I’ve been itching to sew something for a while. I don’t want to sew much in the way of garment for a couple more months so I had to resort to other things. I recently bought the book called One-Yard Wonders and decided to give it a try. There were a few projects marked but I settled on an apron type deal because I had the perfect fabric for it, a sushi fabric I bought last year. The pattern is called “Smock of All Ages”. It looked cute and it would definitely look cute with the sushi fabric.
I got the fabric out, folded it and placed the pattern pieces on it. Guess what….they didn’t fit in one yard! Sure, they are one yard wonders BEFORE shrinkage. I wash all my fabric as I get it and cotton, naturally, shrinks. She must have done the measuring and cutting before the fabric shrunk, there is no other way she would have gotten one yard measurements. My fabric had the same width she supposedly used so it wasn’t that I was using the wrong fabric. So, so much for the sushi fabric. I tried a few others with the same results. I finally tried some fabric from the Tutti Fruitti collection from Joans and I guess that one hadn’t shrunk as much as the others or was wider originally. It fit there. The problem is, the fabric makes the apron look frumpy and “grannyish”, as my husband called it.
Either way, I like the shape and It would have been great in the sushi fabric. I’m disapointed that it didn’t fit in a yard but I still like the end product and it covers much more than most of my aprons.
This project would have been a nightmare had it not been for three little tools I’m so glad I had. The entire apron AND the ruffle are narrow-hemmed and let me tell you, there was not a chance in hell I was going to narrow hem all this. The narrow hem foot was certainly needed here. The second foot that made the project easy was the binding foot. Binding the armhole slits was easy peasy. Last but not least, the bias tape maker was VERY helpful in making the straps for the back.
I guess you never really know how much you need something until you do, but that begs the question!
Steph@ madas place
Cute smock!!
I have a shopping cart cover pattern where the largest piece won’t fit on pre-washed fabric. Annoying!!