Wednesday, July 12, 2006

For once I find myself ahead of the game (in one tiny area anyway, never mind the ironing, cleaning, cooking...). My swap package for the kids cooking swap is ready to go to the Post Office in the morning.

The brief was for anything that would be helpful for kids cooking in the kitchen. Without giving too much away about my recipient family, here's a little apron I sewed up, modelled by my beautiful assistant Mark.

I haven't made an apron before so I thought I'd be all official and get a pattern. Holy cow - big mistake. I got one of those 'Sewing for Dummies' numbers, because I've never made anything with a pattern before and was looking for simple. Sadly I did not find it. Talk about making something complicated out of a straightforward job. I couldn't understand what on earth was going on, so I abandoned it and devised my own methods. I mean ... how hard does it have to be?

Perhaps it is me - I am congenitally unable to follow a recipe without meddling either. But the biggest difference is I can cook, not sure I am as confident about saying I can sew.

The boys were good as gold letting me get on with doing it. They were fully occupied perfecting their pigeon catching contraption. Yes, I know, it's a bucket. But it does have bird seed in and Johnny is calling enticingly "Pibin, kum n get oor bir sheee" which, as google translate will tell you, means "Pigeon, come and get your bird seed".

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't follow a pattern to save my life. I think the apron looks really cute! The boys are so sweet...what are they planning on doing with a pigeon anyway?
translation was great. 8-)

laura capello said...

The apron came out great! Seems like the pattern people need to hire new people to write the instructions, I've been reading lately how a lot of very talented sewers (as in sew-ers) are having problems with patters.

Anonymous said...

Ha! Catching pigeons! Little devils.

Yes, I agree. The apron IS cute!

Anonymous said...

Yes, they make patterns incredibly difficult. Why? I do not know. It's really crazy, isn't it? You CAN sew, because I'm looking at this pretty apron and YOU MADE IT! You and I just must have brains that think differently than those ridiculous pattern makers.

Your boys are sweet. Sounds like something my boys would do. My little guy goes to the back yard with a hand shovel and is "digging a pool."

Anonymous said...

I couldn't follow a pattern until I took my sewing class. It is like a different language -- someone has to teach you the tricks and translations I think. Trust me - I abandoned many a pattern. And it's not like I'm an expert in fact - now that I think about it, I haven't even tried another pattern since the class ended.

Anyway, your apron is wonderful for your purposes and expertly modeled.

And besides - it sounds like you already know a second language!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the giggle...I loved the pic of the boys and their bucket, I mean, pigeon catcher!
Those "Dummies" patterns are worse than the regular patterns! The only thing that has helped me is the book on "Sewing for Dummies". But never their patterns.

Anonymous said...

I just love the boys trying to catch a pigeon - reminds me of Noah and I suspect Seth will be just the same!

Love the apron - you really are well ahead - I haven't even started!

Kate said...

Great apron. I always used to sew from patterns, but have been discovering the freedom of doing things my way and am loving it. Your boys are adorable.

Paula Adams Perez said...

Hi Ali!
You win the Sushi-wallet! Would you send me your address so I can mail it to you? The email address on your website is bouncing back as unusable. momma_pajama@hotmail.com