Under Pressure

After finishing the chef's hat last week I was totally on the ball with a matching apron, I cut all my templates and pieced the skirt and then I got to a bit I decided I couldn't do- so I went to bed.

All I had to do was long stitch across the top of the skirt to gather it up, I have done it before, but for some reason I decided I could not do it on a curve, so it sat on my dining room table... for FIVE DAYS, slowly getting pushed further aside by the other projects I had to get done this week; see my post here about knitting needle cases and a fancy dress costume.

Close up of the apron front;

Close up of the apron back;

Until this morning, I had 3 hours left before I went to meet the birthday girl... and the apron was still in pieces on my dining table. I had to face my fear and get on with gathering the waistband... guess what; it was dead easy! After umm-ing and arrr-ing over it a little more I decided to do it by hand and it took about 1 minute.

It didn't take long to piece together the ties and waistband and getting it all attached (after ditching the pattern because I had no time to decipher what it was trying to tell me) if it wasn't for the time pressure and the attention seeking puppy there might have been photos of this stage; but alas there are none!

Here is the completed article being given its first run through, at the restaurant- it's ok; it was a quiet day!

Note the helper;
Stephen: you need a prop, here take this spoon
Sarah: I'm not sure
Stephen: Okay... *checks out table* how about a bowl?
Sarah looks puzzled, maybe just a nice smile instead!

Thanks for sticking with me until the end of all that!

J x
ps. linking up with stitching weekend at thatgirlthatquilt

Beginning a birthday present

I sat down last night to start making a birthday present for a friend who loves to bake and I couldn't think of anything better for her than an apron and hat! I found a pattern for the hat here while googling madly (you can see it listed under her tutorials) as I couldn't be bothered with the maths although I altered some of the sizes and I am going to leave off the velcro fastening and even with my slow beginner style it only took about an hour and a half, although I did have some help...

but he decided it was too much like hard work and soon fell asleep, leaving me to carry on alone.

There was a lot of finger pricking when I was trying to fix the pleats; until I realised that I should be pinning down the brim, and magically there were no more sharp edges for me to hurt myself on- duh!

All in all I am pleased with it and can't wait to show my friend; I hope he loves it as much as I do (and my model; Jen de Bear thinks it fits perfectly too and thinks she is getting to keep it)

Next up is a cute flirty apron to complete the set, I have found a great one that I will be testing and showing you in the next few days!

Thank you for stopping by,

J x

edit: linking up to the sundae scoop party at I <3 naptime
and fabric tuesday at quiltstory