Happy Spring Chef's Apron

For my craft project this week, I made a chef's apron with the happy spring fabric that was included in the box of fabric my mom sent recently.  I had thought about using this piece for the oven mitt, but concluded at the last minute before cutting it out that it would be a waste because a) this piece was too big for such a little project and b) the charming print would have been obscured by the quilting.




After wracking my brains for an outdoor use for this (somehow that would have seemed more spring-y to me, to actually use the 'sunshine and blue skies' fabric while outdoors), I gave up and decided to make the simplest big, wearable thing I could come up with-- an apron.

One of these days I'd like to make a pretty little frou-frou apron, or one of those tricky ones that looks kind of like a dress.  But for my first one, I went simple-- a chef's apron.  I consulted some blogs, but couldn't find an example of one that was adjustable using jump rings, like the one I had hanging in my kitchen-- a nice manly apron that my lovely mother had sewn for Sweet Hubby.  So, after gleaning as much info as I could from these tutorials: Once Apron A Time and Kathy's Cottage Easy Apron , I went ahead and got started, and when I got to the bit about the top I just reverse-engineered Sweet Hubby's apron and figured out how Lovely Mother made it with the rings for adjusting.

The whole project, start to finish, took only three nap times: one for cutting the big pieces and the pockets, one for cutting the strips for the ties, making the ties and sewing on the pockets, and one more for sewing together the two sides, pressing and topstitching.  (I love topstitching-- I didn't even know what it was, before the Bunny Lovey project, and now it's my favorite part of sewing)  Several parts of this project were new and adventuresome for me: cutting out the pieces using my rotary cutter (even the big bits, even the curves), making pockets (I was trying for rounded ones on the yellow 'B side', but they looked funny once I sewed them on so I folded down the tops and pressed them, making them look like envelopes rather than half circles), the aforementioned reverse-engineering (so proud of myself for figuring something out without explicit instructions! and I didn't even break down and call Lovely Mother or Ariel for advice, like I usually do!).

I wish I had taken more photos while this was in progress, but I every time I work on a craft project I feel like I'm racing the clock, one ear cocked to hear if baby is done with his nap.

Here are the pockets and ties:



Look what came in handy, as I sewed around the whole edge of the two layers!





Here is the 'A side', just before pressing and topstitching:



And here I am, modeling the 'A side', then 'B side', then the ties in the back (which were not as long as I wanted them, but I ran out of fabric and couldn't make them longer)





I had thought I would like a big pocket on the chest (not down lower, I don't want to look like a kangaroo), but now I wish I had made it smaller, or made little hip pockets like the ones on the 'B side' instead.  Oh well!  I was completely improvising all the pockets, I'm lucky they didn't come out even more wildly wrong than this.  Also, if you look closely you can see where I had to fold up a little bit of the fabric before tying, to make this fit.  I used my Sweet Hubby's big apron as a pattern, and I was afraid if I tried to guess how to make it smaller, I would make it too small.  That's okay, I'd rather a big, voluminous apron that needs a little fold to fit, than a titchy apron that I'd never use.

One last photo: here's my new pretty apron hung up on the kitchen coat rack, next to Sweet Hubby's old manly apron.  Aw, aprons in love!



What next?  I have no idea!

Thoughts on Testing

I wonder if public school teachers ever feel guilty about spending class time on 'test prep', or if they don't have any feelings about it because so much about the whole testing situation in schools is out of the teachers' hands.

Every year since Primo was in first grade I've ended our school year with a standardized test (we use the CAT-E), even though here in our state we only need to report test scores to the local district in 5th, 7th, and 9th-12th grades.  So these tests that I give them each year are just for practice (at the end of Primo's first grade year it was also because I was a little curious/worried about how our homeschool measured up compared to public school), with no consequences attached either for them or for me as their teacher.  This year is not a reporting year for either of my big boys, and even if it was I would have no concerns about their scores being below the percentile that they need to meet or exceed as homeschoolers.

So, why?  Why do I buy test prep books and spend a precious week of our school year having them run through exercises on topics that we haven't covered, or haven't covered in much depth?  I reassure myself that it is mainly so that they don't feel nervous or frustrated when they see those topics pop up on next week's test.  Also, it's good for me to know (by giving them the practice tests in the prep book) which areas they are weak in, in case I want to incorporate any of it into our new school year (for example, I found to my surprise that both boys could use a refresher on literary genres).  In a way, it's even fun-- these are, by definition, things we have not spent a lot of time on before, so they are fresh and new in a way that none of their other lessons would be, in this penultimate week of our school year.

And yet.  I have a niggling fear in the back of my mind that 'prepping' them for the test has something to do with my pleasure when I open their test results and see that they did very well in all sections of the exam.  It doesn't matter, doesn't give an accurate picture of them as students or certainly not as people.  But I've come to like seeing those high scores, and I'm afraid I would be disappointed if they didn't do as well, one of these years.

Just to be clear, they love the testing itself--they're amused by the formality of standardized testing, they think it's funny when I read the script word-for-word and time them (it probably helps that they are good at testing, and rarely run up against the time limits).  When Primo was six, in first grade, and we completed his first CAT-E exam, he turned to me and said, "You're the best teacher, Mama, and I love homeschooling".  Traumatized by testing, these kids are not.  They don't even seem to mind the test prep. 

It just feels to me almost like cheating, to do anything at all to get them ready for the test instead of just giving it to them cold, after going about our usual business up until testing day.

I think I'm thinking too much about this.  To make myself feel better, I'll enumerate some things I *don't* do:
1. look at the contents of the actual CAT-E exam in advance, in order to truly 'teach to the test'
2. teach to the test in general, throughout our school year
3. help the kids during the test in any way, or give them extra time

Maybe one of these years I'll be brave, and just hand them the tests without a minute of prep.  Maybe next year.

