Sewing Sleepover

Hello everyone! This past Friday night my sister and I headed off to my mom's house for a sewing sleepover! It was a lot of fun. We made a bunch of aprons together, so here's a look back at our night. :)

My mom bought my sister and I some fabric for Christmas with the plan that we would get together eventually to make some aprons. She actually brought me more fabric for Easter to use too! Well, after putting that plan on hold for busy schedules and really bad colds, we finally got together this weekend.

My sister brought an apron that she had received for Christmas for us to use as a pattern. It featured adjustable straps which we all agreed were just the thing we needed. No more tying a knot for extra long neck strings! My mom traced and cut out the apron pattern while I ironed all of the fabrics. She has a really nice iron so I didn't mind one bit.

My mother and sister decided to make their aprons with a ruffle at the bottom. I'm not so big into really frilly things, so I decided to do mine without the ruffle. We also all made different pockets on our aprons. My sister wanted one really large pocket on hers. I just wanted one for my left hand, and my mom made one that is a little shallower but is a divided pocket on the front.








Half way through our night of sewing we were distracted by popcorn. My mom's husband makes the best popcorn. Lightly salted with real butter and air popped to perfection. Usually I can only eat 2 handfuls because I just don't like the taste of popcorn very much. That night I ate half the bowl! (oops!) It was delicious.

We got to about 10:30pm on Friday and my mother and sister were both pooped. I'm a little more used to staying up late, so I sewed until about midnight. That meant that by the time I needed to leave on Saturday I actually completed 2 aprons! That also meant that my first apron was the guinea pig for how everything was going to work and be sewed together.



We basically made a single-fold binding for the straps (3 strips the length of fabric and 2.5 inches wide sewed together straight across to give us the right length) and another single-fold binding for the track for the straps - those were cut to 15 inches long and 4.5 inches wide. I sewed both sides the guide on to the apron at the same time. Those went along the armpit of the apron, and then we fed the straps/ties through each one with the center of the tie ending up at the neck position.



Here's our end result - and fully reversible:

These were a lot of fun to make, and super easy once we knew what we were doing! My second apron went together in just a couple hours - most of that time being for ironing. I don't have that one pictured, but it's out of more chocolate fabric. :) These were the first clothing items (can I call them clothing items???) that I've really ever made. I'm not going to count the awful pair of pajamas that I made in grade school... Yikes! So, I guess I've been nervous about clothes ever since that time and I'm very happy that these turned out so well! I think it's because my sewing skills have greatly improved between being 12 and 26. Makes sense to me! :)

So, what did you guys do this weekend? Get any sewing done? Is it nice outside where you live? We've had rain last week Sunday through Tuesday, sun on Wednesday, rain and/or snow Thursday and Friday, sun again on Saturday and now rain predicted today through Wednesday this week. Flood warnings abound in my area and my mom's sump pump was working over time while we sewed this weekend. Anyway, happy crafting!