Garden Apron - Repurposing Old Blue Jeans

About a month ago my dear daughter asked me for some advice on making a garden apron from some old jeans she had cut up.  She wanted to gift the apron and she had cut the piece with the back pockets for the apron.  I told her I would use quilting cotton to make a lining with a pocket on the inside, bind the two pieces together and make a nice long tie threaded through the belt loops and securely fastened.

We made her garden apron using the piece of the pants she had cut and raiding my quilting cotton stash.  It turned out really cute and when I left her house that day I knew I wanted to make one for me. 

I had to go to Goodwill and buy a pair of jeans for this project.  I bought a big pair of men's jeans because I wanted my apron to be a nice size.  The jeans I found had some lovely embroidered omega symbols on the pockets and I couldn't resist the colors.  The back pockets originally had buttons or rivets but they had been ripped out, so instead of replacing the buttons, I layered two buttons on the flap and glued them on so it looks like the pockets button but the pockets will be easy to get in and out of.  I lined it with some fabric I had leftover, added a colorful pocket and made my binding and tie from fabric my daughter bought me to replace the fabric she used on her garden apron.

Here is my garden apron all done.  It took me about 3 and a half hours to make.  The jeans cost me $7.00.  This was a fun project and I love the result.

I'm making a purse from the legs of the jeans.  I have it cut out and all I have to do is sew it up.  I'll show that next time.  

Still haven't done much in the way of quilting my hexie quilt.  I'll probably start working on that over the holiday weekend.

My Favorite Tutorial For Joining My Binding Ends

   I wanted to share my favorite youtube video tutorial for joining my binding ends.  It's really simple and it works every time I use it.

    In case you can't get it to play from my post, here is the link here.

Couldn't Resist

   I know I haven't worked on my grandmother's flower garden much.  I did take those made up hexagons to Hawaii with me but I only worked on one flower the whole trip and unfortunately I never had time to finish it.  I'm going to try to break out that quilt this weekend and add to it.

    I really love the grandmother's flower garden but I'm starting to itch to sew something new quilt wise.  So when I saw this charm square set, I couldn't resist.  It's called Home Sweet Home by Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda.  It has a Goldilocks and the three bears theme and the colors are beautiful.  Just the right shades of pastels.  I love it.  I bought six packs of these to make a simple quilt top and some yardage to sash the blocks with.  I should have enough charm squares to make up blocks for the back as well.  I may not start this until I finish the hexagon quilt top but I know it's waiting for me and that may be enough to get me going on the flowers.

Everyone Needs A Simple Knitted Lacy Scarf

    I definitely need one.

     I have made myself a few crocheted scarfs over the last few years, but I really like this scarf and the pattern is so easy.  I found this free pattern on Ravelry several years ago and I've made two of these for gifts.  The pattern is called the One Row Lace Scarf by Turvid.  It's very pretty and very easy to knit, which is good for me because I'm not the most accomplished knitter.  You don't have to be a Ravelry member to get the pattern.  Here is the link to the blog with the pattern.   Link here.

    This would make an awesome travel knitting project because it's a simple pattern to memorize and it makes such a pretty fabric.  It's almost as small to carry as a sock.

   I'm making my scarf with size ten Sunstruck (by Knit Picks) circular needles (larger size needles are suggested to show off the lacy stitches and I think the 10 is perfect) with a 24 inch cord.  I tried a 16 inch cord would but it was too short for me.  I would rather have too much cord than not enough.   This is a back and forth project so you can certainly knit this on straight needles but I like the circulars for keeping my project secure. 

    I'm using Knit Picks Brava worsted in the silver colorway.  This yarn is acrylic, which I like.  It's soft and indestructible.  I like that I don't have to worry about bugs eating it and it's washable.  The pattern writer used alpaca yarn to make hers, so feel free to use a natural fiber.  There was also the perfect amount of yardage in a skein of this yarn.  The pattern calls for 175 yards of yarn and this yarn comes with 218 yards.  I'm using two skeins on this scarf because I want this one to be extra long, but one skein of this yarn would be enough for a scarf according to the pattern.

  Here's a picture of my pretty progress so far.

      I bought a lot of Knit Picks Brava in different colors (there are lots of beautiful colors) earlier this year and I think all of it would be great in this pattern.  I picked the grey because, well, it's grey.  I like grey.  I will probably make more of these in some of the other colors, like currant (burgundy) Dublin (dark green), solstice heather (bright navy blue), and white.     

    Knit Picks also has a worsted weight yarn called Mighty Stitch which is a 80% acrylic and 20% super wash wool.  I bought a few skeins of this as well in January to try it out.  I like a good acrylic/natural fiber blend.   The Mighty Stitch comes lots of colors and is a 208 yard skein.

   This blog post turned into a complete Knit Picks commercial.  Sorry about that.  I just like Knit Picks.  I buy a lot of their products and I use them.  

Crochet Day

 

  I took a few hours off today from sewing my quilt top to crochet myself a soft, cozy scarf.  This pattern is called the Big Rib Scarf.  A link to this super simple pattern is here.  This scarf took me about 2.5 hours to finish and it was the perfect project for two skeins of Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable yarn in the Cappuccino colorway.  The finished dimensions are 42" x 10".  I made my scarf according to the directions, but you can make the scarf as long or as wide as you want as long as you have enough yarn.  At the end of twelve rows I had a little bit of yarn left from each skein, but not enough for another row.

Time For More Fabric To Make New Nightgowns

   I've been making my own cotton nightgowns for about 20 years.  The other day one of my old nighties started to shred as I was putting it away (it was 8 years old) and I knew it was time to make a couple of new nighties.

   The pattern I use is, now you will probably laugh at me, Butterick 6886, which is a maternity pattern.  It's really comfortable.  The pattern makes a sleeveless nightie and a robe.  The nightgown is really simple to make, the hardest part for me is the bias tape binding around the neck and arm holes because I make my own binding from the same fabric and that takes some time, but it looks really nice.

   I just ordered two fabrics to make my new nighties.  These fabric were on sale and will be perfect for my project.  I'll share the finished nightgowns when they are done.

Rag Quilts Are So Much Fun To Make.

  I finished my rag quilt this morning after snipping all the seams to help them fray.  It was awesome!  I washed the quilt this evening (cleaning out the dryer vent every 12 minutes).

 Snipped but not washed.

Washed and officially ragged.

I also made these two blocks into wall hangings.  They came in a panel of 4.  They measure 17 3/4" x 17 3/4" before binding.  I've had them stashed for a few months.  I wanted something feline for the wall in the hall by the cat's room, one will go there, the other hang on the inside of the front door.  These were fun to quilt and bind in one afternoon.