Upscale Crafty Apron

Want to make something awesome for your crafty friend, super mommy, or best chef? This handy multi pocket apron is super stylish, slightly upscale and just as useful as your usual kind of apron.

I sew, but I don't use patterns and my seams aren't always perfect....but with this crafty apron that's not a problem, because we want our finished product to be embellished, patchworked and slightly tattered. Best of all this is all made out of scrap fabric and leftover trim!

Materials include various small squares and rectangles of fabric, cotton, rayon, light canvas etc. Ribbon, lace, tassles, rick rack, seam binding will be used to trim the apron. Don't have any? Fabric stores sometimes have really inexpensive "grab bags".

The main body of the apron should be 25-27"long and 12-14" wide.

Strap & top binding approx 3" wide piece 72" long

Not a hard and fast rule, that's just the approx measures of the old regular apron I used for a template. I like this size, it hits me at mid thigh, and the pockets aren't too low.

I happen to have a bunch of light upholstery/canvas fabrics that I got at a fabric barn clearance sale of their 18" sample squares. So to make up the body of the apron I used two pieces. An 8" piece and 18" piece. Sew these together first I off set the contrasting piece for interest. You could also just the whole main body out of one piece as well.

The pockets can be various sizes. The apron I made for my friend had two big pockets, a little 6" x 4" in one corner and a tall pocket (spoon/scissors) on one side... The one I made myself 5 pockets! I imagine this coming in very handy at shows so I made a tall pocket, a large pocket, two phone/gadget pockets and little coin pocket (3" 1/2 x 3" 1/2). I just start cutting varies size rectangles and start placing them on my main body. I was lucky in that many of my fabrics had selvage edges, I just zigzag stitched right over them. You could fold and iron them under.. I'm not that patient! I like to keep ironing at a minimum.

Design the apron. Lay everything out first and pin together pieces that need to be sewn first. If you want to you should turn your mainbody edges under and sew them down (unless like me you plan to cover them with trim) You can iron and sewed the strap onto main body first or last its your call. The strap piece will also cover the edges of the top of the apron and become the apron ties. I did iron this piece, turning the edges down 1/4" and ironing and then folding in half and ironing again. Find the middles of the main body and the strap and line up and pin together. The raw edge of the apron is sandwiched between the strap becomes a nice binding for the top.

Most important is to sew the little pockets on top of the big pockets,before sewing to the background. You can also take a larger piece and sew dividers into it and create smaller narrower pocket. I sewed a small inch of fabric (kind of a gusset) on the edges of large pocket and then tucked the bottom together to make the pocket stick out. Some embellishments need to be sewn on first, if they are on the top of the pocket. If its just trimming around the edges than that can be done after its sewn on. I actually sewed the pocket down...make sure not to sewn it shut! And sewing the trim on reinforces the pocket and beatifies at the same time.

I have a lot of frayed silk ribbons so I went to town sewing these around the edges in an effort to hide some of those ugly edges. I made couple of little appliques that I thought added to the whole piece. One of the aprons has a puffy heart in the corner, I cut the shape sewed it on the background, leaving a space for stuffing bit of polyfil and sewed it shut. I later ribboned around it. the zigzag and satin stitch is your friend. Experiment with textures and patterns, there's no wrong answer, some things I didn't think would work actually came out great.

These aprons can be sleek and modern, or patchwork and eclectic. Whoever gets them will love them!

Cut the pieces.

Pick your trim and pocket patches.

Design the layout. If two pieces, sew the main body together.

Iron the strap and sew to main body

Pin the pieces. Sew little pockets to larger pieces.

Embellish to your heart's content.

Rainbows of Color

After a week of rain! So here's the fruits of my labor after screwing up my courage to actually dye wool roving for the first time ever... Its just a little intimidating when you spend money on this bunch of nice wool and you're terrified that all you will have to show for it is a giant dread lock. I also kept toying with the idea that I needed to do this on my stove or I needed a special Crockpot... (actually, a big Crockpot would be nice) Focus! Focus! Okay... so I after completing my research on YouTube. Thank you, new internet connection with unlimited bandwidth usage! Oh, my favorite ones are Rexene's Get Ready to Dye and Spin2weave's Dyeing to Spin Part #3... the first one is so funny and full of practical advice. She showed me that I don't need a huge space to work in. The latter video showed me that I can just heat my wool up in the microwave without burning it. I also looked at countless other videos many of which are for kettle dyeing or yarn dyeing and not hand painting... and some folks well its kind to say they are a yawn a minute. I also figured out what I'm did wrong pretty fast. Well, wrong.. its not exactly wrong, undesirable maybe.. but this wool is mostly earmarked for my nuno felting so I then dyed it to compliment the silk I dyed earlier...

I started this whole thing Sunday and it felt like I wasn't getting a bunch done. I was also fighting the holiday languor. It's mostly waiting. Waiting for the wool to pre-soak, then waiting for the wool to cool, and then finally waiting for the wool to dry and see how it turned out. Hoping that some where that mass of soggy fiber there's artistry and beauty. There's also making the dye baths... realizing that I need way bigger squeeze bottles, improvising with solo cups... forgetting to wear my gloves and ending up with red hands...(my fingernails are still orange) oh, and the actual dyeing. Then today I hung all I've finished up next to each other and thought, thats not too bad for a start...

