bias tape « make something

This is the linen apron that saved me.

I’ve been wanting to make a simple apron for Andrew for a while now. I came across a leftover piece of linen in my stash on December 23rd and suddenly knew exactly how I was going to make it. For the tie, I found another scrap bit of fabric. That orange print always reminded me of a vintage kitchen textile. I made a very long piece of bias tape out of it, enough to wrap around the waist twice and tie. Then I cut the piece of linen to a large rectangle, using the selvedge as the top edge. To finish the other three edges, I folded a two inch hem, then folded it in again and made mitered corners. I love the look of mitered corners and when I have some time, I’m going to make some embroidered mitered corner cloth napkins. (hmm.. great holiday gift idea for next year!) To finish off, I just lay the orange bias tape across the top, folded the pretty selvedge edge down over it and sewed the top edge. It was simple and fast and the apron is so lovely.

NOTE TO SELF: More holiday projects like this next year!

I did my best this year to use up fabric from my stash and scraps for my holiday gift making. These potholders were inspired a technique taught by Johanna in the Scrappy String Quilt class. I’ve also been wanting to test out the Insul-bright batting that we have in the shop, which is also supposed to be great in tea cozies, oven mitts and ironing board covers.

One side is made of strips of fabrics, pieced together. In the middle there is a layer of Insul-bright batting and a layer of cotton batting, the back is a single piece of fabric. I quilted all the layers together by stitching in the ditch between the patchwork strips.

I made several different 1″ bias tape strips to do all the trimming. If I had thought the entire project through carefully and considered the amount of time I had left myself to complete these potholders, I would have just sewn them inside out and forgone the need for trimming. Luckily, I like to take the hard road. The bias trim really frames the potholders nicely. I also decided to learn how to do continuous binding and mitred corners using Heather Bailey’s tutorial. I don’t recommend teaching yourself new tricks at 3am in the morning before Christmas Eve, but I am planning on finishing my sampler quilt in the next couple weeks and this made for very good practice.

As I mentioned in my last post, I did hit a major low point around 2am, when I realized that the potholders were taking way longer and going much slower than I had anticipated. I also worried that they would seem insignificant and silly. I was extremely tired, close to delirious. I almost started crying in frustration at the fact that I was so foolish for making gifts. (and more foolish for making them at the eleventh hour) I considered scrooging on Christmas and heading to my warm bed to sleep rather than sew. Instead, I jammed a large piece of chocolate in my mouth and switched over to a simple apron project that took me 45 minutes to complete from start to finish. The satisfaction from that little success carried me through until 5am when I finally completed the potholders and called it a well-deserved night.

In the light of day, I really love how they turned out and hopefully they will be well used in the kitchens that they have gone/are going to live in.