A birthday gift

Sally,  my very dear friend had her birthday last week.  I mentioned in my last post that I was making an apron for her. I was searching for free patterns all over google, but didn't find the type I wanted. So I went to my own apron which I got from my friends 3 years ago,  and thought I could make a pattern from that.  So I did!  It took me several trials and errors,  a few days of cursing trying to figure out what went wrong,  but at the end I did it.  She came over for tea,  and I gave it to her,  she loved it! She is the BEST person to make handmade gifts for,  she appreciates every single one of them. 

I didn't take a picture of the finished item,  but I did one of her wearing it :)

When she saw me making the sewing machine cover, she pointed out how much she loved the fabric, and the argyle patter is her favorite. So I knew it right there I wanted to make something for her birthday, and since She's cooking a lot, I thought an apron would be a good idea :)
Btw... The fabric is from Allison Rosen's (@WithinAQInch) de-stashing, and I'm in love with it. Thankfully she had 3 or 4 yards, so I still have plenty of it left :)))
Next project is super secret-y, I'm done with one, still working on the other. Will post about it when the time has come. I think I'll start my Christmas things after that, I'm gathering ideas for new Christmas cards (I always start too late, so I want to get ahead this year). I'll still have to order some laminated fabrics for the gifts I was planning to make. Wish me luck :)

'Til we blog again! :)

Some new things going on

Yes, it's me, the stranger again... I know :) But I'm not sorry. 

I'm glad to be back to sewing again, I'm planning Christmas presents in my head already. It'll be here before we know it. It always is.

In the meantime I had to get back to sewing as it's the beginning of the school year, and my friend asked me to *gasp* hem 6 pairs of pants for her son for his school uniform. Nothing fancy. It gave me an opportunity to get friendly with my sewing machine again, and also start watching the Outlander series while I was cutting/pinning/sewing.

After I was done I dug up a Youtube video I just watched a few weeks before about making a sewing machine cover. It's by Debbie Shore, link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiHSXZcItXc

I can highly recommend her videos, She is an excellent instructor and makes things seem so easy.

I changed a few things, like I didn't have foam on hand that she was using, so I used the Pellon 809 Decor Bond iron on interfacing. That was the heaviest I had on hand.

Also I made the mistake of hemming the side of the pockets instead of just leaving the raw edges and let them be sewn into the seam allowance. It was a bit more difficult to handle the sewing of the sides, but no major issues. It came out OK, I'm sure it'll be better next time in case I need another one!

The view from the top :)

Handy pockets for scissors, rotary cutters, etc.

A bonus picture of the kitty in the background :) He's on bird watch duty!

I'm working on an apron for my friend's birthday this week, I have an apron that I really like and will use that as a pattern. I've sewn the ties so far :) I will have to cut the pattern out of the fabric and get going. 

That's all for now, I'll be back to post pictures later this week!

'Til we blog again! :)