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!