A Belated Christmas Gift

As part of my new commitment to frugality, I'm making an effort to handcraft gifts instead of purchasing store-bought ones. Because I was recouperating from major surgery during last year's holiday season, I was unable to get everybody's gifts out on time. So, now I am playing catch-up.

Yesterday I completed an apron for my friend Vikki in Australia. As a basis for this project, I used Simplicity 4282 (View B). But then, of course, I just had to tweak it some! Because I wanted to show off the fancy metallic rickrack, I sewed it over (rather than partially inside) the binding around the pockets and hem. I also sewed a pale lavender metallic ribbon over the hem binding before sewing on the rickrack; but, this is hard to see in the picture below. Little did I know that my "tweaking" would add so many hours to the project!


The photo on the pattern package shows a model wearing this apron. In the photo, the apron appears to flare only slightly at the bottom; however, in reality, this is not the case. I was especially delighted to discover that it actually flares out in a bell shape, giving it a vintage look.