Tag: Apron

In-progress image of Drops Design Gingerbread Love socks made with Knit Picks Stroll fingering-weight yarn.

Gingerbread Men, a Big Bad Wolf, and Other Shenanigans

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November has arrived with its usual flurry of gatherings and holiday preparations, hence the failure to write an update post last weekend. Halloween was a blast and there’s just so much going on with extended family and band family that I’m being kept happily absorbed in juggling all the balls in the air. I’m actually writing this post from my grandmother’s house while I stay with her for a while to help care for her.

Halloween

I’ve never been much of a Halloween person; I don’t think I’ve worn a costume since I was in high school, but this year I wanted to do a little bit more. I made ghost ravioli one night, which was appreciated by the Brooketopians. And, completely due to me being on the Ward Activities Committee and having to be at the Church Halloween Harvest Party, I put together a couple’s costume for Michael and myself: Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf:

Husband and wife costume: Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf

Umm, we were ADORABLE. I was too busy with last-minute prep for the Harvest Party to help him with his face makeup, so that didn’t happen. (In future years, though, I really should just ask Rachel if she’ll help with that!) Rachel went as a witch and she manned the face painting booth at the party. I overheard a little girl telling her parents that it was the BEST Halloween party she’d ever been to because there was face painting and IT WAS FREE. Oh, my heart.

Mother and daughter dressed in Red Riding Hood and Witch Halloween costumes

There was an indoor Trunk-or-Treat, because this is Washington and we are sick of being rained on in the parking lot, so Michael and I manned a classroom and handed out candy at that as well. Michael is such a softie; while we were at Costco the weekend before he saw the boxes of full-sized chocolate bars and, with a glint in his eye, asked if maybe we should hand out full-sized chocolate bars at the church party? I laughed and said it was a great idea.

Weird observation: Kids these days are not interested in Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. We ran out of Kit Kats first, then the regular ol’ Hershey’s chocolate bars, then the Hershey’s with Almonds, and then we had leftovers of the Reese’s! Cuh-RAZY. But good for me because they’re my favorite. Oh no! Children were happy and I had a pocketful of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups afterwards! The horrors!

Our Ward Harvest Party is also our Chili Cook-off Competition, so I made up an apron for it and it turned out really good! We announced the winner while the Trunk-or-Treating was going on, so a lot of people were not in the Cultural Hall when that happened. But you could tell that people cared A LOT about winning the competition because they were asking for the rest of the evening if it had been announced.

I need to make a note to myself to make sure to announce the end of voting, and actually award the apron BEFORE the Trunk-or-Treating begins so that more people can be in the room to cheer for the winner. It was our first time as a committee doing this, so little stuff like this wasn’t thought of beforehand—you don’t know what you don’t know until you know it, right? I always say it takes about three years to get any sort of organization or function running smoothly. Give a lot of grace in the first two years, especially in the first!

Chili Cook-off Champion apron made with glitter vinyl cut-outs

The Church Harvest Party was the Friday ahead of Halloween, so on actual Halloween we were pretty chill. Michael, Ren and I sat on the front porch in our PJs and handed out candy to the hordes. I love handing out candy to the kids that come through! A big group of moms of littles in our ward(-ish) boundaries came through with their broods and it was so delightful to open the door and see all those happy little familiar faces, bouncing up and down with excitement together. As the night goes on it becomes more of a teen scene, so I then get to see the kids I work with and it’s just so darn cute to see their more creative and “it’s safe to be the authentic me because I’m not being scrutinized by my peers at school” sides. I might actually steal curate one of the costume ideas I saw and use it for Michael and myself next year.

Cross Country

Nathaniel’s Cross Country season is officially over. He set a personal record at his last race on Halloween! 3.1 miles in 17 minutes and 46 seconds! Yay! Unfortunately, it wasn’t fast enough to qualify for State, but it’s fine. He was very happy with the PR and perhaps next year he’ll qualify for State. I do love that about Cross Country—you’re really only racing against yourself. Of course, it’s always nice to be overall winner of the race, but it really just matters if you’re improving over your last time.

A fun little bonus: Because his last race was on Halloween, I made him a little gingerbread-esque sweatband to wear so he could go around saying, “Run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man!” Gone are the days of making costumes for my little ones, so I was happy to stitch up a cute little Halloween accessory for my boy. It reminded me of when he’d be so giggly and jumpy to see the next piece of a costume come off of the sewing machine. (There was not giggling and jumping this time, though; he’s sixteen. Too old for that sort of thing.)

