thrifty thursday

A few new additions to my vintage apron collection.

I'll never tire of gingham.

And ric rac. I cannot stand how cute it looks sew on that way.

This one's a sheer little number with lilac polka dots.

Hand finished trim on the pocket.

I've really got to come up with a way to display these. Right now, even though I use many of them, they primarly live in a drawer. Seems a crime to hide them.

thrifty thursday

These are the last of Effie's treasures that I've photographed. There were also some damask tablecloths, but they aren't as cute as this:

The work on this purse is lovely. I can't imagine what a woman might carry in such a tiny pouch (with holes!) - a hankie? The diameter of the body of the pouch is only 4 inches across.

These are probably the oldest items that were sent. The ankle length apron has many holes in it. I think parts of it would look great in a quilt with the hankies. The cap is very stiff either from age or starch. I wonder if both items belonged to her mother, the woman who died in a prairie fire.

I cried out when I pulled this from the box. Within moments I was wearing it. I know Liz had once planned on framing it for her home, but never got to it. Instead of being art on the wall, it'll help cement my reputation on the block as the crazy apron mom.

Next Thursday it's back to junk I've stumbled upon at thrift shops and garage/estate sales.

thrifty thursday - effie's aprons

A few more aprons that were in that wonderful box:

This one is hand stenciled:

I use this one when I'm picking up around the house. That pocket holds the phone and a vast number of tiny toys that need to go back in the girls' rooms.

This one is child-sized, though I know from Mary's letter that Effie didn't have any children.

I wonder what inspired a woman who lived in South Dakota to stitch a southwestern themed apron?

hand-me-down thursday

A few weeks ago a package arrived in the mail for me. There's nothing better than a package you aren't expecting. This one was from my mother's cousins, Liz and Mary. They'd recently helped clean out the home of a dear family friend and thought I'd appreciate some things from the estate. The box was filled with so much that I can't possibly put it all in one post, so I'll share more each Thursday this month.

Included in the box was a letter with this information-

"Re: contents of the box, Use and enjoy! We could not bear to just throw these things away. Nearly everything was made by an old neighbor, Effie ____. She was the banker's wife and our maternal grandmother's close friend. Aunt Mildred and Effie were role models for us. Effie graduated from SDSU with a 4 year degree in about 1921(about the same year women were finally granted the right to vote in the US?!)- an era when women's education beyond 8th grade was thought by many to be a useless extravagance. If knowledge is power, women acquiring both was the real fear, in my entirely biased opinion. Anyhow, her mother died in a prairie fire after hiding the children under the overturned wagon, her father died several years later, it was said, of a broken heart, and Effie was raised by unmarried aunts who had the resources and vision to give her the best start they could, with a university education. I raise my glass to all of these women, salut!"

The strawberry on this is a pincusion and the tape measure is real and slips out of that pocket.

The one above likely held clothespins. The drawstrings cinch it up to keep them in place.

I love the pockets on this one.

The letter went on -

"Effie did fine hand crafts for years for the Methodist Ladies' Aid various church events. They had the classic supper and bazaar every fall, did the church suppers, hosted the kids before summer camp, you name it. I have sweet memories of women like Effie and Aunt Mildred, and the food and hospitality they offered in the the old church basement. They had a reverence for education, especially for women, and a spirit of community service (I don't care if this sounds cliche) the likes of which is rare in any age. That's the proud heritage of the treasures you are seeing. Liz and I strive to live up to the legacy of those remarkable women. Please pass on this history. Love, Mary"

I will.

thrifty thursday

I posted this as I found it almost a year ago. It was a kit that never got stitched up. No idea how old it is. Just a premade linen apron with a printed cross stitch design and several skeins of white floss for $.75 or so.

And now-

Here's a little sneak peak of why I've not blogged so much even after I was feeling better. Those of you stitchers out there, now how time consuming a large cross stitch project can be. Every spare crafty moment over the past couple of months was spent finishing this up-

I'll share the whole thing next week.

feedsacks 3

This is the last of them.

I love the one on the right with the houses. Aqua/green and red - a favorite color combination, but no idea where on earth I'd put it.

The two on the right will probably make their way into a quilt in Ellie's new room. I have a duplicate of the leaf motif from the fall.

I'm not much for navy, but I have so much vintage fabric in these colorways. I'm sure there's a quilt top in here somewhere. Maybe a picnic blanket since I don't use navy in the house at all.

As I was finishing up my selections, Norm went back into the house and came out with two aprons that Shirley had made from feedsacks. This is my favorite - the colors, the ric rac, the long length on it - there's even a pocket for the phone. I promised to give it a good home. The ties are wrinkled in the photo because I've already worn and washed it. I didn't bother to iron them before taking the picture.

spirit of '76 apron

Okay, maybe this fabric isn't from '76, but I think I'm pretty close. I remember a lot of Americana type prints being popular around that time and this one fits the bill.

