Check out my apron

It's gorgeous. There are slight imperfections, but they aren't overly noticeable and the apron still looks amazing.

The project is the from the book Amy Butler's In Stitches: 25 Simple and Stylish Sewing Projects. I had to make my own pattern so I made it from newspaper. There were a lot more pieces to keep track of for the apron so I made sure to label each piece, otherwise I would have trouble figuring out what was what.

I did have a few bumps in the road to completing the apron, but I was able to fix them and end up with a finished product. I did have to use the seam ripper a couple of times. I also YouTubed a video on how to machine baste.

This video helped explain to me what machine basting is and how to do it. The instructions in the book are numbered based on the part of the apron you're working on and the instructions kept referring to machine basting. I ignored the instruction the first few times but since it kept coming up, I decided I should just figure out what it is and why it's important. Pretty much it's similar to hand basting, but instead you're using a machine. 

Overall, I am very happy with my apron and especially the beautiful pink and blue giraffe print. There is a pattern for oven mitts in the book so I am thinking I will make some matching oven mitts to go with the gorgeous apron.

I also can't find my camera, so I will post the picture as soon as I find my camera. I promise, the apron does exist and it does look great.


UPDATE: I found my camera and here is the beautiful apron that I spoke of. Isn't she lovely?

Pink and navy giraffe print apron

Something bad happened...

I was really excited to sew the outer part of my cozy and then something bad happened. I know what you're thinking, something bad happened? Yes. Something bad happened. I sewed the wrong sides of the fabric together on both seams of one of the sides of the cozy.

#$%$**%^&#%#$!%&^

Those characters don't quite express my frustration to its full extent, but I'm sure you get the picture.

Anyway, I tried to use the seam ripper to take apart the seams but the fabric is very prone to fraying and the tension on the sewing machine is at a pretty tight setting making it difficult to not slice the fabric while trying to rip the seams. Pretty much the fabric was no good, so I decided to move on to my newly formed Plan B. 

I'll break it down for you. Plan B required me to check to see if I had just enough fabric left so that I could cut out pattern pieces to replace the ones that were just ruined. Oh, I forgot to mention that at this point I had only one side of the cozy left to sew together. So, here I was with one original piece left and feeling rather desperate placing the pattern over the remaining fabric and hoping that I wouldn't have to go out to buy more. 

Luckily, I literally had just enough left. I cut out the pieces and so far I have basted one side. Considering this incredible learning experience, I will finish sewing another day when I have time to get it right. Well, my fingers are crossed that I don't mess it up cause that would just be sad.

Sick days are meant for sewing...

I took a sick day today and sick days are rather boring, so I decided to pass the time I would do a little sewing. I made the pattern for my sewing machine cozy with newspaper and used that to cut the fabric. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist so this took a lot more time than I thought it would. I think it turned out rather successfully though. I had to cut the pattern for the lining and the outside of the cozy, but I found that it got a lot easier once I got used to cutting and not being so scared of messing up. I used the pieces I cut out from the liner fabric as my pattern for cutting the outer fabric of the cozy instead of using the newspaper print pattern. I don't know if you're suppose to do that, but it worked out just the same.

Newspaper pattern on the liner fabric before I cut.

Cutting the outer fabric for the cozy. My hair got in the way, but it's a cool shot.

I learned in my research that basting would allow me to keep my fabric together and it would also help to guide my stitching. It is time consuming, but it's worth it. First I used my pins to keep the fabric together and then I hand basted the fabric. When I had actually sewn the fabric with the machine, it was really very easy to simply pull the hand basted thread out of the fabric.

The fabric pinned and basted.

I did not do a whole lot of actual sewing today, but I did sew two pieces together. My friend Gillian (read her wedding blog!) commented on my last post and suggested I sew slowly with the machine and sewing in a straight line would be easier. I took her advice and it was much much easier to get my line straight. I did veer off course a little bit, but I tried to straighten it back out and I have many more pieces to sew that I cannot focus on a tiny little error. 

This is probably when I compromised the straightness of my stitches.

Finished product...for now.

It feels as though I did not do much today, but it took up a lot of time. The next time I sit down at the machine, I want to take the time to finish the entire cozy, but since I will be basting the pieces together before I machine sew the pieces, it may not happen since it does require me to have the time and patience. I am excited to have the actual finished product now that I can see it coming together. Stay tuned!