Apron Sew Along Part 1, Printing

I brought 2 aprons with me to Seattle for Thanksgiving and had to leave them behind for my mom and my sister. I think the women on your gift list will love having an apron from you too.

The first of my apron patterns is out and available on Craftsy. It includes the Peter Pan Collar apron and the reversible apron. The format is new, so there are special instructions for printing it. This is what the printing dialog will look like for printing the pattern pieces: (page 1 is the printing instructions and pages 8-14 are the pattern pieces)

and below is the dialog for the pattern booklet.  It is a little complicated to print this way rather than just clicking the printer icon, but I think you will like the pattern format. It will make the pattern nice to use and to keep.  If you want it to look like a professionally printed pattern, you can print page 2 on glossy cover stock (page 3 is intentionally blank) and pages 4-7 on nicer copy paper. After stapling into a booklet format, trim around the top and right sides of the cover photo. Let me know if you have printing questions or comments.

 I am working on the other apron pattern this week - the one with the pointed collar, Edwardian collar and standing collar options. Next week, the week of December 3rd, I will get into the actual sew along for this first pattern with detailed photos. All you have to do to be part of this sew along is get the pattern on Craftsy and follow along here. You  have time to get your fabrics and pre shrink them now.  If there is enough interest, I will start a Flickr group so everyone can post photos of their aprons. After this sew along, I will do another sew along for the other pattern.

before and after

Before and after
Originally uploaded by studiocherie

I thought the first photo shoot was okay. I have to say I was a little disappointed because the bags are each so beautiful. I think that was lost when we piled them atop one another. I had the idea yesterday to take them to our new favorite staircase (where we shot the slipcovered chair for One-Yard Wonders 2) and try some angles. The light was too full for us yesterday, so we had to head back there this morning before Rory went to work. We were able to get really creative in showing off the 5 bags. More shots on flickr, click on the photo to go there. This was my first time trying out the collage at Picnik I wanted to show the before and after side by side.

I just lost photoshop because it looks like the guy we bought it from did not have the license to it. I tried contacting the actual license owner to see if he would transfer it to me since I paid for it, but have not heard back yet. So for now, Picnik is my friend - and I do love it. If you need photo editing software but don't want to spend the money for photoshop, Picnik is great.

Making Hay, While the Sun Shines

This post was inspired by this poster by Slide Sideways

Everyone I know in the Northern Hemisphere is ready for Spring. While we probably aren't making hay, we should be making pictures whenever we do get a sunny day (like yesterday here.) Sometimes it means running outside to shoot some photos, making other things on the "to-do" list wait (like the laundry.) In Spokane, our morning light tends to be a little blue for portraits, making people more attractive in the late afternoon (or maybe it was that glass of wine ;-) I am glad I caught the frost on the trees at sunset last week, I may never see that again. There is a group on flickr that is fun to look at, with extreme cold and heat photos.

Frosted branches at sunset by me, Attractive person on a late afternoon hike also by me ;-)