Tonight is the first of hopefully many more "Guest Blogger Mondays"
Whether the project is big (a quilt? painting?) or small (a gift card? a brooch?) i'd love to see it!!!
It would be nice to share the inspiration around (and it would really help to give me a night off every now and again...)
So Tonight the first guest blog comes from Angela Osborn, a blog follower and fellow crafter. Angela has her own craft blog with detailed craft project tutorials, check out her website at
She has sent thru a super cute apron applique project below....
The Hungry Squirrel Apron written and designed by Angela Osborn
To make a hungry squirrel apron, you will need:
A rectangle of fabric 45 cm high by 77 cm wide for the main part of the apron
An additional strip of fabric 8 cm wide by about 160 cm long (or long enough to wrap around your waist and tie in a bow)
Scraps of a contrasting fabric
A contrasting trim such as rickrack
Embroidery thread
Fusible webbing for the appliqué.
Begin by overlocking the raw edges along three side of the large rectangle, leaving one of the long sides not overlocked. Turn over the three overlocked sides, towards the wrong side of the fabric by 1 cm. Pin in place and stitch around the 3 folded edges to create a neat hem.
Trace your squirrel design onto the paper side of the fusible web and iron onto the scrap of fabric.
Cut around your design, cutting through both the paper and fabric, then peel off the paper backing. I transferred my design onto the back of the fabric with pencil so I can use it as a guide to embroider some of the details before I iron the squirrel onto the apron. If you have a fabric marker that fades, you may prefer to use it to mark detail on the front of the design and iron the squirrel onto the apron before embroidering it. Or you might be very clever and just freestyle it.
Iron motifs onto your apron in the desired position and stitch around the edge to make sure they’re securely attached.
Pin rickrack across the apron in your desired design. The little squirrel is sniffing the delicious aroma of the acorn from across the other side of the apron! Stitch the rickrack in place using your sewing machine.
You could also sew another strip of rickrack across the bottom of the apron, if you like.
Fold the long strip of fabric in half lengthwise with the right (prettiest) sides of the fabric together. Pin across the short ends. Mark the very centre of the long strip with a pin and mark 25 cm either side of the centre with another couple of pins. Pin the remainder of the long edges together, either side of the middle 50cm that you have marked. You need to leave this middle 50 cm gap of the waistband open as that’s where the apron will be inserted.
Stitch with 1 cm seam allowance along the short edge, turn the corner and sew along some of the long edge until you reach the pin marking the middle 50 cm. Leave this gap open then sew the remainder of the long edge and the other short edge. Turn your waistband through to the right side and give it a press with your iron.
Gather the top edge of the apron so it measures 46 cm. To do this, use a long stitch length on your sewing machine to sew along the top edge about 4 mm from the edge, but don’t back tack (or tie off the threads) at either end as the threads must remain loose. Sew another row of long stitches about 4 mm away from the first row, again leaving the tails of thread loose. At one end of the apron, take the two threads from the underside of the fabric and pull them to gather the fabric.
Pin the gathered apron to one of the raw edges of the waistband in the gap you have left open, (with right sides of the fabric together) matching up the centre of the apron with the centre of the waistband. There will be a couple of centimetres extra gap either side of the apron – this makes it easier to sew. Sew apron to waistband as pinned, with 1 cm seam allowance.
Press over 1 cm of seam allowance on the remaining raw edge of the gap. Poke the seam allowance of the apron into the waistband and pin the folded edge down to close the gap. Top stitch 2 – 3 mm from the edge of the waistband along the length of the gap (to stitch it closed) and continue stitching all the way around the edge of the waistband until you get back to where you started.
Give the waistband a final press and ta da! You now have your very own vintage style, hungry squirrel apron perfect for keeping your frock clean the next time you feel like baking some scones.
Come and visit me at my blog for more DIY tutorials, sewing tips and fun adventures with needle and thread.
Craft out squirrels
xxoo