I like rainbows.. Promises and hope.

Ninjas Vs Pirates!

Okay, its been forever since I posted anything. Have I mentioned before that this is hard for me? It is. I always have 5 million things going on. Or I don't and I get stuck in lazy town or depressionville.. its like margaritaville without the 'rita part...

So at Dragon Con this year to amuse myself at the Cd table I made little people from pipe cleaners. I was kinda on a Halloween bent so I made mummies, wolfmen, and zombies... then I started making pirates and ninjas and I just couldn't stop. I even made a felty version of the Bedlam Bards. (I'll get those photos soon)

We've been in some kind of monsoon season here in Texas, and its been raining or cloudy for weeks. On the sunny days its been a sauna and a mosquito paradise, I risked malaria just to photograph these guys.. but I finally did it and posted them on Etsy. That was just this week.. and I also found out that they'd been spotted and Jennifer writes about them on her blog at

http://blog.jenniferhayesart.com/2009/10/felt-friday-smile.html which in turn has goaded me into writing about them here. So I'm off to get packed for the Renaissance Faire.. hopefully it'll turn into a beautiful fall weekend!

Imagination Manifestations

Okay, apparently lack of sleep and lots of stress and driving late at night gives one a unique opportunity to think alot about thing other than one's issues. Right? So I reflecting on what I was asked by Amy Hadley during the little interview and what my and other people's answers were. She said "why buy handmade?" and the answer was inevitably "because you get to meet the person that made it.." Which is true enough at a show. But what about online? How much of your personality and charm can come through in a few blurbs? Your product has to speak for itself. In fact will continue to speaks to the person that buys it or gives to someone else everyday. This is more to me than just "meeting" someone... its an entire part of me that is made visible in art form. Whether its felt or clay or fabric. Its totally just a manifestation of my imagination.

So I thought hard about this question. As artist its really difficult to answer some of the question we are asked... Like how did you make this? Easy, ya see I took 3/4 of a pound of hand dyed...and then did....and you simply fold this here... oh wait.. what folks really mean is how did you manage to take these seperate raw materials form them into this creative wonderful new thing? And just maybe they want to know why for godsakes? And that answer also required some hard thinking... But the honest answer is these things are like little pieces of my random thoughts; an image, a poem, a dream... They may not turn out exactly like I want. Sometimes they are a work in process or they are better then ever imagined. I often make things my inner child would love to play with. (she's six, loves unicorns, but hates pink) Sometimes I make things for the sheer challenge of maninipulating all those raw materials and seeing what I come up with. Lot of times its especially for those questions and the looks I get... You made did this? Holy.. (yeah, I love those looks)

So the next time I'm asked how or why... Not going to say this is my brain on art, hold and I'll give you the recipe.

I'm simply going to say its an imagination manifestion. "Wanna see?"

Austin Handmade

The highlight of the past week for me was going to Austin Handmade's Opening event. Its actually a reopening since they just moved to a new and improved local. Just off of south First st in SoCo they feature some of the best local artists and designers. Last Thursday evening was a quite an occasion, I saw a bunch of Etsy folks... including Robie, of Parsimony http://www.parsimony.etsy.com/, who I had met at Funky Finds Spring Fling.. her fabulous dresses can be found at AH and she had the foresight to bribe ah hem.. persuade a few of her friends to model for her. I'm sure that wasn't too hard given the lively atmosphere and added incentive of Sweet Mama cupcakes.

Beth H. and Beth A. were there launching their creation of The Wonder Craft, a exciting new mobile art learning experience. http://www.thewondercraft.com/

It was so encouraging to see so many people admiring the cool and crafty offerings. (why, yes those are my Felted Sushi Kits in the DIY room.) I swear I didn't stand by them all evening, I was to busy juggling my cupcake and drink! (oh, and never put a half of velvet cupcake in your pocket the results are very bad) All in all it was a fun evening doing what Austin does best, having a good time and helping each other shine.

http://www.austinhandmade.com/

Promoting SXSW and Handmade in Austin

The Etsy Austin Team is getting busy preparing our promotional swag for SXSW thats up coming in March. A bunch of things are going in these bags, that, themselves, are being handmade out of recycled t-shirts. They'll be sporting a really cool silkscreened logo.... and many folks of Team Etsy Austin are preparing some interesting and fun items, stickers, earrings, charms, coupons and much more to fill out the bag. Here's some pics of us at our first Swag Bag sewing bonanza! Beth of Snuggleherd... and our fearless crew!

Come SXSW time we'll be hitting the streets giving away bags and doing demos and selling Etsy things in front Hill Country Weavers on South Congress. Meanwhile its back to sewing machine!

I'm in Treasury!

So much fun! I'm in a treasury, chosen by Rabbitthorns from Over the Rainbow...
its called "Counting Sheep" and it features all thing made from recycled wool.
Check it out and remember to click through and leave a comment and the page could move up the lists!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=37212