Cooking just got more fun...

… with a cute apron.

Last time I presented four new projects that I’d started. I haven’t made very much progress with three of them, but the apron is now finished and ready for action. It’ll be a relief to put the old apron in the rag collection. As I already mentioned last time, I made the apron following Meg McElwee’s pattern for the Emmeline apron, and it’s reversible. One side is for everyday cooking, and the other side is for Christmas. I used my granddad’s old table cloth for the Christmas side. That will be a nice reminder of Christmas Past. On the other side I used two different fabrics – one patterned and one plain. I cut out motifs from the patterned fabric that was used for the bodice and fused them to the skirt, securing them with stitch.

Apart from sewing an apron, I’ve been busy drawing and painting fish for the Sketchbook Challenge. Head over to my Flickr Photostream if you want to have a look at 10 of my new-found finned friends. The yellow boxfish and pufferfish are my favourites. They’re so goofy and loveable. 

(I just had to throw in a pufferfish)

Something Finished, Something New

I love to learn new things and to try different techniques, and my head is spilling over with ideas and future projects, which means that I’m pretty easily distracted, although I prefer to think that I have an inquiring mind. I always have a number of different projects going on all at once, and an even greater number of UFOs that may or may not become finished products. Every now and then, though, I do finish a project, which gives me great satisfaction. Last weekend I finished two projects. Firstly, a hand embroidered piece that was shipped off to an amazing person overseas (I will publish an image later), and secondly, the knitted and crocheted wrist warmers that I started working on in January. Now I’m off to work on an art doll and the Franka wall quilt. – Or so I thought.

This week I’ve continued decluttering my home – a Herculean task – and found a bag of gorgeous yarn that I’ve been saving. So, there I went again, off in another direction, and I started knitting a slipover for myself. Well, my excuse is that it’s all part of the decluttering process. I need to find a good place to store the yarn, and what storage is better than actually finishing and wearing it?

Another thing I unearthed in my decluttering frenzy was an apron pattern by Meg McElwee of Sew Liberated, which I bought a couple of years ago. This project has been on and off my mind since then, while my old apron has slowly deteriorated. I also found the fabrics that I’d put aside for the apron and figured that the best storage for them would be the place where I store my apron. So I started cutting out the pattern pieces.

In conclusion, the situation now is that I finished two projects and started four new. It’s pretty normal for me, I guess. It will take some time to finish them, but I have faith in these projects. I don’t think they’ll end up in the UFO-bin. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

 Finished wrist warmers. Knitted base, crocheted flounces. 

Based on a pattern in Solveig Hisdal’s Dikt i maskor.

 

 Doll in progress. The fabric has been dyed and the pattern pieces are ready for sewing.

 Slipover in progress. Yarn: Freedom Spirit by Twilleys of Stamford

 Apron in progress. Fabric: my granddad’s old table cloth. 

The apron is reversible, so the other side will be something less Christmasy.

 Franka in progress. I started defining the pattern elements on the printout. 

This project will be a challenge, but I like that.