Teenaged boy wearing a Cross Country sweatshirt and a brown sweatband with white ric-rack stitched on it to create a Gingerbread Man costume.

Planning Meetings for December

This last week was a blur of planning meetings for various organizations’ holiday events. The Ward Christmas Party, the band’s Evening of Jazz silent auction fundraiser, so many Church Christmas music requests, etc. It’s time for the ol’ holiday razzle dazzle, y’all!

Gingerbread Love Socks

I abandoned Project Snickerdoodle because it wasn’t going to work out and I didn’t want the added stress, but I still need a knitting project for my own sanity, so I decided to grant myself the gift of starting a darling pattern that I noticed last year: The Gingerbread Love Socks, by DROPS Design. FAIR ISLE GINGERBREAD MEN, PEOPLE!! Of course I HAD TO. I have them with me now while I’m sitting with my grandmother and it’s been so nice to work on them while chatting with her and watching Hallmark Christmas Movies together. #idyllic

In-progress image of Drops Design Gingerbread Love socks made with Knit Picks Stroll fingering-weight yarn.

I will not make it a goal to get these finished by Christmas; these are purely for enjoyment’s sake. Also…there’s a matching “Cookie Parade” sweater pattern…and my heart wants that sweater.

You know what? You should all take a moment to look through DROPS Design’s Christmas pattern collection, it’s impressive and inspiring! So many cute things to make! The kid sweaters! Oh, my future grandbabies will be well-clothed in Christmas cheer when the time comes for that!

And in the meantime, I think I spy a few Christmas sweaters that I might need to make for myself as well. You know, for morale…

Needles, Thread, and Halloween Dread (Just a Little!)

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Another week in October is DONE and it was another busy one: Donation pick-ups for the band fundraiser, setting up volunteers to sew/reinforce buttons on band uniforms, various doctor appointments for the kids, the Cross Country Leagues race, dinner with my granny and aunt…all good things.

Freshly-Quilted Quilts!

I picked up the freshly-quilted Penguin Party and Layer Cake Crepe quilts from the quilter and they look FABULOUS. I was pleasantly surprised, as was the quilter, that the Layer Cake Crepe quilt turned out so well…it’s kind of a boring pattern, but when you get the quilting done on it, it really starts to sing! I’m looking forward to binding those soon!

Rachel’s Graduation Quilt

I even managed to sneak in some sewing and I am ecstatic to report that the top and backing of Rachel’s Graduation Signature Quilt are pretty much DONE! I thought they were done-done, but then remembered I still have to appliqué a couple of late signature blocks to the quilt.

ASAP Projects

But I can’t get to any of those quilts until I finish up two projects: The Ward Harvest Party Chili Cook-Off Champion apron and the Band vests’ buttons.

Chili Cook-Off Champion Apron

The Ward Harvest (really: Halloween) Party is this week, and we always have a chili cook-off competition at the same time. I’m a huge fan of friendly competition, so I suggested we award some sort of prize with low-key bragging rights and volunteered to make Champion aprons for our various cooking competitions throughout the year. I made one for the cobbler contest we had at our Pioneer Day BBQ and it turned out super cute! I decided to go more gender-neutral on the chili apron because I think we’ll get a lot of guys participating and rick-rak isn’t a favored look by that demographic.

I was having a hard time motivating myself to work on the apron last week because I want to finish Rachel’s graduation quilt, and eventually I had to crowdsource some motivation from my family: Renaissance offered to “bully” me by refusing to watch the series we’re working through together UNLESS I was working on the chili apron. Worked wonders. Something went a little wonky with vinyl placement–shocker (vinyl is not my preferred creative medium!)–so I need to create and cut another little bit of the illustration to fill in an empty spot, but then it’ll be done.

Band Vest Button Reinforcements

The band vests aren’t that big of a deal, but they popped up out of nowhere and it’s just another thing I’m keeping tabs on until they’re done. Our director noticed that the buttons were wearing through their attaching stitches and asked if it was something we could fix before it became a bigger problem. I threw together a Facebook post asking for sewing volunteers. Some people offered to help, I told Nathaniel to bring the vests home from school, and the volunteers came to my house to pick up their assigned vests. No biggie. Love being part of a community that helps!

I did notice some vests were missing buttons, so I’ve taken over those particular ones. Of course, they’re satin-covered buttons that match the vests’ golden-butterscotch color, but I just got off the phone with the company that made the vests and it turns out you can just order the buttons from them. They will be here sometime next week and I’ll reattach them then.

