A Love Affair with Aprons

Are aprons a sign of domesticity or just a current hip way to show our retro chic style?  Despite the fact that almost never wear an apron while cooking and I absolutely never wear a full apron, I've been on an apron sewing kick.  And what seems even more odd to me is how drawn I am to them despite the fact that I'm not a floral and frills kind of girl.  I don't think I own a floral clothing item and I have just one shirt with ruffly frills that I've worn exactly zero times. But aprons scream for frills and flowers, oui?

It started with the best intentions--cleaning and purging all of my craft boxes.  But gazing upon all those fantabulous fabrics and having all this time on my hands, well it helped me feel a little productive to get my craft on.

I hadn't sewn anything resembling clothing in years so first up was the easiest pattern I'd fallen for.  I'd found a pattern for a ruffled apron  over at One More Moore that made me antsy to start cutting my fabric.  And while she used plain fabric for her backing, I came across these great white on white fabrics my friend Deanna had sent me in a huge gift box full of fabric and goodies.  I've had quite a bit of fun with her sweet gift, but saved the white on whites for something girly.  What's more girly than ruffles and an apron?

The pattern was so easy and it was ultra rewarding to have a completed project so soon after beginning.  How very different that is from knitting. And my friend gave a little lesson on how to make these little flowers out of poly satin circles and a candle to melt and curl the edges.  Poly satin btw, melts crazy fast when just in proximity to a flame.  They weren't kidding when they recommended only wearing natural fibers when you fly.

I made my skirt a bit longer and cut the ruffles to three longer ones, but otherwise followed the pattern.  I heart damask and gingham.

I had so much fun with that one that I upped the ante a bit and decided on a full apron for my second. The pattern for the Spice It Up Apron was just as much fun. I left off the bottom ruffle because between the bodice and the pleats in the skirt, my head was spinning a bit.  But I do so love this bodice.

If anyone recognizes the skirt fabric, it is indeed a Target sheet that I bought on clearance because I loved the pattern.  Sheets can be a complete fabric score with all of their yardage if you can find great ones.  

And discussions of sheets is the perfect segue to my final apron thus far, which I like to call "The World's Most Impractical Apron...Ever."   It's made with white wrinkle prone cotton.  Enough said right? 

Not sure what inspired me to make a white apron but all the frills I'd been sewing made me want to create something pristine and white and girly. And I do adore white.

No new pattern for this--I just combined the above two aprons.  I made the  ruffled skirt from the first apron and attached the bodice from the second.  I also used a sheet for this apron as well which ended up working out really well....I used all of the sewn edges on the sheet so that I wouldn't need to hem each ruffle.  Sheets have a lot of hemmed sides as it turns out.

From Shabby Sheet to Shabby Chic (Ha!) Impractical I know, and I'll never wear it because it's a full apron, but I sure do enjoy gazing upon it. It's just so girly and white and white and white.  Did I mention I adore white?