Tag Archives: Sewing

Folkabilly Apron

7 Mar

A few weeks ago my mother gave me some old vintage apron patterns that used to belong to my grandmother.  I finally chose a model I wanted to sew and this is the result.

I was going for a little folkabilly look (cross between happy homemaker from the 50’s, a folksy peasant lady and rockabilly).

The pattern was really easy to follow and I love the fact that all the pieces were already cut out and ready to use.  Which means my grandmother probably made this exact same apron about 50 years ago.

I’m going through an apron phase at the moment and I’m really looking forward to going apron shopping in Japan next month.  Maybe I’ll even find an easy to follow pattern such as this.

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Vintage Aprons

2 Mar

I had to pass by the mercatino usato to pick up my prized table that I purchased the other day and it just so happened that there was a pile of never-used, linen grembiule (aprons) from the 60’s.  They are so beautiful and so well made.  And the patterns and colours are so gorgeous. I fell in love with all of them so I ended up buying….all of them.  They will make perfect aprons for all my baking (and my new goal to look prettier in the kitchen) and I’m sure more than a few will be gifted to fellow bakers who I know will appreciate them.

I’d like some of these as pretty little dresses for the summer.  Hmmm…is it possible to turn an apron into a dress?  Maybe with a few material insert pieces in the back?  Or maybe I can sew two together?  Ideas ideas…

The cut of the aprons is so flattering and the palette of colours so reminiscent of the 60’s and 70’s.

Flowers and apples!  Is there anything cheery-er?

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Vintage Aprons

19 Feb

A few days ago my mom arrived in Italy with a suitcase full of beautiful materials and a stack of vintage apron patterns that used to belong to my grandmother.  I’ve fallen in love with almost all of them and I will be definitely making some of them in the coming months.  It’s fun to see how beautiful women used to look in the kitchen with all those fancy aprons.  No yoga pants and sweatshirts to be seen in those days.  Look how dainty they all are!  Ruffled apron skirts, scalloped edges, embroidered pockets, quilted panels, lace edging and miniature pleats. I just love all the little details.   You can also see the prices on all of them…they ranged from 25 cents to 40 cents.  What a bargain!

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Carnivale

17 Feb

It’s almost that Carnival time of year again.  Soon the streets will be filled with confetti, paper streamers and spray string (I hate that stuff).  Already all the bakeries have overflowing trays of freshly baked (fried) chiacchere.  There will be kids wandering the towns and cities dressed up as princesses, pirates, clowns, soldiers, cowboys and knights.  It’s an exciting time of year for Italian kids.  Lots of festas and even a day or two off school.

Amazingly enough one of my children actually wanted to wear the cloak that I made.  She was even excited about it.  In the end I did manage to hem it and it looks like a grade nine student Home Ec project.  As I was doing the last iron to make it look as good as possible (considering) I managed to melt part of the sleeve.  Gotta love those synthetic fabrics.  I told her not to let anyone approach the cloak for close inspection.

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Cestino

16 Feb

Another little sewing project from this week.  It’s a different and more elaborate pattern than the smaller basket I made last week (meaning it takes 45 minutes instead of 25 minutes to make…still super easy).  The outside is made from a delicately thin plasticized material I bought in Canada.  The colours are beautifully bright and spring-like.  Something we’re all in need of after this spell of freezing cold winter weather.  It’s a great size to store all sorts of bits and bobs in.  I’ll be busy making lots of these when I get a few moments (might be a while though).

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Tutorial: Small Fabric Basket

12 Feb

Here is a very basic tutorial that a good friend of mine designed for a very sweet little fabric basket.  Very quick and gratifying.  I used oilcloth for the outside and a cotton for the inside but it would be possible to use only cotton as well (or even nicer would be linen).  If using cottons or linens I would recommend using interfacing to make it stiff enough to stand up on it’s own.  The paper clips are used to avoid getting little pin holes in the plasticized material or oilcloth. Please let me know if I wasn’t clear on any of my instructions (I know the corner part is a bit hard to see in the photo).

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Incubo

7 Feb

This morning I finally finished the carnival cloak that I started a few weeks ago.  And once again it had me on the edge of complete mental breakdown.  That material!  That slippery, slide-y, silky nightmare of a fabric.  Never again.  Ever.  But I didn’t give up.  And for that I’m very proud of myself.  The cloak might have pleats and puckers where there shouldn’t be.  And it might be left unhemmed.  And it’s even possible not one member of my family would be caught dead wearing it.  But that’s fine.  I chalk it all up to a really good learning experience in sewing and a reassurance that my mental state is pretty stable (I didn’t lose my cool…not even once).  After finishing the cloak we had time to make a quick fabric basket.  Very miniature but very sweet.  I’ll be making many more of these during these cold days at home.

Here’s the little fabric basket with the famous cloak hanging in the background.

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Scivoloso

25 Jan

I popped into the fabric shop the other day to pick up some black cotton to make a hooded cloak for my son for Carnival.  I left the store with a slippery satin-y mulitcolored nightmare of a material.  The lady assured me it was a material that is “facilissimo” to work with (she actually said it was probably the easiest material to sew with).  Call me dumb to have believed her.  Call her evil to have said it.  In any case it was the most trying experience I’ve had in a while.  That fabric was slipping and sliding the whole time I was cutting and sewing it.  I just have to finish the hood of the cloak and it will be done and I can hide it away forever.  Just look at this material and all it’s shiny slippery evil-ness.

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The fix

15 Jan

During my recent trip to Canada I enabled my not so secret addiction and bought some very nice new fabrics (or actually they were very generously bought for me).  Not that I am in NEED of any new fabrics (see post about my “addiction” and you’ll notice that I’m not lacking in material of any sort).  In any case, I’m very happy with my new fabrics and I’m already busy thinking about some new sewing projects for 2012.

Thank goodness for Canada and their buy one metre get two metres free fabric shops!

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Elfing

24 Dec

This year one of my daughters had the idea to do a sort of Secret Santa with the family.  We all drew names out of a hat and were told we had to make something for that person (without telling anyone who we have).  Some people’s gifts were done five minutes later.  Some were put under the tree exactly 5 minutes ago (on Christmas Eve!).  I was a bit behind schedule with all the homemade gifts for friends this year so I finished mine yesterday afternoon (in between parties and cleaning the house).  Here’s the result…

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