pet friendly apron

Yep, another one of these aprons. You know why? Because they are so fun to make! And, because it was my sister's, Mel's, birthday last week and she loves to bake.

I bought this fabric while shopping with my friend, Anna, at The Quilting Loft during our Freedom Day. What is Freedom Day? Oh, it is just 8+ hours of unscheduled, kid-free, girl time. In other words, it is totally awesome.

Anyways, I knew that Mel would love this fabric because she is a big fan of furry animals (not snakes - ha, ha Mel!). This is Max & Whiskers by Basic Gray for Moda, 100 % cotton and made in Japan. I paired this apron with a great muffin baking book to make the perfect gift for my sweet sis.

Speaking of Japan and aprons... I am looking for cvesely, the lucky reader who won the apron giveaway! I have your apron all ready for you, but I don't know who you are or where you live! Please email me at talesfromtheseamripper@gmail.com so that I can send your lovely apron to you!

:) Shelly

apron winner!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the apron giveaway. I may not have made a *big* difference as far as raising money for the people of Japan, but I hope my contest at least sent a little reminder to others to try to give if they can. (I pretty much love the six of you who played!)

Anyways, the winner of this very Spring-y apron is...

Commenter #3 - cvesely who said Great idea! Just donated to Lutheran World Relief.

(I used the Random Number Generator to choose the winner. The lucky number was 3!)

So, cvesely... Email me (talesfromtheseamripper@gmail.com) with you name and address and I'll mail this apron out to you! Thank you!

:) Shelly

an apron for Japan (giveaway now closed)

It's been a very long time since I gave anything away on this blog, but I've been thinking about doing something to help with the disaster relief efforts for Japan. It is just so unbelievable, the amount of fear, loss, and worry the people of Japan have been through (and are still going through!) since the earthquake, tsunami, and resulting nuclear plant problems. So, this is what I came up with...

I made this apron (using this favorite tutorial), and I'm giving it away. It is one-size-fits-all; you can tie it around to your front (as shown) or just make a bow in the back. Here are the rules for the giveaway:

1. Make a donation to any Japan disaster relief organization of your choice (you can go to this link and find many!).

2. Leave a comment to this post letting us all know where you chose to donate to. You can also add thoughts, prayers, or well-wishes for the people of Japan.

3. On Friday, March 25 I will use the random number generator to choose a winner and announce it on the blog.

I'm hoping that maybe some of you haven't yet donated, and this may be the little reminder you need to sit down and actually do it (I just did it this morning, even though I've been thinking about it all week long!). If you've already donated money to a relief organization for Japan, you can certainly still enter the giveaway, just let us know where you donated to.

Thanks to everyone for their generosity!

:) Shelly

sock monkey aprons and more

I've taken a little break from sewing. We have had a lot going on with our new house project, so my evening sewing sessions have been replaced with early bedtimes this past week. I do still have one project in the works, a bag from the book One Yard Wonders. I am working on this bag as part of my Thursday Night Sewing Club with my pal, Anna.

Speaking of Anna, since I have nothing to showcase this week, I will brag about the darling apron she made for Marcus for his birthday. Charlie is wearing his apron, which Anna made for him a year or so ago. Next to him is not Marcus, but Charlie's friend, Lachlan, who happily donned Marc's apron to make some cookies while Marcus was sleeping.

Why is Charlie looking so forlorn, you may wonder? Well, he was convinced that he didn't like honey... which is what we were using to make these very yummy gluten-free almond flour cookies. His mood lightened when I broke out the chocolate chips, and by cookie-sampling time he was a believer in the tastiness of the bees' sweet nectar.

This was my first big success using almond flour. I won't even describe to you how horrible my first three attempts turned out. Yikes. You can find this gluten-free, almond flour chocolate chip cookie recipe at comfybelly.com, here.

I love sock monkeys, which is why I extra-adore Anna's aprons. Posting the sock monkey aprons reminded me of my only attempt at creating a sock creature...

I made "Wonky" (who was truly wonky!) using the book/kit, Stupid Sock Creatures.

It was a decent first attempt, but when I look at Wee Wonderful's or Sew Much Ado's doll/toycreations, I totally want to try again.

I am still going to make Marcus a cape... someday. I just got a little bit lazy and a little bit overwhelmed by the crazy number of gifts that kid accumulated between Christmas and his January birthday. Whoa. So, I figure he could use a gift-getting break, anyways.

:) Shelly

merry christmas apron

Besides some pillowcases I am (still!) making for my nieces and nephews, the only handmade Christmas gift I accomplished this year was for my friend, Sam, who watches Marcus once per week while I work at Charlie's cooperative preschool. Something you should know about Sam is that she is super stylish with an amazingly decorated house. Somehow Sam manages to fill her home with playful, creative things that are also functional and elegant at the same time. How does she do that?! I wanted to make her an apron that did that, too - so I went a little retro with this one.

I originally had another fabric in mind for the main panel of this apron, but I'm so glad I went with the turquoise. Very striking!

