A Few Simple Sewing Projects

On Sunday last week, I decided to go up into the sewing room and start on a new sewing project. It wasn't a quilt for a change, but an apron to protect my clothing when cleaning, cooking, gardening, doing messy crafts, etc.

I'd bought this crossover apron from work in the sale the previous week and it seemed simple enough in it's construction.  It's made of a dark grey linen/cotton and I wanted to buy it mainly to use it as a pattern to make others from fabric in my stash. It cost £7, which is probably on a par with buying a pattern online.

On Sunday afternoon, I decided to give it a go and I laid it on some floral fabric from my stash and cut around it. This apron is all one piece, but I made separate straps to pin and stitch to the main body as it used up less fabric. I pinned a hem around it all and then I pinned the crossover straps onto the main body of the apron. After doing this, I could try it on and it looked okay, but it needed a pocket on the front.

I found a lovely ditsy print in my stash that went quite well with it and I made one large pocket with that and pinned that on. It looked so much better with the pocket, as it broke up the mass of fabric at the front.

I didn't have time to sew the hems and straps on that particular day, so on Tuesday when I had my next day off, I escaped up to the sewing room and completed the job.  It didn't take very long, maybe an hour in total and I was very happy with the result, especially as these can cost up to £35 online. Here's a few pictures of it on my mannekin:

It doesn't cross over quite as much on me, as I am larger than the mannekin. It hangs more like in the photo below on me:

I may make more in the same way at some point, as I'm all for using up whatever fabric I can at the moment, to reduce my stash. It might be a good idea to make one for LB to use in the studio at Uni when she's painting or doing other art work.

In addition to making the apron this week, I also made another hexi wreath for the living room door. I used some vintage Laura Ashley fabrics I'd used to make a quilt that we use in the living room. It was a really quick make which I loved and I like the finished result. It looks cute hung on the door.

It felt good to sew something different this week, as I've been focusing a lot on my current patchwork lately. I need to find more quick sewing projects to make create a bit of variety.