Another Christmas Knitting Project

I also decided to throw prudence to the wind and commit to another Christmas gift project, but discovered that I didn’t own the correctly-sized knitting needles for it. So I ordered those, and they’re set to arrive sometime this week.

Last-Minute Halloween Preparations

Oh, and it’s Halloween Week, duh. So I need to be working on Michael’s and my costumes for the Halloween party, and our trunk-or-treat setup. Might go super simple, might go super creative and awesome. It will really depend on how this week goes.

Last Week’s Progress:

  • Picked up Penguin Party and Layer Cake Crepe quilts.
  • Finished piecing the top of Rachel’s Graduation Quilt.
  • Almost finished the Chili Cook-off Champion apron.
  • Distributed Band vests to sewing volunteers, ordered replacement buttons.

This Week’s Goals:

  • Finish Chili Cook-off Champion apron.
  • Halloween costume creation.
  • Create Trunk-or-Treat decorations.
  • Ward Harvest Party miscellaneous creations.
  • Reinforce Band vest buttons while waiting for replacement buttons.
  • Maybe start working on the new Secret Christmas Knitting Project. I need a good codename for this one…I think I’ll call it “Project Snickerdoodle.” I don’t know if I can pull this off in the time left before Christmas, but the beauty of knitting is that it doesn’t go bad. If I completely miss this year’s deadline, it can always be a gift next year.
    • Milestones I’ll need to hit if I want to finish this in time for Christmas:
      • Oct 26-Nov 1: 13% done
      • Nov 2-8: 25% done
      • Nov 9-15: 38% done
      • Nov 16-22: 50% done
      • Nov 23-29: 63% done
      • Nov 30-Dec 6: 75% done
      • Dec 7-13: 88% done
      • Dec 14-20: 100% done
      • Dec 21-24: Blocking & wrapping

Rabbit’s Monkey Apron

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I had hoped to complete this during last week’s “Super Homemaking Week,” but fell short by a few days. We just finished it this evening–me sewing, Rabbit standing by my elbow and cautioning me to “Watch yo fingahs…”

Pattern: Apron B from “Little Retro Aprons for Kids” by Cindy Taylor Oates
Fabric: Sock Monkey by Erin Michael #15071 (Moda), Red Gingham and some random piece of red with colored dots that I’ve had for forever, Canary Rick-Rack

I love little people in aprons. This is a size 4 (the smallest size in the book), so it’s a teeny bit big, but she’ll grow into it soon enough. I have enough Sock Monkey print leftover to do something big with…perhaps someday I’ll don a sock monkey apron myself, very fun.

Rabbit LOVES her apron! The first thing she said when I was fitting it over her head was, “Huwway! Now I can help Mama make some pancakes!” She loves her pocket and is convinced that there is a “liddle spoon” somewhere in the kitchen that she can carry in the pocket and whip out in a baking emergency. Oh, to be two years old and the proud owner of a brand new sock monkey apron…



Amber’s Apron

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My cousin, Amber, turns twelve this week; and she likes to help her mom out in the kitchen, so I thought an apron was a good birthday present choice for the dear girl. She’s one of my favorite people, and she’s named after me to boot (same middle name). You gotta remember the ones that are named after you! (I was even present at her birth…quite the experience for fourteen year old me!)

It’s Apron A from Retro Aprons by Cindy Taylor Oates and I used fabric from Sandi Henderson’s Farmer’s Market collection.

I am completely smitten with the fabric and I’ve been racking my poor, worn-out and exhausted brain trying to figure out a way to use the scraps in something else, but there aren’t too many scraps leftover. Wah.

Happy Birthday Ambone!

Cupcake Apron

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Yes, I am slightly disturbed that she knows how to pose like that.

Pattern: Little Retro Aprons for Kids, by Cindy Taylor Oates, Pattern A-2
Fabric: Cupcakes–I’ve managed to discard all the selvage from this except for one piece that says “Robert Kau…”; Dots–from the “Smores” collection by Me and My Sister Designs for Moda, Pattern #22074

I am loving this apron, and Bluebird has warmed up to it since her lacklustre reception upon its completion. I am totally looking forward to making more of these babies! The pattern is very well-written, except for one tiny mistake that tells you to put the wrong sides together near the end, but it’s easy to catch and correct. I’ve also purchased the designer’s other two apron pattern books for adults…mwahahahaha, aprons galore!