The turquoise fat quarter is from JoAnn fabrics, and I actually bought it with the intention of using it to line my gathered clutch, but decided to go floral instead. The white and black dot print is from Pacific Fabrics (forgot the designer, oops), and it is almost blinding when laid out as an entire yard, but just perfect (in my opinion) when used as trim.

Thanks for being so wonderful, Sam! And have a very happy Christmas, Everyone!

:) Shelly

an apron for the hostess with the mostest

I am still smiling from the most fabulous weekend I just enjoyed with my friends in Walla Walla, WA. Eight fun girls travelled to Walla Walla to celebrate our friend, JoAnn's, birthday. I was so delighted that JoAnn came up with this idea - so, what better gift to give the birthday hostess than a lovely hostess apron?!

Are you just so tired of seeing me sew these aprons?! Well, tough beans! They are so fun and easy to make, and I just love matching up the fabrics to create them! I also love wearing my apron. So, I will be making more... and more. You should, too.

This Alexander Henry fabric is one that I've seen all over the place lately. Isn't it gorgeous? The blue band fabric is pretty, too - I snagged that from the quilting fabric section at JoAnn Fabrics. I think our birthday girl really liked her apron.

Here we all are in hot, sunny Walla Walla, in front of some grape vines at Cougar Crest Winery (Yum is all I have to say about that place, though I wish I could remember some of the funny cougar jokes that were shared among our group at this last winery of a long wine tasting day!). For more than two days, mommy duty was replaced with hot tubbing, pool dipping, and wine tasting, and now I am feeling well rested and loving my little guys even more than I did before I left. Thank you, Jo, for the great trip... my vote is to make it an annual event!

gluten-free apron

Dear Cold, Gloomy Weather,

I'm not sure if you knew about this or not, but it is, in fact, July. Please usher the rain, clouds, and chilly air away and send the warm, bright sun in to take its rightful place in a blue sky.

Thank you!

I needed to brighten up my day yesterday with a quick, fun project. I bought this material from JoAnn Fabrics quite a while ago with the intention of making myself one of those lovely aprons from this fantastic tutorial.

The bright oranges and airy blue did the trick! I was so happy to make this apron for myself because I've promised myself to start baking again. You see, I used to bake all the time. I loved it. Then I started this gluten-free diet about four months ago. In order to bake gluten-free goodies, you need to use xanthum gum and all different kinds of flour, so I was totally scared off. I did "bake" some yummies using Duncan Hines gluten-free mixes, which are surprisingly delicious (especially the brownies), but I had yet to do any "real" baking... until yesterday.

Inspired by my new gluten-free apron and a somewhat drizzly, yucky afternoon, Charlie and I made some gluten-free banana bread. The recipe is from my gluten-free friend, Lexy, and it is excellent! I've copied her recipe at the bottom of this post, just in case you're gluten-free and interested. It was so much fun to bake with Charlie - something we used to do a lot together!

We put entirely too many chocolate chips in our bread, which made the bread more like a dessert than a sweet breakfast treat. I was very fearful of what Lexy calls the "GF undertone," which is why we added so many. Charlie made sure to polish off what was left of the bag (yes, we used that many chips). Hey, do you like Charlie's apron? I do, too! Anna made it for him!

Marcus got in on the chocolate chip scavenging action, too.

The bread was very, very yummy. I'm no food photographer, but doesn't it just look delicious?!

The boys sure thought it was. Even Chris tried the bread, and he's never one to be super excited about gluten-free food products. He didn't eat much, but he gave it a good review. Thanks, Lexy!

Here's her recipe. I included her commentary because it is both helpful and very funny, just like Lexy.

GF banana bread w/ choc chips recipe

(made this last night - very yummy, worth reproducing, so I thought I'd forward it!)

Mash up 3 medium sized mushy bananas (I freeze them until I'm ready to thaw & use - makes them sweeter) + 2 eggs + 1-2 tbsps vanilla + 2/3 cup brown sugar.

Add dry ingredients (I never bother to mix dry ingredients together first and it seems to work fine): 2 cups of Bob's Red Mill GF Flour (I used about half & half all-purpose flour + bread/baking flour, just because that's what I had, it's probably all the same anyways) + a dash of salt + a healthy dose of cinnamon (I like 2 tbsps at least) + 1 tsp xanthan gum + 2 tsps baking POWDER (not soda).

Mix all together. Add choc chips to make it tasty. Otherwise you can taste the GF flour.

I baked in a greased loaf pan at 350 for 45 mins then at 325 for another 10, and it was PERFECT. A little bit of honey on top of a slice of this, and it is heavenly even a day later.

This is the result of much experimentation... adding oil or extra liquid like apple sauce makes the loaf mushy inside, not enough flour does the same thing, white sugar is not as yummy, need lots of vanilla/cinnamon/spices to cover the GF undertone, and choc chips really make it worthwhile.

Thank You Aprons

I know what you may be thinking - More aprons? How many aprons can one possibly make?! Well, you should try making one - you will be hooked! And they make such lovely gifts. I made two of them this week for two very nice girls who deserve pretty aprons.

I gave this one to my friend (and Marcus's nanny) Nicole as a thank you for watching Marcus while I worked at Charlie's cooperative preschool one morning per week this year.

