Office Chair Slip Covering Made Easy

I asked Alice to sew up the chair pattern for me. I wanted someone who had never made an office chair cover to test Simplicity 1335 for me. It came out perfectly - I love it. The fabric is home decor weight cotton from Westminster Fibers, Dream Right by Deena Designs. The only change you need to watch out for in that pattern pack is that they don't teach the proper hem. They say "apply bias tape." It should say, Apply bias tape to fabric edge with right sides together, then fold to wrong side and stitch in place for a narrow, 1/2" hem. Click here if you need to run out and get that office chair, I do highly recommend it. This slip cover will fit it perfectly. If you are covering a similar chair, I would recommend doing a muslin for fitting first.
You can see my apron from Simplicity 1241 in the background, I love it in the Moonshine fabric by Tula Pink.

Apron Sew Along Part 1

Here are the 2 aprons I am making for the sew along:

They each take one yard of main fabric. A half yard of contrast collar fabric. One yard of lining fabric (both of these are lined with a nice white cotton I found on sale at Hancock.) and 13 inches of lightweight interfacing. The apron on top could be reversible, but I would never want to turn it around because I love Cori's fabric, so I just made it lined.

It's late, so I am going to post the easiest parts first. I like to do them first too.
Making the apron strings is easy. I like about a 1 inch wide apron string. I prefer to tie mine in the back, so I only make them about 26 inches long. You will want to make yours longer if you like to tie them in the front. The apron pattern is written for long strings - about 40 inches each. Play with your measuring tape to see what length you want. For the 1 inch width, I cut my strings 3 inches wide.
I press the long edges in about half an inch.  I also press one end in about half an inch. Then I press the long folded edges together. I stitch this closed about 1/8th of an inch from the folded edges.

After pressing the apron strings I like to press my 10" bit of bias tape for the key hole in the neckline. Cutting on the bias means cutting at a 45 degree angle from the grain of the fabric. If you had a square of fabric that was cut on the fabric grain, that would mean cutting diagonally from one corner to another. A quilters ruler will have 45 degrees marked to make it easy to cut bias strips.

Making the edges off set, will help you later when you apply the bias tape. You have the narrower part on top and the wider one underneath. That way when you stitch from the top, you are sure to catch the under part too.

I am off to bed now. Tuesday nights are pretty hectic around here, so I will plan on posting how the collars come together on Wednesday.
I hope you will join me for this sew along. You will love your new apron. The pattern for both of these is in one PDF, you can pick if up at Craftsy or on Etsy.

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.

Made with Simplicity 2298

Made with Simplicity 2298
Originally uploaded by studiocherie

When I saw this Apron in the Fall Simplicity Catalog, it was a bit of a thrill for me because the designer of this apron, Joan Stroh, is someone I interviewed for my article on sewing pattern licensing. When I saw her designs featured on the inside cover of the catalog, I had even higher hopes for my catalog placement. Still waiting to see the Spring catalog for my pattern by the way. The December 17th date that Simplicity gave me must have been the printing date. Looks like JoAnn's might have it beginning of February.
I posted a pattern review for this project at Pattern Review. I highly recommend this for gifts. The ladies I made these for were thrilled on Christmas morning.

Spring Cleaning

donna_4369
Originally uploaded by studiocherie

It feels so good when it's all over.
To be freshly cleaned and organized, is my goal by the end of this month.
Step one, put on an apron with pockets, that will help.
I really can't inspire you any more myself yet, so I will let these other beautiful art studios do it for me.
Enjoy!

2008 The Year of the Apron

If you sew, you know what I am talking about - the year of the apron. Flickr is a great place to check out if you want to be inspired by aprons or anything else you have a mind to search.

All of the kids in our family are future business owners. Hailey, who is 10, has her heart and mind set on being a pastry chef. It is wonderful to see how confident she is as she moves and works around the kitchen. This is my Christmas gift to her and I can post it here because she isn't a blog reader, yet. She got a blue parakeet for her birthday, so that is why he's on the pocket. It's a very simple apron design, featuring Amy Butler fabrics, that will look really cute on her.

cupcake infant hat by onasmallscale
Keep baking, Hailey, you are wonderful!

artwork on canvas by GeminiStudio