I got a chance to spend my holiday with my children, my parents, my sister and my brother-in-law. Third Child decided to head to his parents this holiday since his brother and sister-in-law were coming in for a visit (and only informed us of this plan about 10 days prior – hence why we separated for the holiday)
I have a lot to be thankful for – I have a roof over my head, a good job surrounded by some great people, my daughters are happy and healthy and flourishing in school, the puppy has stopped chewing everything she can get close to her mouth and at the end of the month the bills are paid and lo and behold there is even a bit left over…so for that in this day and age I am thankful.
Every holiday season we get a ton of mail from all sorts of charities – now I will say we are decent givers – I do like to sponsor friends and family when they do various fundraisers, walks, etc… and during the holiday season we pick a few names from our churches Angel Tree and {hopefully} bring a little joy for a little while to those children who make do with so much less.
This year I have decided to pick a different Charity each week of December that means something to me and hope that my gift this holiday season might make a small bit of difference.
This week I am donating to the VCU Massey Cancer Center . I have dealt with family and friends who have fought battles with cancer – Pancreatic, Breast, Colon, among others…some have won their battles…my parents among them – other family and friends were not as lucky as my parents. There are a variety of cancer charities out there – some deal directly with research, others deal with clinical trials, while others assist people living with cancer. I choose Massey because they do all the above and then some…the center is also right in my town – so the money I choose to donate may just help people I know and love.
OK on to CRAFTING…
A while ago I cam across a website that had a fantastic tutorial for making a half apron from one simple dish/tea towel…I thought I saved the link, but alas I did not…when I went back to try and GOOGLE it – well there are A LOT of different variations of a dish/tea towel apron…and I have yet to find it again (but on the upside I did find some more FABULOUS crafty sites…more to come on that later….)
So here I started with my raw materials…I failed to take step by step picture thinking I would be able to find that darn tutorial…when I do find it I will be sure to post it….
1 tea towel bought at Homegoods for about $4 (2 per pack)
20 inches of red gingham fabric (Four 5" strips)
Because I failed to find the Apron tutorial again after I first found it I had to wing it…
UPDATE - I found the blog again - here is the Tutorial from V and Co.
First thing I did was cut the red gingham fabric into 4 strips 5” wide (ok I didn’t cut this when I was at the fabric store I asked them to cut them into 5” strips for me…this worked out well since they have the nice big tables used for cutting – all the better to get straight lines) – I sewed 2 strips together to make one long strip….and then sewed the other 2 together to make another long strip – then placed then together (one good thing about the gigham fabric I used – no wrong side) and sewed at a 1/4 inch all the way around – leaving one end open…turn inside out – iron it and sew up the end…now you have your tie.
Next I took the tea towel – laid it out and folded it in half with the good sides facing each other – I then brought down one side so it was touching the fold and pinned and ironed it flat so the folds were nice and crisp.
Since my tea towel had red accents I choose to use red thread – starting at the top I sewed down each side and across the bottom – this left me with one big pocket on the front – I then used the fold lines in the towel and starting at the bottom sewed up to the fold to create 3 pockets out of the one big pocket.
Then I laid my tie out and placed the top edge of my towel in the middle of the tie and folded it over the top, pinned and then sewed the tie to the towel – I did sew both the bottom and the top of the tie…
And then I was done…
Here is PWG modeling the finished product – I will say the ties are long enough for a more slender woman than my pleasantly plump self to cross around back and tie in the front. You can also see TW holding up the basic tea towel before all the craftyness ensued.
Next project is inspired by the posts at Somewhat Simple on Sunday – I found a tutorial for a very simple wreath on another site (to be named when I show my completed project) – but for now I give you just a small taste…
First thing I did was cut the red gingham fabric into 4 strips 5” wide (ok I didn’t cut this when I was at the fabric store I asked them to cut them into 5” strips for me…this worked out well since they have the nice big tables used for cutting – all the better to get straight lines) – I sewed 2 strips together to make one long strip….and then sewed the other 2 together to make another long strip – then placed then together (one good thing about the gigham fabric I used – no wrong side) and sewed at a 1/4 inch all the way around – leaving one end open…turn inside out – iron it and sew up the end…now you have your tie.
Next I took the tea towel – laid it out and folded it in half with the good sides facing each other – I then brought down one side so it was touching the fold and pinned and ironed it flat so the folds were nice and crisp.
Since my tea towel had red accents I choose to use red thread – starting at the top I sewed down each side and across the bottom – this left me with one big pocket on the front – I then used the fold lines in the towel and starting at the bottom sewed up to the fold to create 3 pockets out of the one big pocket.
Then I laid my tie out and placed the top edge of my towel in the middle of the tie and folded it over the top, pinned and then sewed the tie to the towel – I did sew both the bottom and the top of the tie…
And then I was done…
Here is PWG modeling the finished product – I will say the ties are long enough for a more slender woman than my pleasantly plump self to cross around back and tie in the front. You can also see TW holding up the basic tea towel before all the craftyness ensued.
Next project is inspired by the posts at Somewhat Simple on Sunday – I found a tutorial for a very simple wreath on another site (to be named when I show my completed project) – but for now I give you just a small taste…
