Making Aprons

We were recently considering how we could encourage our pastor's wife and his daughters (currently they have six) to continue to be ladies given to hospitality. We hoped to bless them for being so giving to our church family and for being a great family of hospitality. They had invited our family over for dinner this past Friday and also had recently hosted Colin and Nancy Campbell in their home during our church's conference with them. We decided that aprons would be an appropriate choice for their gift.

We were inspired by the ladies at Marie Madeline Studio(http://www.mariemadelinestudio.com/ ) who make aprons and other feminine treats. We made five aprons that range in size. We presented their aprons to them on Friday night after dinner.

We designed the pattern and used the little ladies in our family to help design the right sizes. Each apron cost less than $3. We used on sale "fat quarters" to make the top and bottom, ribbon for the ties and remants for the neck, ruffles and trim. The aprons do not cover as much as a grown lady might want, especially if she likes to wipe her hands on the sides of her apron skirts, because these skirts are not very wide. The was one way that we cut corners on cost and were able to utilize the remnant pieces that were on sale.

We made certain there would be no raw edges, so we used french seams, lining, bias tape and ribbon to cover all the edges. This took extra time, but it will increase the longevity of the life of the aprons.

Kendal, Kelsey and I were able to do the majority of the work in about seven hours. We made a great team! I should mention that it was Martin Luther King Jr. day and Bob had the rest of the family at Grandma Butler's while we worked! That helped tremendously!

Here are the Shedd girls with their aprons on. Baby Juliana is not included. :)
The Butler girls and all the Shedd girls together.

In this photo, Joy is modeling the apron I made for our six year old friend's birthday. I bought material for this special apron. So there was plenty of fabric to line the top and bottom. The skirt is gathered. All the seams are inside. It helps to make it feel and look professionally made. It has been a great learning experience for us to design and sew so many aprons. Kendal has made two other lovely aprons, for a friend, and they are even different from these.

This is Ashleigh in her new apron. She really loved it!