Fun Apron

This summer I purchased a new sewing machine. It is fabulous. I am amazed at how much better my sewing is just from upgrading to a better machines. My new machine came with a lot of feet. One of them was a ruffle foot.

On Tuesday, with both children in school, I spent over an hour testing out my ruffle foot for making aprons. I used some fabric I had gotten from freecycle. The sewing machine book suggested starting with 10 inch pieces of fabric to see how much ruffle would happen. It then gave suggestions on changing stitch lengths as well as needle tension to create fuller ruffles. I tested and re-tested my measurements and, when I was sure I knew what I was doing, I drafted my apron pattern on freezer paper, ironed it onto the fabric - cutting enough for two aprons since I was positive I was going to now have an easy job. After all, I had tested and re-tested and was happy, even giddy, with my test fabric results.

Can you see where this is leading?

Yup. When I used my actual fabric the results varied. My daughter came up to the sewing room earlier this evening and asked what I was doing. I told her - just like she makes mistakes I make mistakes too. I needed to rip out stitches in order to correctly sew my garment. The finished aprons aren't as full as I would like but they aren't too bad.

I guess it goes to show - use some of that actual fabric to test - not just free fabric. My daughter really likes the apron. Especially the cat button on the pocket.