May Giveaway

We are almost thru May and barbecue season is beginning.  I can hardly believe it! I have been prepping my back yard every free minute.  Planting new flowers, veggies and herbs.  And I just cut the grass today, yes we have a small area of grass and I own a push mower.  I have never really used a push mower.  It's not that bad.  Quite easy and I find it enjoyable.  Relaxing.  The other day we started up the grill just to give it a little test run.  This Saturday will be our first barbecue and Harper's First birthday and I don't want to run out of gas.  Or the grill run out of gas.  Do you grill? Do you wear a grilling apron? One of those that have some sort of funny sayings?  Well in May one of my aprons is part of a give away on the Etsy New York blog.  Just click here to see the whole post.

Butcher Style apron with Liberty of London pockets

And while you are cooking, keep your hair pulled back with this bandanna.
Made of Liberty of London Tana Lawn and finished with bright neon pink stitching.

Basically all you need to do is visit my facebook page and like it.  Then in the comments write #maygiveaway.  You have two more days, the raffle closes on May 23.  And if you love free things you should check out the Etsy New York blog often because every month there will be a give away! How sweet is that!

Good luck!

Patch pockets, how to make them.

As a designer and sewer I find myself constantly hiding the raw edges. I teach sewing at a couple places in NYC and in my classes at 3rdward I teach how to make a Butcher's Apron or a Grocery Bag called the Charlie Bag borrowed from Burdastyle.  For both projects we add patch pockets, double sided. There is always at least 1 student sometimes 2 or 3 that say as we are about to finishing sewing the pocket shut, "How do we put our hand in?".

I will start from the beginning.  Place your 2 pieces face to face, sew 3/8" seam allowance leaving 3" to 4" open. Trim corners at a diagonal, flip to the right side, tuck in raw edges and sew a top stitch straight across.  Then we attached the pocket to the bag or the apron.

the ticking stripe is the apron body

Currently I am making some new styles of aprons for Shag. A cute little, sexy shop based in Williamsburg Brooklyn. The owners, Sam and Ashley, are very cool women. I work mainly with Sam and she is easy going and I can always count on her opinion. I digress. Any who, one of the styles I am working on now is a retro inspired with a tad of sexiness to it half apron. I am calling it the Tabitha apron. Tabitha from Bewitched. I am still using durable fabrics as the base so these are functional as well as cute. I posted my progress on facebook and a friend asked about the pocket. I planned on making a pocket but wasn't sure what kind. Definitely not square. This is a curved, sexy apron, a square visually wouldn't work. I was thinking possibly a 5 point pocket. My friend, Stacey, asked will it be heart shaped. Yes that would be cute but doing a double sided heart shaped pocket with raw edges tucked in can sometimes not be completely smooth on the outside. Those of you who sew know curves can be tough. Then I thought, well I don't have to reverse it, I can just sew it on and have a little fringe.

If you want to do this, cut your heart on the fold like you did in grade school with construction paper.  My pocket is double sided here with pink. I did a straight stitch first around the edges then stitched it onto the apron. I stitched it to the half way up the arch of the heart, leaving about a 4 1/2" wide opening. Feel free to place it at an angle or straight.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/91452844/valentine-cafe-apron-red-hearts-and

 Don't feel like making the apron above? You can buy it on etsy, just click the link.