Pretty Aprons

A "bachelor" cousin of my DH, collects craft books and magazines, when he sees them and saves them for me.  He was over recently and brought a huge plastic container full mostly of magazines.  I've had so much fun looking through them and picking out all sorts of small to medium projects to work on.

In one of them the Australian HOMEMADE Vol 25 No. 5 was this picture and pattern:

A lovely apron.  I've wanted to make one for a few years now.

So I've been busy sewing......

And now have these two pretty aprons.

I would love to find an old vintage apron pattern, one that isn't a strap around the neck but a nicer fit and finish at the back.  I saw Lucille Ball wearing a gorgeous one on "I Love Lucy" fabulous old black and white re-runs of comedy you can't beat.

Mwanza fabric and other projects

While in Mwanza, Tanzania in January, I was able to buy a few pieces of fabric. 

I decided to make a couple of table runners, using these fabrics plus bought a couple of "plainer" fabrics back here. The colours remind me of our time in the Serengeti National Park.  We where there when it was so lush and green, then the colours of the rocks, soil, river and animals - all distinctly imbedded in my memory.

The centre of the table runners were "fussy cut" from the centre fabric in the first photo. The fabric strip between the Mwanza fabrics isn't as golden as the photo makes it look.  It's a lovely earthy, slightly gold brown.

I've also had fun making a bag with "padded squares" that were then hand-sewn together.

The pattern was called "country carry bag" in the Australian HANDMADE magazine Vol 22 No 2 (2005).

A number of ladies have joined in a SAL with Chookyblue here on this blog:- Stitch-A-Long.  They are making smaller projects from a couple of books - "Tis The Season" and "Some Kind Of Wonderful". The project for January was a thread catcher.  I've had a nice shape plastic container, as seen here, for a long time as my thread catcher and for small fabric scraps. 

I decided to make a cover for it that can come off when I empty it.

Now it looks like this!!