#18 Finish the Apron I Bought Fabric for (last) August

When I wrote my Progress Report post, I was surprised at how much progress I had actually made toward my 101 in 1001 goals. Some things I can actually update with evidence.  That will help a lot with my goal of #9: Digitally document 101 in 1001 on a regular basis.

drumroll please . . .

One of the things I wanted to complete was an apron that I had purchased and stashed fabric for in August of 2010. It took me over a year, but I finally managed to complete it. I liked it so much that I made another one for my daughter, Gwen for Christmas.

Gwen's Christmas apron.

She picked out the main fabric and I helped her coordinate the accent pieces. They’re so cute that I decided when I actually finish setting up my etsy account, I should sell aprons.  I actually contemplated selling the apple/pear apron, but One of the straps isn’t set in exactly the righ spot so I don’t feel right selling it.  If however, you are a TCRD derby girl and are attending our white elephant gift exchange/Christmas party tomorrow night, you may be the lucky recipient of this now famous apron.

Stuff I Love

Well, it’s Thursday and even though I haven’t posted since the start of the month, I am trying to get back into a rhythm after The Hiatus.  So, time for another edition of “Stuff I Love”.

My last edition of Stuff I Love introduced you to my new friend, “Olan”.  This week I want to share with you his latest accessory:

Isn’t it lovely?

I looked around in stores for a bag to hold my clothespins, but had no luck.  Google, of course, didn’t let me down.  I found several different patterns for clothespin bags including a pattern for a clothespin apron.  I finally settled on this one and got to work.  I won’t post all my pictures and the directions because My Lucky Chicken did a really nice job and includes photos of each step, but I’ve included a photo of the necessary notions:

I only used the colored thread.

And, after using the bag for a couple of weeks, I would recommend some modifications.

1. Instead of using a precut quilting fat quarter, I would use some heavy duty canvas, or outdoor upholstery fabric.  There are some lovely patterns available for lawn furniture that would be quite pretty as a clothespin bag.  The quarter I used was 18″ x 30″ so a sturdier fabric cut to about that size or similar would work.
2. Mr. Hippie thinks the bag should have holes at the bottom for drainage.  With the lightweight cotton I used, that isn’t really a problem, but if a sturdier fabric or something that is waterproof is used, drainage might be necessary.  I think that could be easily accomplished by adding a row of narrow buttonholes across the bottom before the bag is sewn shut.
3. When I first hung my bag on the line, I hung it directly on the line.  If you have a long, straight line, or a line on a pulley, that should be fine but for my umbrella style clothesline it meant that I was spinning the line ’round & ’round and frequently digging under two or three layers of damp clothes to reach my pins.  If you use an umbrella-style or multi-line clothesline, I would highly recommend hanging the bag on a child-sized hanger like My Lucky Chicken suggests so that you can move your pins around easily.   If you know you are going to be using a hanger, you could skip the buttons and sew the bag directly onto the hanger; the buttons and buttonholes were the most difficult part of the project.
   

   With the addition of a hanger for convenience.

This was a super simple project and I love the results.  Plus, since finding the tutorial, I have perused the archives of My Lucky Chicken and love the site so much that I have added it to my links.   She has posts about all the Stuff I Love including her clothesline and her snack bags!  Check it out!