It is my turn to share a while on the blog as Deb is going to be traveling.  And dear readers I am not apologetic in saying my world is pretty small because I am having so much fun with my time, just shopping for fabrics and sewing, so I doubt I will give you any awesome blog posts like Deb’s on Mother’s Day.  There I am bragging again

I sew at least 4-5 hours almost every day and never seem to tire of looking at something finished and exclaiming, “wow you are so cute” or touching a fabric and saying,  “you are so beautiful.”  Everyone always said my flower gardens flourished because I spoke only love words to them from the beginning of the season until the end.  A real lesson in choosing our words to bring life and encouragement to others.  Too bad I didn’t know that as well as I do now when raising my children Okay, on to what I wanted to share.

Really I am not here to promote our business but love sharing some of the unique opportunities that come our way.  Today I am shipping a custom order for a friend we made while visiting Warsaw, Missouri for a festival last year.  She found the fabric and asked me to make her the apron.  See what you think.

The fabrics are Michael Millers Gnomeville Border and the yellow is Michael Miller Gnomes.  Now this apron looks pretty simple but….the apron top layer that usually takes 1/2 yard took over a yard to get all that border visible.  The little gnome houses are not evenly distributed on the border, another dilemma that was very challenging for a while.  Finished apron will ship tomorrow morning and I hope she loves it.  Take a look at some of the close-ups of this adorable fabric…but please no more custom orders of this fabric…way too much wasted fabric for me.

Thanks for stopping by and hope everyone is having a wonderful week.

I still pinch myself on occasion to think at my retirement age of life I am having so much fun.

Recently I had an inquiry from a lady in Portland, Oregon who teaches children’s dance. She had seen an apron in Creative Chics online store and wanted to know if I could create aprons for her dance recital.  The theme of the performance was an Enchanted Garden and the little 3-5 year old girls would wear scarves on their head and have a feather duster in their hands, remindful of Cinderella cleaning. She only had two specific requests; rick rack and a double layered full skirt.

Well of course, I said yes.  Shopped for fabric sent her suggestions and here is the final result.

Can’t you just see these little angels flitting around the stage?  I asked for pictures and sure hope I get some.

The drawing for the $25.00 gift certificate was announced Wednesday and the lucky lady was Sarah Seitz of Bellevue, Washington….

What makes Creative Chics unique is we do not make the same apron over and over but each design is only created once…or until our quantity of fabric purchased is gone.  Deb and I constantly remind each other that the fun part is creating. We are definitely not producers, we work way too slow decorating with our fabrics. Many occasions we have taken an hour to decide what pocket to use and how to trim it, definitely not productive but allows us to love what we do.

Sarah selected a beautiful Heather Bailey half apron and it will be arriving in her mail early next week.

Beautiful fabric and ruffles made this half apron so feminine and cute besides being totally reversible.  I think Sarah made a good choice with her winnings!

Congratulations Sarah!

I wish you all could have won   our inventory has dropped again with Mother’s Day sales so we are busy making new items before we have another drawing…hopefully soon.

One of our favorite things to do is get a request for a custom order and work with the customer to select their fabric and colors and styles that they would like to see. It’s fun to see their ideas come to life. This past week we had an order for a  mother daughter apron set for a lovely jewelry artisan and her daughter.

She loves teal blues and chocolate browns together. So after sharing several fabric swatches we narrowed it down to this.

I like that we can use the same fabrics for mother and daughter yet give both of them their very own unique style too!

Mom’s apron is feminine with ruffles and ties that will look great with a bow in the front or back of the apron.

Oh and the little girl’s apron is so “girly” with all those ruffles and the sweatheart neckline. I wish I could see her 4 year old receive this gift. I bet her face lights up with excitement knowing she is going to get to help Mommy in the kitchen and look just like her.

I think this is a wonderful gift our friend is giving herself and her daughter for Mother’s Day. If you are interested in your own custom aprons, just let us know. We love collaborating with you to get the exact look and style you are after.

Remember this stash of Heather Bailey fabric I showed you?

Well here are some of the results although I’m still making more things with it too

And these coasters out of the scraps left over.

I’m always so happy when I’ve used up a batch of fabric, a great sense of accomplishment and I can actually see my results. What I do is very rewarding and makes me very happy and I feel really blessed by that.

If you are interested in having any of these items for yourself, you can find them in our Etsy shop or click on the photos above and it’ll take you to that item in the store.

Reminder:  Leave your comment this week and tell us what is your least favorite chore around your house.  Your comment will enter you in the drawing for this cute embroidered towel.

I was blessed recently to have a lady in Canada want to purchase 15 little girls aprons for favors for the guests at her daughter’s birthday party.  We worked out a special pricing for her based on using 2009 leftover fabrics and remnants to allow me to price them within her budget.  Thought you might like to see what the birthday party girls will be wearing.

This apron was especially made for the birthday girl!  I hope she loves it.

What a great idea for a gift that has so many purposes…I hope each one will wear them and remember the fun they had at the party.  And the birthday girl, well of course I had to make her’s special.  Mom said she is a girly girl so to me that meant ruffles and more ruffles, bright colors and all the trim…I hope she loves it.

It is always my prayer that the person receiving something we have made will sense the love we put into our craft of making something special and unique for them.  I hope that is especially true of these little girls aprons.

