Halloween Apron

After having family visiting us for a week, I was excited to have Labor Day all to myself.  Having spent the week being a tourist or vegging around the house, I really needed to do something productive for my sanity.  Vegging around for a full week is not my idea of relaxing.

 I really wanted to make something.  I think the urge was there to offset the laziness of the prior week. I remembered that a year (or two) ago, I bought some fun Halloween fabric for an apron.  I got two different fabrics so that the apron could be reversible.  I was excited, especially since I recently bought some fun new accessories for my sewing machine and learned how to use the buttonhole and button feet.

In general, I'm in love with my new sewing machine (courtesy of J in the spring), so getting to use it on another project made me very very happy.

Although I do sometimes make my own sewing patterns, this particular apron came courtesy of Jo-Ann's:  I chose the one without the top embellishment, and with only one pocket, because I like to keep my practical clothing simple (bottom left). Though  I did add a lace border.  :-)

With our new living room arrangement, we have plenty of space for me to lay out the fabric, though my cat and dog always want to 'help' when it's least convenient.  Guess it just feels good to mess up perfectly laid out fabric with your claws...  Still, they did eventually let me cut out all the pieces, which luckily was just six:  two sides to the Apron,  two pockets, and the two ties.  Overall, a nice easy project.

I really did enjoy using my new Wonder Clips, though they are not going to replace pins for everything.  Still, they went on and off a lot quicker than pins do, and it was much easier to unclip as I was sewing than it would have been to unpin.  They also held the layers in place easily.  And I love the color. Mine were purchased at the local sewing shop, Blue Ribbon Sew, but they are available at Amazon as well.  Will definitely play around with these some more before I decide whether or not to invest in a few more.

The final product came out quite nice.  I love getting to choose the look I want to wear that day, though the apron will be stored till October. It is my grand plan to have one Apron for every month of the year.  So far I have October, November, and December (which I purchased at a local holiday bazaar and which sparked the desire to have a different one for every month).  I also love reversible aprons.  Not only are they thicker and more sturdy, making them feel like they are much higher quality, but they can be worn to mach your mood or to switch to a less stained side around guests.  It is possible I just don't wash my aprons enough...

I did try my hand with some pattern matching.  For the pumpkin side, I choose to make the pocket the face of a cat, which obviously breaks the pattern.  For the silhouette side, however, I centered the pocket on one of the silhouettes and then positioned it so that it matches the overall pattern.  It wasn't too hard since I had the freedom to move the pocket around a little to make the pattern match.  I haven't figured out however how I would have done it when the pattern needed to be exact.  Something further research on that is necessary.