned out quite nicely after all was said and done. The little girl's apron is from Ottobre.

After finishing the aprons, I was eager to do some embroidery! Between the aprons and my serger being in the shop, my embroidery machine has been much neglected. I decided to try out the Mette pattern that I bought from Dawanda. Very cute pattern and would sew up very quickly if I hadn't done incredibly stupid things like a) made the elastic way too loose - and then way too tight - on the front panel and b) embroidered the back panel of the shirt instead of the front. Romper stomper sewing here, I tell ya! Anyway, I made it work. Sort of. I recut the back panel to make it a front, with the result that the embroidery is now placed way too low, but I am not doing that embroidery and all its 20-something color changes over. Nope.

Embroidery: Tausendschoenes.com and Urban Threads

While I had the green striped fabric out, my little guy came across it and said, "Is this my fabric, mama?" His favorite color is green, always has been, so of course he loved it. I just had to make him a shirt out of it too:

Embroidery: Urban Threads

Pattern: Ottobre