The Amber Apron

Say hi to the Amber Apron, sewed and designed by me for my first entry in the Sew-vivor competition! This week's challenge was to be inspired from one of the judges tutorials, so I based mine off of the Baking Day Apron found at Ruffles and Stuff. I'm going to try and give you a tutorial on how I made my apron, although it may be a little difficult. I don't always do a ton of tutorials because I make a lot of my stuff without measurements or I custom fit it on myself. But I took lots of pictures to show you guys so that should help!

I started out with this sketch...

..and this fabric, thread, and bias tape to create the apron. It's a cotton twill fabric by the way.

The first thing I did was cut out my fabric. I used Disney's (the one whose apron tutorial I was inspired from) measurements that she gave but added about two extra inches on each side. I just wanted to be absolutely sure it would fit. I get paranoid like that sometimes haha.

My measurements:
Bodice: 25" x 14"
Skirt: 44" x 30"
Waistband: 5" x 23", plus the two sash pieces I sewed onto the waistband: 5" x 35"
Two neck sashes: 3" x 25"
Bias tape: depending on where you want to use it will determine how much you need but I used three packages of double fold and one package of single fold

So I cut everything out and waited to finish the edges. Because I put bias tape on a lot of it, finishing edges wasn't necessary on a lot of parts of the apron. To make the two pleat like things on the front of the bodice, I measured in where I wanted them, folded it, and then sewed super close to the edge. You can see how I pinned and folded it and then how the finished result turned out.

For the skirt, I just wanted big pleats all the way across. They ended up being two inch pleats, and to do them, I would just follow this tutorial here, just like I did. Pleats are actually very simple and easy (at least these ones that I did were)! I pinned them and then sewed all the way across.

The bodice was too big so I had to cut it in. I kind of wanted a cool curve on the side. So at the top I measured in how I wanted and then also measured the other length I wanted at the bottom. About halfway down I measured in the same amount from the bottom, made a line, and then kind of just free-handed a curve from that. You don't have to follow this step, but it's just what I wanted to do. If you just want it straight all the way down, just measure in, cut and then hem.

Then I sewed both of the pieces together, making sure the waist wasn't too low and exactly where I wanted it.

I took the waistband and sash pieces, folded them in half and then sewed them all together to create one long sash. Then I took some grey double fold bias tape and pinned it on the waistband all the way across. It took me two packages of bias tape to cover the whole sash--1 package for each side. Remember these were folded, so I didn't have to do any edge finishing on that either.

Then I sewed bias tape at the top of the bodice as well at the hem of the skirt. I folded the single-fold bias tape in half (so that it was skinnier), then pinned and sewed it to the little neck sashes and sewed those to the bodice. I tried on the apron and then just measured where I wanted them from there. On mine I did them right outside the little bodice pleats.

And the pockets! I don't even know if this is the right way to make pockets, but I'll tell you how I did it. I just cut two slightly diagonal 6-inch lines in the skirt, measuring where I wanted them and everything, then I took one of my skirts with big pockets, traced the pattern and cut it out and sewed the pockets in. I sewed bias tape on top for embellishment as well as the two buttons.

All done!

Now you can go put on your apron, bake some chocolate-chip cookies and eat them. Everyone will marvel at your cooking and sewing skills.

There's the tutorial. NOW GO VOTE FOR ME HERE PLEASE!!!! (sorry I just really wanted you to notice that part! I would love to make it to the next round so if you like my apron, I would love you forever if you went and voted for me and also told your friends to vote for me, every vote counts!)

Tutorial: How To Take in a Frumpy/Too Big Cardigan

So the cardigan I was wearing in the post yesterday and the one I'm wearing now is probably my new favorite cardigan! It's super cute and the perfect color, especially for fall. :) Buuut....I had to fix it first. I thrifted it, so it was a little big and didn't fit completely right and made me look baggy. I'm sure all of you have been able to relate to this at some point. Maybe you bought the cardigan and wore it because you liked the color and style but knew it really didn't look the best on you. Or maybe you saw it in the store, tried it on, and put it back because it just didn't look right. Or maybe you bought and never wore it. Either way, I feel like we all try on cardigans like these! So I've posted a tutorial on how to fix them and make them fit better!

Does your cardigan look like this and make you feel like this?

Then follow these easy instructions to fix your cardigan (and this can also work for t-shirts or dresses that are just a little too wide/big.

1. Take your cardigan and turn it inside-out, try it on and then either pin fit it (meaning you put pins on the spot where you want to take it in) or measure how many inches you will have to take it in to sew it on the side seams and arm seams

2. If you didn't pin fit it while on you, then take it off and measure how much is needed on each side and put the pins into place.

3. Get matching thread in your sewing machine and then sew along where you pinned the cardigan (it's still inside out at this point). See stitch lines below for an example of how I sewed it.

5. Turn it right side out and you're done! Easy right? And then you have a wonderful cardigan that fits great and looks like this and makes you feel like this:

I really do love my red cardigan so much more now after doing this and I wear it a lot more because it fits and looks a lot better! And it took me probably about 15 minutes. So go in your closet, pull out that too-big cardigan you never wear, and get sewing!! :)

Purple Plaid and DIY Fabric Flowers

I like this dress. Because I can look so cute and girly but still look pretty classy. I think the purse went great with the ensemble as well! I'm so happy I picked it up yesterday at the yard sale...definitely worth it. :)

Dress: Kohls (gifted)

Black Cami: Down East Basics

Purse: Thrifted (from the yard sale I went to yesterday!)

Shoes: Payless (used to be my sister's)

AND, as promised, I have a flower tutorial for you today! I'm going to show how to make a cute rosette-type flower.

For this, you'll need:

• A needle and thread (doesn't matter what color because it won't show)
• 2-inch thick strip of cotton-y fabric 10-12 inches long--I just used fabric from an old t-shirt because I had no other fabric and it's the perfect material
• A hot glue gun
• Needles to pin the fabric (optional)

So first I cut out my strip of fabric from a t-shirt. I just used an old yellow one I had.

After cutting out the strip, fold it vertically in half. If your fabric isn't as easy to fold over, I would recommend pinning it so it stays in place. My material folded over and stayed together really well so this wasn't necessary for me.

Once you have the fabric folded over, take your needle thread it, tying a knot at the end. Hand stitch your thread through the open side of the fabric, about 1/8 of an inch from the edge. Just stitch it over and under doing fairly big stitches.

When you get to the other end it should look like this. Don't tie a knot with the thread yet!

Now, you're going to gather the flower together. Pull the flower down the thread until it's gathered neatly together like below. Careful though, not to pull too hard or you'll break your thread. I accidentally broke my thread and then I had to thread the whole fabric again. Not fun. :P When it's all gathered together, then tie a double knot as tight as you can on the end.

Now, take your glue gun and start at either end of the flower and start putting glue along the cinched part and then rolling the flower along the glue. It's hard to explain, but the picture kind of shows it better.

Once you have wrapped the flower all the way around, turn it over and cut out a small circle from your fabric to cover the bottom of the flower so none of the stitching or glue shows. Glue the circle on with your hot glue gun.

All done! You can hot glue the flower to a headband, bobby pin, barrette, or pin, depending on how you want to wear it. The possibilities are endless!

Enjoy your flower! I hope this tutorial made sense and if it didn't, please comment and let me know so I can edit the post. You can also email me at browneehee@gmail.com for any questions. Happy flower making! :)