the goose loves blue & yellow

So at this very moment, my cousin's fiance Elizabeth is having her bridal shower in southern California! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to travel down for it. But I decided to keep practicing my sewing skills, specifically my apron-sewing skills, and make her an apron and oven mitt! I don't know Elizabeth very well, so I wanted to go with basic and fun colors that might appeal to any taste. I probably could have been more adventurous, but I like how the combo came together. I used a pattern out of my new apron book.

Here's the pocket piece, lined with bias tape across the top, laying on the main apron piece.

And a wider view of the whole apron, with pocket piece on top. I sewed bias tape around the outer edge of the whole apron, connecting the pocket piece with the apron back. I also sewed two lines through the pocket and apron pieces to make three relatively-equal pockets!

Here's a close up of the bias tape sewing. I used yellow thread throughout, and sewed the bias tape on with a zig-zag stitch to make it more interesting.

Here you can see the zig zag stitch on the outer bias tape and pocket-top bias tape.

Forgive my poor photography skills... I should switch hobbies for awhile, maybe...

And then I sewed the waistband on. I'm always so focused (or frustrated?) when sewing on waistbands that I never seem to take photos of it... so POOF! Magic apron all finished!

My dining room chair is the trusty model for this one, but the skinny rectangle shape of the chair back doesn't quite do justice to an apron made for a live human, with rounder sides and a wider width. I'm not saying Elizabeth is large - she's FAR from it! But you know what I mean...

And then the oven mitt. Here's Side 1:

And then Side 2:

And a close up of my decorative stitch on bottom:

I was being pretty clever, so for Side 1, I quilted the apron with straight lines, but a zig zag stitch.

For Side 2, I quilted with zig zag lines, but a straight stich. What built-in fun!

And the set together:

And the set together, folded up, ready for shipping!

And wrapped with my home-decorated tissue paper (we are seriously lacking in the wrapping paper department, unless you want a couple hundred yards of xmas paper. yay for sales!)

I dug out my wedding stamps from my formerly wedding creative days...

Including the one from the invitations!

And to go with the aprons but to keep things easy to travel (Elizabeth is flying back to PA where she lives, so she didn't want anything big and bulky), I typed up 10 of our favorite recipes to share with her.

I got a binder of recipes from my CA bridal shower, and Billy and I are still enjoying trying the recipes from different family members, so I thought Elizabeth and Peter might enjoy the same.

We sent them recipes for Broccoli Cheese Soup, Crepes, Pizza Crust, Quiche, Ricotta Gnocci, Tomato Cream Sauce, Cheesy Polenta, Mini Cheesecakes, Scones, & Apple Turnovers. Yum.

So Happy Shower, Elizabeth! I hope you have a wonderful time!