Variations on a Theme: New projects, familiar look

As time allows, I’ve been trying to keep up with my sewing. I am definitely still in the learning stage, though, and I sometimes have trouble figuring out whether my mistakes/difficulties are the result of inexperience, an old machine, or pure user error. I suspect it’s a blend of all of the above.

Difficulties aside, I’ve completed two new projects in the past couple of months. I had quite a bit of fabric left over from the first apron I made, so I’ve been using it for my new projects (it’s a good thing I like the colors!).

The first thing I made was a coaster for my bedside table. Dave has been using a coaster we got as a wedding favor, but I had largely been using whatever piece of heavy paper I could find laying around. It seemed like time to find something a little more permanent.

The coaster came together quickly. I think I made it from start to finish in a single morning. I pieced together the top and then sewed three of the edges to a bottom piece. I added a very thin layer of fluff filling (left over from my “LOVE” pillow) between the layers, sewed up the bottom, and “quilted” the filling in place. Quick and easy!

My most recent project was to create another apron. Even though I really liked the first apron I made, I decided to play around with another design for apron #2. I knew I wanted a full apron, but I struggled for awhile with how to incorporate both fabrics. In the end, I was inspired by a wall hanging that my friend Erica made. For her wall hanging, Erica used a pretty color fabric to make her own binding around the edge. It gave the outline of her picture such a pretty finish. I thought the same look might look nice on my apron.

I’m fairly happy with how the apron turned out, though the edge binding did make it a little more awkward when it came time to attach the ties.

I’ve never been much into wearing aprons (perhaps because I’ve never had a good one to wear?), but I’m looking forward to doing some baking in mine. We’ll see how well the apron holds up to the wear and tear of kitchen life!