Apron № 93: Apples and Pears

Check out this cutie! I feel like this every time I finish an apron. I always want to show it off! Apron № 93 is no exception.

I got these fabrics at JoAnn's. I was in line buying something else and the woman in front of me had three bolts of the adorable apples and pears fabric. I think she was doing a little girl's room with it. The fabric spoke to me. It said, please Miss, you need to make me into an apron. I loved that it called me Miss instead of Ma'am (that always makes me feel so old) so I quickly snatched up a bolt the woman discarded and reponded, I need to make you into four aprons! This is the first of those aprons. It was supposed to be for a birthday in January. Now it is going to be for an unbirthday in April. When I decided to take a break from birthdays this year, I really fell off the wagon, didn't I? Anyway, this apron's sisters are cut out and waiting to be put together. They will definitely make it on time to the people whose birthdays they are for.

I saw this very fabric in a picture somewhere in my blog wanderings as an ironing board cover. I wish I could remember exactly where so I could direct you on over. She had the right idea. The fabric is nice and thick but soft; great for an apron, and I think it would make an excellent ironing board cover. I saw a tutorial for an ironing board cover at Stop Staring and Start Sewing and Amy at Amy's Creative Side double padded hers and made it reversible. I have to admit, I had a vision of me, wearing an apron like this and ironing away on a board covered with this fabric.

Now to cover up my blatant self promotion (did you check out that apron? And yes, I've really made 93. Wanna see my list?), I wanted to share something I learned while reading Machine Fridays over at Charlie's blog, It's Just Me. A while back he posted about the different feet on his machine. I recognized one of the feet he posted about as being similar to a foot I have and when I saw how he'd used it, I had an aha! moment. As I was working on this apron, I noticed my top stitching wasn't very even. I even took a picture to show you.

Notice how it wobbles? Well, that is because I needed to sew 'just a bit inside of the last mark on the right side of the foot' in order to make sure to catch the seam allowance and rick rack in the stitching. I pulled out my little bag of feet (that sounds kind of creepy -- I've been reading fantasy fiction full of demons and trolls and unicorns and fairies and dragons and oracles and the undead and the end of the world, so the first thing I thought of was some sort of unsavory magical talisman when I said that; perhaps I should have said zippered pouch containing my sewing machine feet) and discovered that I had two feet that might help me out. So I pulled out my manual (which incidentally say where not to oil my machine but doesn't say where I should oil it) to find out how the different feet work.

I decided on a foot

and this is the result.

Admittedly, not much better. Maybe with some practice. The best part about this whole thing is that while in the manual, I figured out how to turn on the automatic backstitch and I discovered that my machine has fifteen different needle positions, not just three, like I thought. So now, I can put the edge of my foot where I want and move the needle to just the right spot. The manual is a wealth of knowledge. Who knew?

This apron makes nine finishes for April and I got to link the post on Amy's Sew & Tell Friday as well as Finished for Friday on Lit & Laundry. If you have had a finish this week you can add a link to your post on either or both of these blogs and show it to the world.