Oven Mitt Part Two

Well, I almost loved this oven mitt project.  At the last minute it turned into a bit of hand sewing, to attach the 'cuff' that hides the cut edges at the bottom.  The tutorial didn't specify hand sewing, but in the comments section several people said they couldn't do it with their machines (nor could I-- it just didn't fit on there)-- so at least I wasn't alone!  I don't like hand sewing, I'm not very good at it and my stitches look like they were done by a child.  Now I'm debating whether I'll make another of these, knowing that it will end in hand sewing.

Oven Mitt Part One

I was determined to make something this week, other than excuses.  I'm still trying to keep this craft challenge from filling my house up with worthless (though pretty) mess, so I settled on something that I needed anyway-- a new oven mitt (I have only one pair, which were ugly to begin with and now are also burnt and worn through in places, they have begun to let heat through-- ouch).  I found a 'hot pad and oven mitt' round-up on Pinterest (see here) and chose a simple glove style mitt, tutorial here. 
Another sub-goal of my challenge is to use up the craft supplies I have lying around, whenever possible, instead of buying more.  I went through my fabric stash and found some pretty-enough cotton to use as the main fabric and liner.  All I had to buy was some Insul-Brite insulated batting, and heavy duty needles to sew through all these layers!



Cutting the layers was quick and fun-- using the rotary cutter reminds me of quilting, which I love the best of all sewing (if only quilts didn't take so much of everything-- fabric, time, money, space).  I didn't bother cutting out exactly 9 x 15 as the directions say, my fabric scraps were already around 11 x 18 and I didn't waste time cutting off the little bit extra.



Above are the layers, with the lining fabric face up (only after I started this project did I fall in love with that fabric a little and wish that it wasn't about to disappear inside an oven mitt).  The darker pink is for the bottom edge.  Next I quilted one half (so, one whole sandwich of outer, cotton batting, insulated batting and lining) with diagonals of whatever thread happened to be in my machine.  I thought this step would go faster than it did, and that I could finish the project today, but instead I think I'll just get around to quilting the other half. 



More to follow when I get this finished up.  When I started this project I chose a different fabric for the outer, but while ironing it I realized I had quite a big piece, and I didn't want to waste it on a tiny little quilted thing like this oven mitt.  In fact, I wish I could think of something easy to make that we would use outdoors, because the print is so happy and evocative of spring.  I'm stumped though-- what can I sew with this piece of fabric, not sure the size but I think less than a yard, which I can then use outside in the spring?  Help me with this if you have an idea, otherwise I've got next week's project decided already-- an apron.
Here's the fabric, my current crush:

Challenge Update

For this past year, I gave myself an unofficial challenge (unofficial because I wasn't yet blogging, to make it official ;), to finally figure out how to make a delicious, light cake.  I'm a bakestress, and know my way around cookies of all types, yeast breads, quick breads and muffins, rolls, and many other confections.  Somehow I just couldn't wrap my head (or hands) around baking a cake that didn't turn out dense, heavy and unpleasant to eat.  My challenge then: learn how to bake a good cake by the time Snorzy's first birthday rolled around.  Up until late in February I didn't think I would be successful-- throughout the year, for every occasion and sometimes no occasion, I baked cake after cake, following all the advice I could find online and in books.  Still, each of my cakes turned out a bland brick.  Finally, I had a partial success with the Birthday Chocolate Cake from The Mom 100 by Katie Workman-- I made it for my father's birthday on February 19th, and it baked up perfect at first, and then got a little heavier when I put it in the fridge.

For Snorzy's birthday I made Zoe's Cupcakes from C is for Cooking (the Sesame Street cookbook), after a friend came over for dinner one night bringing those and they were the most delicious homemade cake I've had *ever*-- and from a kid's cookbook no less!  I think the secret to baking a tender cake for someone like me who just doesn't naturally have the touch with cakes is this: lots of dairy.  I used whole milk plain yogurt (the recipe called for a full cup, and this in addition to butter, not instead), and they came out soft and pillowy.  I also re-visited the chocolate cake from the Mom 100 (speaking of dairy, it calls for both sour cream and whole milk in addition to two sticks of butter) being even more careful to get all my ingredients room temperature and not over-mixing (my downfalls as a bakestress are absolutely over-mixing and over-baking), the cupcakes turned out lovely underneath but with overdone crunchy cookie-like tops, despite the fact that I baked them for 1 minute less than the minimum time given-- I think it's time to invest in an oven thermometer.  Overall, I was pleased with my progress, and now I believe that I can bake a yummy cake whenever one is called for (though I still would like to learn how to make a perfect butter cake, without all the added dairy).

All this by way of saying-- I can rise to a challenge, even when I don't do so well with it at first.

After a good start on my craft challenge, here have been my contributions to it for the past few weeks:
1. skipped, trying to believe that 'making' the list of curricula we'll use for the year really counts as making something
2. cast on and knit the first few rows of the right, front panel of Snorzy's rainbow sweater-- another case (as when I finished the back panel) of using my challenge to motivate a dull little piece of a project that otherwise would have caused me to stall
3.  used my craft time to send all the pictures in my phone to Walgreens so that I can print them and 'make' photo albums-- I don't know what other people do with their pictures, but I feel like I need an actual, paper photo record of every important moment (and some cute, less-important moments) of my children's lives

So now, I'm determined to actually, factually, un-ironically, make something in the upcoming week, start to finish, using yarn or fabric or art supplies.  Wish me luck and a visit from a muse, pictures to follow.