Bridal Apron

Here's the apron, that started my thinking on a bridal shower gift. Working with Emilie's colours, I found the perfect embroidered, cotton fabric, that was of the right weight for an apron. I found the lovely cotton gingham fabric to use for the bias tape features. The pattern I chose to use was Butterick 4945, using view D. Of course I had to make my own modifications to this. All of these lovely items were in my 'stash', for the right project, for the right time.

Changes I made to the apron were:

-I added 3" to the length, but I did that at about the waist line, not at the hemline.

-I did not go for a smaller size, as I like to have good coverage when working. I decided to use the size Large, to make sure there was good coverage, for when and if the Lord blesses Emilie with a child. It's nice to have an apron you can wear in your pregnancy, that doesn't tie around the waist, and you can adjust the straps.

-I ditched the facings on the upper sides and put biased edging instead.

-I used my favorite treatment for the shoulder/waist straps. I made long straps that thread through loops I have made, using the bias tape, so that I can adjust the apron as needed, both for the shoulder area and the waist. I saw this treatment on an old apron, from around the year 1910 and have seen it in antique and vintage apron patterns. It's my favorite way to make an apron adjustable.

Emilie tried on her apron, and she looked so good in it. I wish I had snapped a picture of that one, oh well. Maybe next time.

Bridal Shower Gift

Last May, we (Merissa, Olivia and I) had the privilege of attending a bridal shower, for a lovely young woman that I have known for 21 years. I thought I would share the gift we gave her, to help inspire others to think of different gifts you can give. I don't always like to give what's on a registry, so I try to be creative and practical, if I can. Staying on the theme of practical, I also went with 'green', since that's what we do these days, right? ;)

We started with the basket and built it up from there. One of my favorite Bridal shower gifts I received, when I was getting married, was Tupperware. I liked being able to have lovely storage containers for my left over food or just to put newly made food in for take along lunches. With that in mind, we added several of the lovely Pyrex glass containers with lids. We have these in our home and we love them. Next, we added some tea towels, as every new bride needs some of those, plus they help keep the glass Pyrex from getting broken in transportation. We had to add a little something from the children, so we made a few gift bags that they can now use to start their own collection for their family. I actually started this gift, with the apron. One of Emilie's colours for her wedding was brown. So of course, I had to make her a brown apron with some lovely cotton, brown gingham bias tape to go with it. I'll give more information on it in my next post, which will be about the apron. To go with her apron, I thought I would give her a special, OOP (out of print) apron pattern, for 'one day' when she has a daughter of her own, or to share with her many new nieces she just received by marrying into a lovely family. It's the prized Simplicity 7856 pattern that matches the mother's wrap apron pattern. For some reason, Simplicity never brought back the girl's version of the pattern. The green box that is holding all the pieces of the gift, is for shopping. We also added in some reusable shopping bags, to help them start their shopping trips. Last, but not least, I wrapped the gift in a cotton fabric, that can be made into a lovely apron. If you look closely, you can see it has the 'B Attitudes' written on it.

We had so much fun putting this gift together. What a lovely couple they are! :)

I apologize that these pictures are not terrific. It was last minute, just before running out the door, that I got the bright idea to take pictures of the gift. I hope the pictures help to inspire more interesting, fun gifts.