Apron – Chica Andaluza

No food today (well, I will be eating some of course!), so click away now if you´re not interested in crochet, knitting or sewing.

Now that you´ve received the Up the Mountain “Reader´s Warning”, on with the update…

Winter means cooler weather and I can get out my scraps of wool, find out who is expecting a baby (there are usually quite a few in the family who are “in the family way”) and get knitting and crocheting.

We have a niece expecting twins and one of my best pals Donna is about to become a great aunt. Sshh, I´m not allowed to call her that!

I´ve made baby blankets…

And a funky coat/jacket for one of the babies (we know she´s going to be a girl) when she reaches a few months of age…

DSCF2840 — Just needs a couple of bright buttons...

Lots of the men in my life got a beanie for Christmas…thanks to Mandy at The Complete Cookbook for the instructions.

I made myself a little bag…

Then lined it with some pretty fabric I had, which will also make it stronger and less liable to stretch too much.

I made a pinny for Donna (she´s a lucky girl) who moves house next week from London to Lewes. I thought she could run around with a feather duster looking like a 1950´s housewife in this. Recognise the fabric?!

And of course, the enormous orange blanket which the dogs, Luna and Alfi, are On No Account Allowed To Lie On!

Now that it´s all over and presents have been unwrapped and are being enjoyed, I can show you some of the things I made for friends and family without spoiling the surprise.

First up was a simple apron…I know Ria my best friend will be reading this, but I know she won´t mind me sharing (and learning) the fact that the fabric came from a pillow case I found in a shop that seemed to have come loose from its partner and was being sold in the bargain bin. I unpicked it, washed and ironed it. It´s amazing how much fabric is used in a simple pillow case. I just loved the fabric and thought “I can do something with that”. So I did!

I roughly copied the shape of an apron I have and added a pocket. You can´t have an apron without a pocket, can you? Then I ran a matching bias binding round the outside and also used it to make the ties.

I had enough fabric to also make a matching oven glove – here´s how I did it.

I cut out two outer shapes (from my existing oven glove) and two the same in white fabric for the inside, plus two pieces of wadding so that it can be used by a left or right handed person (that´s for when I visit her!).

Then I machined round each 3 layer “sandwich” and zig zagged round the edges.

I added bias binding round the wrist edge and a tag to hang it up. I realised after I had finished I should have put the tag so that it stuck into the reversed glove so that it would be outside when it needs to be hung up. Oh well, we learn by our little mistakes.

Then I joined the 2 “sandwiches” together and then turned the glove the right way out. Next time I´ll remember about the tag and perhaps put a double layer of wadding.

Ria´s final gift was something she had mentioned to me that she had thought about buying – fabric bunting. As, like mostly anyone who sews, I have a stash of fabric remnants at home, I decided I´d give this a go. And what fun it was!
I found this incredible tutorial on how to make bunting…if you want to give bunting making a go, I can highly recommend it. There´s lots of other really great stuff on there too!