I wasn't sure about putting these two fabrics together at first, but after I finished I thought this might be my new favorite apron. Black-white-blue is such a fabulous color combo!

Then I made this apron, which, upon completion, claimed the title of Favorite Apron of All Time:
This apron is for Anna (yes, you Anna - surprise!). I made this apron as a thank you for Anna because she helps me with all sorts of things. She helped me tremendously with our auction! Plus, she has me over for wine and Survivor every Thursday night, and she makes me yummy gluten-free desserts even though she can eat real desserts. See, I told you she was a nice girl.

The best surprise of all is that I bought the floral fabric when Anna and I took a field trip to Fabric Crush a couple of months ago. I could tell she really liked this fabric when we were there. I bought it under the farce that I'd be making another bag with it, but I've been saving it up so that I could make something for her with it instead. I'm so tricky.

This apron is actually the first thing I've ever made for Anna, but she has made me a few things. My favorites are:

Wool flower hat - I still can't believe she made this and sized it perfectly without even measuring my huge head. This hat is super cute, comfy, and a beautiful color blue (my favorite color!). It was such a sweet Christmas gift. (Charlie took this picture - he's getting good, right?!).

Anna (the original trickster) also made me this darling fabric box for me. She found this fabric at Pacific Fabrics Outlet when we were shopping there a year or two ago. We both loved it, but it was a remnant and she got it all. Then she made me this box out of it! (Note: this box is never empty as shown above. It was ridiculously full of all kinds of junk before I emptied it and photographed it. I can't imagine what I did with all of that *stuff* before I had this thing!).

Just look at how cute this fabric is! Boy, how I wish my children would sit like that for breakfast.

I love gifts, especially the ones that are handmade. Don't you?

Love for Mom

I hope all of you moms out there had a fabulous Mother's Day. My mom received her gift from me on Friday, and she loved it. Here's a peak...

Yep, another apron, made using this excellent tutorial. I just love these aprons! Plus, my mom and dad just updated their kitchen (beautiful - I'm so envious!), so I thought that my mom could use a cute apron to go with her lovely new space. I made this apron with a pocket, which I am quite pleased with. The pocket idea came about because I found a little imperfection in this gorgeous fabric (of course I found it after I had sewn the whole apron together), and I figured a pocket would cover up the imperfection and add some extra cuteness at the same time.

I also made her some hot pads using this great tutorial from Sew Darn Cute. I had a heck of a time with the bias tape. I think my struggle was mostly due to not using enough pins. I fixed the bias tape by using a fancy stitch to tighten it all up. Adding this bias tape to trim the pocket on the apron helped to tie everything together.

Here's a photo of my wonderful mom. This was taken last Christmas with Charlie - I searched for a picture of the two of us together, but it seems that one of us is always the one taking the picture, so there are no photos of me and my mom! That will certainly have to be fixed when I'm back in Chicago in June!!

This is a photo of Chris and his mom. Today was our second Mother's Day without her, and we miss her so much. She was a great mom.

I had a lovely Mother's Day. I even got a little bit of sewing time in, but I wasn't very happy with my results. I'll get back on the horse tomorrow, though - and hopefully I'll have something to show for it!

Hostess Aprons for Auction

Despite a kind of freaky week, I have been sewing like mad. I've finished my first batch of items for the charity fundraiser Chris and I are hosting at the end of this month. This is the first fundraiser we've designed and hosted for The Bo M. Karlsson Foundation, an organization we've volunteered for over the last four years. The foundation provides scholarship funds to women in Nepal who are pursuing higher education. It is a fabulous organization, and our fundraiser will be a super fun silent auction and wine tasting - who couldn't like that?! Especially when there are hostess aprons to bid on, like these which I made from this tutorial. Jona from Fabritopia! graciously gave me permission to make these aprons (using her fabulous tutorial) for our silent auction.

Hostess apron #1 - "Little Birds & Ladybugs"

Here's a close-up - this fabric is absolutely darling, isn't it?

Hostess Apron #2 - "Springtime Sweetheart"

Charlie looked at this one and said, "Mama, that one is for a girl." I replied, "Totally."

Hostess Apron #3 - "Retro Blossom"

I went back and forth over whether the dots should be the trim/tie or the main panel of the apron. I'm happy that I did it this way - I love it!

Hostess Apron #4 - "Cherry Dot"

I'm starting to think everything is better with polka dots (that is, everything except velour pajama pants... please excuse my attire in that photo - it was very late at night when I finished this apron).

Hostess Apron #5 - (Argh, what should I name this one? Help me!)

I was a little unsure about this combo, but this apron turned out to be one of my favorites.

Hostess Apron #6 - "Floral Forest Frolic" (Try saying that seven times.)

This apron is my favorite. I admit that I totally wanted to keep it in my own kitchen and pretend like I had never made it for the auction. But, in the end I managed to restrain myself from being a selfish, greedy apron goblin.

I also have some wine glass charms done (much thanks to Anna - you rock the house!). I'll show you those next time. In the silent auction project hopper are: reusable wine bags, a couple of scrappy clutches, and maybe a set of coasters (?). Um, did I mention that I only have ten days to finish these projects? Whoa. Wish me luck.