Quilts 2011

25 June 2013

Patchwork, Please: Week Four

I am loving making the fun projects from Patchwork, Please by Ayumi Takahashi. And I'm loving being a part of the sew along... Check out what everyone is working on Flickr.

 

This week's project is The Polka-Dot-Café Apron.

 

I started out yesterday making the patchwork

 

It was fun fussy cutting the centers. I also got to play with some vintage scraps I picked up at the Minnesota Quilt Show (they are the little squares in the second and third blocks). The yellow gingham in the third block is fabric my grandma gave me from her stash.

 

When it came time to put together the apron I found some canvas like material in my stash to use. Plus some more gingham for the ties. All done!

 

Or so I thought.

 

This more I looked at it, the less happy I was. While I posted the above picture on Flickr and Instagram and received such sweet comments, I wasn't completely happy with my workmanship. The canvas felt stiff. The ties weren't originally long enough to wrap around to the front to tie like I wanted them to - I cut them shorter than I was suppose to so I added to the ties which looked sloppy. And then my points on the patchwork were not looking to pointy in spots as my seam allowances were a little off. This also resulted in a wavey bottom where I was trying to hit those points.

 

My own worse critic, I suppose, but I wasn't too excited about wearing it because of these things. After the time put into the patchwork and loving that part I decided to rip it down to the three blocks and rebuild it.

Here's the after...

 

Here's what I did in the re-do...

A trip to Hobby Lobby today to find twill was the first step.

 

Then I added a 1.5" strip of fabric to the bottom of the patchwork so I could finagle a bit more to get the points without the pocket looking all wavey on the bottom.

And for the ties, I ended up having enough gingham left to cut new pieces and encasing the top of the apron in it to add a fun element to the top of the apron. Plus they are long enough to wrap around to the front and tie!

An extra - while at Hobby Lobby I found some measuring tape ribbon in the scrap booking section, so a piece of that was added for another fun element!

It was a lot of unsewing but I'm loving the final product! Worth the time and effort.

Now I'm afraid to use it in - don't want it getting dirty! :)


 

 

7 comments:

  1. Wow, such dedication! It really looks terrific!

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  2. It's whether you're happy with it that counts. So nice that you used fabrics that mean something to you. Good thing you didn't wait until Sunday to get started on it! You're version is adorable.

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  3. I feel your pain...I've learned that I love things much more if I get them just the way I like them! Glad you went back to it to get it just right (even though it was great to begin with)! It turned out wonderful and love the gingham touch. great job!

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  4. Your patchwork is so neat and tidy. Love the apron

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  5. Good for you, it looks great. I like the little measuring tape addition.

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  6. Love it with the white also. Such a cute apron!

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  7. I already liked it the first time around, but your corrections really made this special. That little tape detail is adorable, and I think that bottom fabric strip that matches the binding is pure genius! It really adds a lot to the apron. I must say...I have only come across a couple of people who ended up with points intact. Seems like a problem with the pattern.

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