The fabric is from a friend's grandmother's stash (thanks, Kim!).

The pattern is from a book I picked up shopping with Carol - The Perfect Apron which, oddly enough, was written by a man. I used the Singapore Sling pattern for this project. Super fast, super easy. It uses a fair amount of bias tape to finish all the edges and has only two pattern pieces, not counting the ties which are just rotary cut rectangles. I used my roll hemmer presser foot(#62 on a Bernina) to hem the edges of the ties, so those went very fast. You could just as easily use ribbon to avoid hemming or sew a few lengths of bias tape closed and treat them like ribbon.

I love cute, little, half aprons, but they aren't very practical when I'm really cleaning the house. I need something to cover my shirt. This one also has three generous pockets in the front for stashing the phone, legos, doll shoes, and various game pieces.

My favorite part of the print -

"Peasant Folk"

I love it. Chris just rolled his eyes when he saw it.

thrifty thursday

There will be no list of resolutions/goals for this year, because I never looked at last year's list after I wrote it. I don't even want to know what I didn't get done at this point.

My only hope for crafting in 2009 is to keep my studio area relatively clean. I have a student coming to take private lessons with me, so that should be incentive to pick up after myself. I have no desire to shovel a path to the sewing machine right before a lesson. It's looking pretty good at the moment and I'm hoping to take a few pictures of it. That's not happened up til now because of the frequent project messes and it never feels "done". I finally realized that it'll never be "done" in that I'm always adding or moving things around, so I should just take photos of where it is now and enjoy the changes I make to it over time.

A few additions to keep me on the path to cleanliness:

One for me.

One for the girls.

One for me.

(Love the way that striped fabric was cut on the bias and sewn into the zig zag design!)

One for the girls.

This one is actually plastic(like those old tablecloths our grandmothers had) and ties with ribbons at the sides.

Have a happy and tidy new year!

gifts for the kids

It's getting harder and harder to come up with things I can sew for Glenn. This was the only last minute thing I made this year, mainly because the idea didn't come to me until a couple of days before Christmas, but it went together quickly. Basically, it's a bedside organizer that attaches to the upper rail of his loft. (You can see bits of his unmade bed in the background.)

The main pocket is large enough for a magazine or book. The two gusseted pockets are meant for his glasses and nintendo DS. The plaid pocket on top was made by sewing two strips of ribbon together to be deep enough to hold his ipod. It passed the likability test with him. We'll see if it keeps his stuff any more organized. I won't hold my breath.

Trixie got an apron that matches this one. I realized that I'd cut the pieces for both over 4 years ago. I remembered thinking that it would be big on Ellie, but I should size ahead to give me time to make it. And now it belongs to her little sister. (Don't tell.)

It came in handy for her newest interest - washing dishes.

She also got a set of her own puppy lunch napkins from some scraps I had. There's been more than one battle over the cat ones I made for Ellie.

I'm hoping to have all the artwork hung in Ellie's room tomorrow so I can take pictures and post her big gift.

halloween apron

pattern: Butterick 4945 view C

(If you hate to hand finish stuff, skip this pattern.)

fabric: Moda Halloween prints from last year (same fabric as the placemats I made)

Bring on the trick-or-treaters. We're ready for them.

hi-ho the derry-o

I feel like the farmer in the dell's wife when I put this apron on, but I still love all the detailing in it. This is another project I finished up over the last few weeks that had sat in a UFO pile for at least two years. I think I realized I didn't have enough fabric for the ties, nor enough bias tape on hand. There's also a matching apron that had been cut out to fit Ellie, but will probably fit Trixie better at this late date.

The tie situation was remedied with some white muslin. A look through some recently thrifted bias tapes took care of that problem.

The pattern is a mother/daughter set from Simplicity #4692.

thrifty thursday

Thanks to Patty at Pipstitch for the sweet award she sent me!

According to the rules I'm supposed to link to at least 7 other blogs that I love. How about 12? If you haven't visited them already, go check out the blogs of my quilting buddies at Common Threads. You can link to any of these talented women over in the sidebar. And while you're at it, check out Patty's blog too. She's always got some good crafty links. She has Vintage Thingie Thursday as well. Which leads me to this:

Found at the local Salvation Army. I replaced the original red binding because it had ripped away from the apron in several places. Redoing the binding was far easier than trying to fix the areas where the fabric had been shredded at the edge. Yes, the binding was thrifted too.

The mushroom reminds me of Rebekah's first quilt blocks. Ever since she sent that fabric I'm seeing them everywhere.

ps- Tuli is posting thrifty thursdays too. Any other good thrifty links out there? Post them in the comments.