This craft was inspired by a quick Dollar Store craft I pinned last July:
I knew right away I'd adapt this for St. Patrick's Day. So I picked up kitchen towels in the right colors at the Dollar Store, and 3 yards of sparkly shamrock ribbon for $2 at Michael's.
Unfortunately, the only towels in the right shade of green also had stripes, and I wasn't going to just settle. So I "sewed out" the stripes like this:
But you'll have way more luck than I did, right? Once you've got the towels all set, you have two choices. Horizontal half apron:
Or vertical full apron:
The trickiest part of this wasn't sewing out the stripes—it was matching the sizes of the cloths. I wanted them to be about the same width and height--but all three kitchen cloths were different widths, and all three had different motifs on them. Fortunately, other than the stripes, these decorations were near the edge, so I was able to cut them off when I made them the right width (and hemmed them. I hate hemming).
The orange cloth was the largest, so after I cut off the colorful stripes, I ended up turning it sideways and folding it in half, making it into pockets for my apron. The biggest pieces of the left over cloths I hemmed to make into rags to keep in those pockets.
A couple more apron tips:
- Remember that the top of an apron is narrower than the waist and bottom or it gapes when you tie it behind your neck. I fixed this with some vertical darts from the top to the bust points.
- Sew on the neck strap(s) first and try it on to determine the best place for the waist ties. (It's also a good idea to try it on when pinning the darts in place, too.)
- And be careful when sewing over the hems:
But there was more waywardness for this craft. It came in a . . . well, a stupid way. I keep my sewing stash in two big drawers that are within my kids' reach--two locking drawers. This works great . . . until you lose the key. So also for this craft, I picked a real lock for the first time. Hairpins--not just for hair.
How will you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?
4 comments :
Aye, this wee apron is beautiful. How did that sound for Irish? =)
Just don't let your kids see that they can pick the lock using a hair pin. I actually didn't think that really worked, so kudos to you for figuring it out! LOL
I love your apron. I think you did an amazing job piecing everything together. You really made it work!
My kids don't have the coordination to do it—you have to hold one hairpin in the lock like you're turning the key, and then use another one (unbent) to rake the pins until they pop into place.
Fortunately, as soon as I started working on the apron, DH found the key (in the van??? why????).
Not only am I impressed with your apron and the way you went about making it...but picking a lock, NOW that is impressive ;)
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