I can fault my husband for not following directions (or specifically not following MY directions), but when I do it myself then I only have myself to be mad at. In my case I’m not talking about driving, but sewing.

Remember this beautiful fabric bundle I shared with you a little while back?

Well I started working with it this week, so excited to try a new pattern for a Mom. I’m ok with how it looks but not flabbergasted either. It just needs something.

It is a reversible apron (like getting 2 for 1). The back side uses just the pink fabric, no birdies.

The extra wide waist ties are pink and can be tied in the front or back. I’m not sure if it is “done” yet or not or if it needs something extra added. I think once I have the mother and daughter apron hanging side by side I’ll have a better idea. Feel free to give me suggestion!!!

So now I’ve moved on to the children’s apron. This is where I deviated (or chose) not to read the directions, which was rather foolish.

It is still a work in progress as I have a few seams to rip out and rework.I like the addition of pretty polka dot ribbon and bows.

So a project that I should have been able to whip out in less than 2 hours is now well within the 5 hour range. Go figure!

So next time I give my husband a hard time about following directions, perhaps I should keep my tongue in check and remember this little incident where I was really no better

The 96″ tie I turned and told you about yesterday….  Today you are in for a treat of treats…  Please hold the applause until the end

The apron is finished and I cannot resist showing you pictures, not because the apron is so swell….but the model…she is super, fantastic, fun, beautiful, and I am so glad I can call her my daughter.

Now you have to admit she is absolutely gorgeous!!!!  Not because of her attire but inside and out.

Get a load of this one I took while she was trying to give me instructions…

Now that was a shot we laughed about and loved…. We had so much fun.  She came prepared with white clothing knowing it would show well with any of the aprons she was modeling for me and get a load of those heels….I think my comments were, “where did you get those gorgeous shoes”, her answer to those kinds of questions is always a beautiful smile, and “I don’t remember.”

Check these out…

Now who could resist a cookie from that girl?

Then she really got domestic on me and wanted the swiffer, not like she is really cleaning folks, just having fun with me…I have to admit she definitely entertained me…  And you want to see the model’s shoes for this outfit..

It didn’t matter what we put on her, she looked great in everything…beautiful little girls are like that..

A wife and Mother to the nth degree with four beautiful children, a grandmother to one, a retired Sprint Director, former Hallmark computer wizard, a tech savvy lifesaver to the whole family, loves family, friends, home and garden, and most of all a special friend to her Mother….

I know all of you who have girls no doubt think they are the most beautiful but my three girls….they are so gorgeous, so special and I am so proud of all of them…  Thanks for letting me boast a little…

No, not a man’s tie!  An apron tie… I decided to try some new patterns out the first of the year.  I took a pattern idea out of a book and threw a few of my ideas into it and I am in the process of sewing it up after a day of figuring out the cutting…

The ties to the apron are 96″, yes that is ninety-six inches, long…why, because it wraps around and ties in the front.  I have observed the ties wrapped around to the front is a new look that is catching on and I wanted a shot at doing it.

This morning I put the ties together, two fabrics, one front and one on the reverse side.  Then it was time to turn them.  The ties are 3″ across but it still took me forever to get those long girls turned right side out and almost as long to get them to lay flat under the iron.

In the picture to the left the ties are folded in eighths.

The next picture on the right is in fourths.

And this picture on my 3 foot by 4 foot styroboard I use for photography!!

Big!!

And the one in the center of the board; that is the one I have left to turn and press. I was hoping someone might want to come help me

I hope the new apron is worthy of the price I will be putting on it to account for all of my labor not to mention the three yards of fabric!!  And I can already say, “I won’t be making it again, at least not this pattern!”

As Deb would say, “Go Sew Girl” and quit your whining, it’s a joke between us!

Remember the book I mentioned I needed to read “A is for Apron” by Nathalie Mornu?  I loved the material in it, not to mention the 17 patterns that were included.  The patterns are on 8″ x 8″  pages and require you to increase them by 400%.  First thought is a photocopier but the pattern is too big for that idea.

I remember watching my Mother cutting patterns out of newspaper so I decided it shouldn’t be too difficult for me to accomplish the same and began to gather my tools.  The most important one is the calculator!  Tissue paper leftover from a Christmas gift was perfect as it measured 24″ x 24″.  The tissue  paper  became the perfect element to draw the pattern on as the widest width measurement I would need was 18″.  I used transparent tape to put two sheets together giving me plenty of room for the entire project.

First step, measure the fold line length of the apron body as shown in the diagram and take it times 400%.  That calculation told me the length of the apron from neckline to hem would be 29″ at the center fold line.  Once I had this measurement I continued around the page as shown above  making notes of measurements at specific points, every 4″ to 9″ getting width measurements, etc.  I then was able to transfer those measurements to my tissue, making dots that later would be connected by free hand.  End result….a book that cost me $15.00 will reward me with 17 patterns if I elect to use them.  If you have purchased a pattern recently you know the savings using this method is big!  The project took me less than an hour and most of that time was spent on my calculations and measuring the dots on the tissue.

Notice how wrinkled my tissue paper is; my Mother would frown at me over that, she pressed the paper before she cut her patterns…  I have fabric in mind for the new pattern so keep coming back and I will show it off

Note:  Visit www.creativechcis.com to see all the new aprons added online this week…that is how I spent my cold vacation days, doing what I love most, creating.