Ready for the garden!

Last night I went to a Ladies' Crafting Night at a local church, hosted by my next door neighbor. While most of the other ladies there were doing scrapbooking, I hauled my sewing machine, pressing board, iron, fabric, pattern and all the other associated paraphernalia and worked on making something for me.
One of the projects that's been high on my ever-growing list is an apron I can wear in the garden to hold the harvest. I'm starting to have that issue now, with the asparagus harvest: we're picking about two pounds of asparagus every few days, and it's just inconvenient having to lug a bowl or basket out with me to put the spears in.
But a regular apron, with a solid fabric pocket, wouldn't work... The pocket would collect dirt and bugs. So I knew I'd have to make one.
For a starting point, I pulled Butterick 5506 from my stash:

The apron had the right shape, so I used it as a jumping-off point. I wasn't interested in having all those pockets, though... I just wanted one larger one.

So here's the result, finished in just over three hours:


(Yep, that's our garden... lots of work, but so rewarding! It measures about 75 feet wide by 150 feet long, and has a high fence all around to keep the deer out.)
The pocket is made of a sport mesh left over from making the inside pouches for Diana's first aid kit.


The edges were bound with bias tape (it's hard to see, but I made the tape out of a quilting cotton with a pea pod motif), and the pocket was sewn onto the apron with two lines of stitching to keep it secure. My hope is that the mesh will let the dirt fall out, so I don't have to wash the apron much.

My favorite part, though, is the design I added to the bib:

Believe it or not, this was done with my Silhouette Cameo! I used three different colors of heat transfer material. And it was so easy! I created the design, cut it out, and ironed it on. The hardest part was choosing the fonts. I can see doing a lot of this in the future; this was the first time I'd tried it.
The pattern also included a cute floppy-brimmed hat, which I'm going to make soon to go along with the apron. Yet another project for the list!
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to put my apron on and head out to the garden. The beans have sprouted and I need to put in the trellis so they have something to climb onto.
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Comments

  1. Why take an iron along to your session and leave the fabric of the lovely apron so creased?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL! Fair enough. I was just too impatient to put it on and give it a "test run" in the garden! I'll try and remember to iron things before taking pictures of them.

      Delete
  2. Great saying, but you didn't embroidery it? Guess that would make too much to carry. Love the apron.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lynn, I don't have a hoop big enough to do a design this big. But if I had embroidered it, I would have done that part at home (like I did for the bag I made at the retreat in January).

      Delete
  3. Lovely job and clever saying. If you ad ties to the hat, you can use it to carry excess that the pocket won't hold when the garden really stats coming in. Great job and very pratical.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love it Welmoed, I need one!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a hilariously naughty message apron you have! Love it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What do you think about using a silhouette for applique quilting? Do you think the adhesive is strong enough to hold up for a quilt that is going to be washed numerous times?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wouldn't trust adhesive alone to hold the fabric in place for multiple washings. Instead, you can use spray starch to stiffen the fabric enough to cut it to the desired shapes, and sew as usual. The starch will come out during the first washing.

      Delete

Post a Comment

I would love to hear your thoughts... Please share!