Sew many projects, sew little time

Over a year ago I received a stand mixer for Christmas, and though I barely touched it for the first two months,  the pledge we made last March to go a full year without buying any pre-made bread products radically changed our lives, and for the better. We followed through on that pledge and plan on extending the experiment into, well, forever.

Last year, then, was the year of bread. Calvin and I tried making all kinds of new varieties, learning from both mistakes and successes along the way. Now this year promises to be the year of textiles. For Christmas this year I got—you'll never guess—a sewing machine. I doubt there will by any spring pledge this time around (I don't see us making all of our clothes for the next year, but maybe), but I see a lot of sewing projects in our future. I've actually wanted to learn how to sew a lot longer than I had wanted to learn to bake bread (which really was about all of never, until the stand mixer arrived in my kitchen and we made our first loaf), but there is a certain order in which to learn things, and Calvin was better with a mixing cup last year than he would have been with scissors.

This year is a different story, and while I still won't be letting him handle the pins, we've already embarked on a couple of sewing projects together, the results of which have been a fun Valentines wreath for our front door, and a fun and practical apron for Calvin. As with the baking, this has been a learning project for both of us—I haven't touched a sewing machine since middle school when I made a t-shirt and shorts with Bart Simpson on them, and Calvin obviously has no experience with the craft. We are a good pair, though; Calvin loves to help measure and sometimes to cut, and he loves just as much to point out when I've made a mistake, like when my stitches are crooked or I've sewn holes shut that were meant to stay open.

Here is our first project, a product I'm actually quite pleased with (just don't check to make sure my stitching is perfectly straight—I'm sure it is not). Calvin has wanted a kitchen apron for quite some time, so once we got the machine set up I did a search for free patterns and found this one on Sew Liberated. Her step by step instructions were easy to follow so that even though this is a really well made apron (it is even lined), it was also a really easy one to make.

I love that the apron requires no tying—the kiddo can slip it on over his head thanks to the elastic, and it Velcros around the waist (the Velcro hadn't been added yet as of these pictures because I had to buy some at the store—it's the only thing I had to buy, everything else I already had on hand!)

The pockets were actually my own personal touch. I knew I wanted him to have the functionality of pockets, so when I cut the two halves of the apron out I added four inches in length to one of them. When I pinned the sides together, I folded up the extra up inside to form the pockets, then stitched just as instructed. When I turned the apron right side out I had one big pocket! After doing all my top stitching I then added stitching to make that one big pocket into three smaller ones. It was especially easy because I used an old bed sheet for the fabric and I cut along a finished side, so I didn't have to worry about hemming the pocket edge.

That speck you see? Yah, that's blood. I put a lot into this apron.

Calvin took a lot of interest in this project—he helped choose the design and the fabric, he helped lay out the pattern, he measured, and he even did some cutting. I did the pinning, sewing, and blood letting while he was napping because those other things took three times longer than I'd imagined.

It's a tad big, but that just gives him room to grow.