The Stuff of Amy Butler's Nightmares

Although I would have loved to wow you all with my chic taste and amazing sewing prowess for the first journey out on the sewing machine, it was simply not to be. Instead, my sometimes odd sense of humor and extremely rudimentary sewing skills got in the way:

Whahahahahawha!

Here's a detail I love -
the towel loop.Soon after I inherited Marnie's machine and got it up and running, Larissa announced that she was putting together a fundraising auction for Cafe Au Play, a wonderful family-oriented cafe project in Portland, which is slated to take place tomorrow night. In the past, I have done some minimal sewing on the borrowed machines of friends, culminating in much of the piecing work on this quilt. The last time I did any substantive sewing was over three years ago, and it was fairly rudimentary then. Still, I got pretty excited about this apron drive and decided that I really wanted to participate, so I signed up, thinking that I would make an apron or two for myself as a test run and then complete one to mail off to Larissa. Oh, the hubris!

The bow in back.Life, as usual, got in the way. I spent much of the last month either working or spending family time with Caia and M, and really didn't allow myself any time to play with the sewing machine. Then this week came and I attempted to cut fabric. Apparently I need to go back to kindergarten, because I cannot use scissors to save my life. Happily, I have a Michael's nearby, so I was able to pick up a rotary and self-healing mat and avoid the cutting issue. But then the issues with the machine itself began. I should probably say the issues with me. I am sure that if I had threaded it properly the machine would have been just fine. Instead, I spent all of Wednesday night meticulously taking the machine's guts out, removing thread, and cursing steadily. I was only set right by a desperate trip to the repair shop during lunch yesterday, wherein the repairman took mercy on me and reminded me of the most basic of sewing steps. Last night, with the deadline looming (thank god for fedex), I was determined to make the apron work. By early this morning it was finished. (Don't worry, I did not sew all night. I took a "Survivor" break and had a nice healthy sleep before returning to stitching.)

Another view of the pocket.The resulting apron definitely has its flaws. My esteemed photographer is capable of making it look quite nice in these photos, but if you look closely, you can see the way the stitching at the waist undulates like a series of gently rolling Iowa hills. The fabric is not cut in a straight line (as you can tell by the way that the skulls fail to line up), and there are likely thread ends hanging about, but for all that I still love it. I think that this apron would be a ton of fun for the mother of a little boy, or even for the occasional hip, secure dad (though I suppose even a hip dad would prefer to lose the pleating). It's not vintage, lacy, or delicate, like some of the other lovely pieces that I've seen donated, but I hope that it will fill the niche for fun. Although many of the seams are not straight, they should be strong. I'm hoping that the homemade nature of the auction will draw the kind of edgy Portland types who will like its rustic charm. If not, I am happy to bid myself!

For those who are interested, the pattern is the Pleated Apron from Amy Butler's recent book, In Stitches. It is extremely well-written, as evidenced by the fact that I, who cannot thread a sewing machine or cut with scissors, was able to follow it and produce an actual apron. (Yay!!!). The skull fabric is Talking Heads from the Alexander Hamilton Collection. Personally, I would make an entire quilt for a little boy out of this fabric, but as you know, my fabric taste has been questioned before.