Tutorial Tuesday

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I have a Halloween themed tutorial for you today. I picked up this free embroidery pattern of a crow with a Halloween treat o'lantern over at Bird Brain Designs. I wanted to feature him somewhere in my kitchen, and thought an apron would be perfect. 

To make this apron, you will need:

-Embroidery floss

-Hoop

-Halloween Crow Pattern

-Sewing machine

-1 yard of fun Halloween fabric 

-Sewing machine

-Coordinating thread

-Iron

-Scissors

-Sewing needle

-Measuring tape or a rotary cutting mat

I used a variation of a simple waist apron pattern. I will include the steps here, but feel free to visit this site for a free pattern. 

Let's get started!

Step 1: Embroider your crow onto the fabric of your choosing. I decided to use white cotton. Cut your fabric into one 33 x 22.5-inch piece, four 3 x 36 inch strips, and one 10 x 10 inch square.

Step 2: Press under the edges of the embroidered fabric. I used a 1/4-inch fold here. Center the embroidery on the pocket front and use your sewing machine to stitch around.

Step 3: Fold all four edges of the pocket under a 1/4-inch and press. Then fold again and press to create a finished edge. Machine stitch around the edges to seal the fold.

Step 4: Pin your pocket on the front side of the apron piece. You can choose either left or right and make sure it is even. Following the stitch you used to seal the folded edged, stitch around the sides and bottom making sure to leave the top open. The pocket piece is finished!

Step 5: Fold and press the four edges of the main apron piece under at 1/4-inch. Fold over again and press. Machine stitch all the way around to close that fold. This will give you a clean hem for the entire apron.

Step 6: Now we move onto the straps for the waistband. Place two straps right sides together and machine stitch the shorter end. This will give you two long strips that will become the waist band. 

Step 7: Carefully press all the edges of both strap pieces under 1/4 of an inch. 

Step 8: Place the strips wrong sides together making sure to match the center seams and edges. Machine stitch all the way around to seal the waistband. 

This is what your waistband will look like. 

Step 9: Fold your apron in half and mark the top center. Do the same with the waistband. When you move on to gather your apron, it will be easy to sew because you will be able to match the centers. 

Step 10: Using a sewing needle and some thread, hand sew a gathering stitch at the top of your apron piece. I placed that stitch right underneath the top hemline. Begin to gather the apron until it measures 17-inches wide. 

Step11: Carefully pin the gathered apron to the waistband and machine stitch slowly, ensuring that you catch the gathered pieces on the underside of your waistband and it stays even. 

Step 12: Tie that apron on and get ready for the Trick or Treaters!

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and you have very happy Tuesday!

Priscilla Embroidery Pattern: Play Apron Pt. 2

Hullo everyone! Here's the update on our Play Apron from Priscilla Embroidery.

Started by transferring all the patterns to one piece of muslin:

Looking at the original photo, it seemed like the stitch used for the figures was an outline/stem stitch. I am back-stitch kindda gal so it took me quite a bit of time to get into the groove of the stitch. Specially in going round corners and crevices. Any advice would be greatly appreciated on this.

I did all the outlines of all the characters first (including the other 2 of the other pockets) and gave them satin stitch eyes.

Upon closer scrutiny of the original design, I saw some more details which I failed to place in the pattern so it was the perfect time to work those in. Will update the pattern I posted with these changes.

I cannot quite pinpoint what stitches they used to fill in the figures, but I did see some form of straight stitches and zigzags. Started with straight stitches in green in a brick pattern:

Then, I took my yellow thread and wove some diamonds into it like so:

And that is it for now :-) Will fill everything else in and then tackle the assembly. Happy Monday everyone!

Have a great week and Happy Stitching!

Priscilla Embroidery Pattern: Play Apron Pt. 1

Hullo everyone! Finally finished converting the play apron pattern and ready to start and share the project with you all. As mentioned in the last post, our project is a play apron from the Priscilla Embroidery Catalog (Fall-Winter 1915-16) of Priscilla Needlework Co.

It is my first time to make a pattern spread out on many pages, so I apologize if you find it a bit confusing and not user-friendly. As I still work on developing that skill, here are step-by-step photos instead of getting it all together :-)

The pattern for the apron comes in 5 pages, with the first page being the overview of the whole design and notes the pattern pieces (the letters). I did not make a pattern for the strap as it seemed like it would be better if it was made to fit the lucky child who will have the apron after :-)

1. To begin, DOWNLOAD THE PDF PAGES and print out.

2. Cut the pieces as shown below (you may do it however you feel comfortable, just make sure there is space for sticking them together). You may cut the sides by following the line, but do not cut the scallops on the line as this will be hard to transfer the design on your fabric later on. I chose to leave space on the right side of pattern A, whilst trimming B completely. Pattern C gets an allowance on top and the right while D gets trimmed except for the top part.

3. Place your glue as shown and stick the pieces together (B to A and D to C).

4. Now place your glue as shown below and attach together.

5. Your pattern piece is done! Each pocket must be traced on separately, the only pattern that you embroider on the apron itself are those of the two little elves on top. But we will tackle this next time :-)

In the catalog, the apron is tan linen, but I do not have such (as usual!) so I will be using some muslin (the ones I use to draft dress patterns). It also states that the thread colors are green, brown and yellow, so here goes!

Have a lovely week ahead everyone!