In June 2017 I combined a couple ideas for an egg/harvest apron. I put small pockets on the apron face and put buttons and button holes so the apron could be configured to hold larger things than eggs.
I made three of the aprons in preparation for visiting my folks so my kids could gather eggs.
I was reading about Japanese Sashiko, an embroidery method that often goes through many layers of cloth for mending and reinforcing. The post talked about a ring thimble, where the pocked metal sits inside a knuckle on the palm of the hand, rather than a fingertip. I purchased one to try, then had the opportunity to test it while working on alterations for contest costumes.
This is by far the most comfortable and least awkward thimble I have ever used. It is in a good position for easily pushing the needle, but stays nicely out of the way when I’m stitching. It is adjustable, so I was able to easily fit it to my finger. Cap style thimbles are inevitably the wrong size for my finger tip. I do have a 3 in 1 thimble, thread cutter, and needle puller, which is useful, but a bit awkward. The ring thimble was very helpful pushing the needle through multiple layers of fabric, especially near seams.
Izzy the cat was quite miffed when I got a new chair and got rid of the hollow she has been carefully cultivating for years. She started the process over with the new chair and decided to add in claw sharpening, much to my dismay. To hide the damage I made a chair back cover with materials from around the house. It worked OK, but kept sliding, so I bought some nice heavy custom-print fabric from Spoonflower to make a new cover.
The first decision I had to make was how to construct the back cover. I decided to do a long strip up the sides and top, and a panel for the front and back. I tore the fabric to get straight lines (yes, light denim will tear like cotton plain weave, just make sure to tear at least an inch away from the seam line because the threads distort at the tear.) I then used the treadle sewing machine to sew up a new cover. I did a fit once the side seams were done, adjusted the length, then sewed a hem.
I do like the Art Nouveau look with squirrels on the fabric. Izzy has already started to reclaim the new cover. It’s a good thing I like cats more than furniture.
In February of 2017 I did an egg apron experiment for a friend with chickens. I made three kinds of egg apron from simple white cotton fabric that I had in my stash.
The experiment was interesting. The round bottom apron was hard to get the eggs out, the pleated pockets were nice, but if you leaned over too fast the eggs rolled out, and the harvest apron didn’t keep the eggs separated.
Now, with three of my own chickens and one or two eggs, I just use my pants pockets. Even when we had more chickens the aprons were more of a pain than helpful. Egg baskets are a more practical solution.
To make the poncho that I made from a free blanket wearable, I used inexpensive acrylic yarn to do a blanket stitch around the neckline, then crocheted into the blanket stitch.
I then alternated rows of shell stitches, 3 on the first row, two on the second, and decreased at the V on each side.
I don’t know why one side has more stitches than the other, but I didn’t count, so that is probably the cause of the error. The crochet did help keep the poncho on, but I still hate wearing it. I even tried wearing it sideways with a “V” on each shoulder. That was better, but the corners on my hands were annoying.
I’m very glad I did this trial with inexpensive materials, and did not put in hours knitting something that I would hate wearing.
Critters and Craft 