Prepping for Easter (Pt 1: Carrots)

So, I have decided for Easter to make my family some cute little things.  Since there are a whole pile of kids in the family now, it just seemed easiest :).  And with kids with food allergies, you actually try to find ways to make food holidays easier by eliminating the food part.  So, figured some stuffies would be fantastic.  So, I found this cute adorable tutorial online to make carrots here. 

Now, I totally made some of my own rules up on this one.  First of all, I chose fabrics with some pretty neat patterns. I didn't want to go for the total orange and green.  I followed the instructions to the T when cutting and sewing the pieces.  But once together, I went a different route.  Instead of tacking (which I am awful at) I sewed flat the leaf pieces to the top of the carrot part after stuffing.  I did a triple round for those to ensure it was nice and tight.  And to hide my hem, I tied some cute bows with some extra ribbon  I had on hand :).  Here's how mine turned out.

The Crafty Apron-The Project!

I did it, I made a "crafty apron".  My project this weekend was to make an apron (among a few other things).  Took me a while and I had a few mishaps I will share, but I am done and its amazing looking :) :).

I also realize this is the first picture of me :).  Hello, I am Corrina, the aspiring lover of cooking and crafting of all sorts :).

Back to my apron, and her'es how I did it.

I first got the fabric.  This is actually recycled from the diaper cases I made a while back.  I really like those polka dots and they go a long way.  Not to mention polka dots are easy to "line up" when you are cutting and sewing, so its a great type of fabric to use if you are new to sewing.

Then I cut the fabric.  I used a template from Martha Stewart to create the top part.  I added in the sash in the middle to create a little blast of color, and then I squared the bottom out myself.  I then sewed the sash in between the two dotted peices of fabric.  I then layed that flat and cut out the inner fabric to the same size.

For the straps, I have found a really useful (another apron I didn't make) tutorial for making straps in general.  It was super easy and the straps are very sturdy.  I will use this again to make bags and other things that need straps in the future.  I got the idea from Michael Miller Fabrics.  You can use this tutorial in general, but I was going with my own thing on this one.

I found it easiest to sew the top "trapezoid" part together with the patterns turned inside (make sure you add in the neck strap at this part).  I actually goofed up here, as I put the straps facing "inside" so when I flipped, my neck strap was gone, don't do that.  Make sure you put the neck strap on the inside as well, with the ends sticking out when you are stitching.  Pinning those down, I made the line. 

Then, I turned the peices outwards.  I used an iron to turn in the sides and bottoms of the inside and outside fabric, and then I sewed down the line.  Make sure before you get to this part, you put the apron on to find where you place the wrap-around straps.  You don't want them too high or too low (I made them too low by accident).  General rule is you want the straps to be placed where the corner is from the trapezoid peice and the rectangle (for my apron, at the top of the green sash).  I goofed up here and made it too low by accident, but was easy enough to move upwards with some backtracking.

Now I must vent a little.   I don't know what happened to my sewing machine, but while I was in the middle of this project, it decided it was going to keep getting caught on something....then I realized that my sewing machine was creating a third line of thread from thin air LOL.  My husband came over, jiggled it quite hard and now I don't have that problem anymore :) :).

O, so proud of myself :).

Now to vaccuum the massive amount of thread my sewing machine decided to waste :) :)