the goose loves aprons

Finally, here we are! the post you've all been waiting for!

Day 4 of 4: The Finale of the Valentine's Gift: Monika's Apron!!

If you are a dutiful follower, you remember the three "accessory" pieces of this gift - two pot holders and an oven mitt.

But now, for the best part of all!!

I started this apron several weeks ago, and it took me a good week to finish (but I only had evenings, and not every evening, to work on it, so maybe 8-10 hours total?). Although the pattern was hard to follow, it generally came out okay! I won't go into the gory details (my blog might need less text and more photos, I think!).

First, I spent plenty of time cutting out the patterns, pinning them to my fabric in an efficient way, and cutting. Here's a part of that process:

Once my pieces were cut, it was assembly time. I started with the skirt, trimmed the pocket, hemmed the sides, made the waistband, made and attached the bib, added the straps, and it eventually all came together!
Here's the detail on the pocket - I love the lace, and I also added a decorative stich across the top to hem the edge.
The original pattern had a zig-zag in the middle of the skirt all the way across, trimmed with the lace. I thought it looked kinda stupid, so instead, I just connected my two halves (top and bottom sections of skirt) and sewed them together with the same decorative stich as the pocket.

At first, the top bib section seemed very small! But when connected to the rest of it, it came out just fine. My sister is a relatively small person anyways....:)

And then the back - I didn't cross the straps as originally shown in the pattern since I thought I didn't have enough material. It actually would have worked, though.
The reason I didn't send this stuff to my sister in time for Valentine's Day was because I wanted to make sure the apron fit. I measured it to me, but she's a bit smaller than me, so I wasn't 100% sure. And why gift an apron that doesn't fit? So when she comes to visit us next weekend, I'll give it to her, have her try it on, and I'll be ready to fix it to fit her perfectly!

I hope she loves it!

Thanks for sticking in with me while I presented the Valentine's themed bake-wear! :)

Next week will bring more excitement - a quick summary of recent baking and Bentley's latest antics... :)