Aprons for the Bookstore Women

A friend at my congregation asked if I would make aprons for the women that sell books at our bookstore. I used their bookmark as the inspiration for the colors. I also thought that by making 4 different colors then the women would have some variety to choose from, depending on what they were wearing on a given day.
Each apron has 2 D rings at the neck strap, so that it can be adjusted for fit.
I stenciled the words on the apron bib, thanks to coaching from my friend Betsy. One of the aprons has a patch with the word stencil. I stenciled the blue one with Betsty's help and it turned out fine. When I did the second one on my own I used way too much paint, making the letters very blurry. So I redid it on a piece of fabric and covered the first version.

I delivered the aprons yesterday, they were thrilled with the results. It will be fun to be able to visit the aprons while I shop for books.

Apron

I had just enough fabric left from my kitchen curtains to use as the accent fabric on a Butterick 4945 apron. I made view C. The bottom panel is fully faced, so it hangs nicely and gives the apron good body. I put a review of the pattern on pattern review, see the box at the right to go there.
The retro style of this apron just makes me feel all Suzie Homemaker like when I put it on. I will see if it inspires any creativity in the kitchen.

Apron for Matt and Jennifer

I did end up making an apron to match the heart shaped pot holders for Matt and Jennifer's shower. Matt was at the shower helping to open gifts, so agreed to model the apron. I was able to use some gigantic rick rack for trim, this is something I had from my late mother's sewing supplies. I can only wonder what she may have had in mind for this large rick rack. She was a clown, so maybe it was to be used for a clown accessory. It is nice to pass a little bit of the Grandma Audrey connection on with this apron gift to Matt and Jennifer.

Matching aprons for high tea

My friends Margaret and Cathy hosted a high tea and thought it would be nice to have matching aprons. They bought a very sweet blue flower print and asked me to help out. I used out of print Simplicity pattern 8698. I added some eyelet lace around the pocket, blue rick rack along the bottom and topped the aprons off with white vintage buttons at the top.

While I was at it I thought a matching tea cozy would really add nicely to the mix. I copied a tea cozy that I have that is from England, a Liberty of London pansy print.









Well anyway, here they are in their aprons. I think they look just lovely. There is also a photo of the splendid table that they prepared. It was a delicious and very enjoyable tea. We feasted on Margaret's famous scones, cucumber sandwiches, salmon sandwiches, cream puffs, strawberries, and poppy seed bread. All very yummy. Thank you Margaret and Cathy, high tea hostesses extroidinairre.