apron and feet

As most of you know, I have been heard to say "I don't sew".  I should ammend that statement.  I am very capable of sewing, as a matter of fact, I learned to sew from my Grandmother (Nana).  I remember the first thing I created was a skirt made of zippers at the ripe old age of about 4 or 5.  I can't say it was the prettiest of items.  As a matter of fact my dad made me take it off and put on my real clothes before going out in public, but it was fun.  My Nana had quite the zipper collection and I had most of them in my skirt.  My first year of teaching school, the only way I had a new item to wear was to sew it.  Having said that, I just don't enjoy sewing clothing.  I much prefer sewing projects, like bags or crafty items.  I do wish my Nana had been able to see my first embroidery machine.  She would have loved it!  She would absolutely not believe what the Quattro is capable of creating. 

A couple of weeks ago before I went to Peoria, I created an apron using a purchased kitchen apron from Wally World.

Next it was off to the embellishment.  I created a really cute Halloween design using the PE-DESIGN NEXT software and the BES Embroidery Lettering Program.  The lettering is using the Cherub font in the BES Embroidery Lettering software.  The broom is one I created using a piece of purchased clipart from Graphics Factory.

After I embroidered the design, I decided the apron needed a bit something else.

 I removed all the straps first and went off to find fabric to match the embroidery. If you have met me, you know I am not the tallest of people. Short in stature was probably created by my side of the family. So I had to cut about 4 inches off the bottom of the apron. While I was at it, I rounded off the corners of the bottom of the apron.

I sewed together new straps for the apron that would cross on the back instead of going around my neck.  I don't like aprons that hang around my neck, they tend to start hurting.  Next I decided to add a ruffle around the bottom of the apron.  I went out and purchased the ruffler foot for the Quattro (it also works on other Brother machines) and cut three 6 inch strips of fabric.  I sewed the three strips together and then folded them to make 1 long strip that was 3 by about 132.  Having never really created a ruffle, I wasn't exactly sure how much fabric I would need.  So I decided to err on the side of caution (better to have too much than not enough).  I set the ruffle depth 6 to 1 kick per 12 stitches.  This was too much fun and oh so easy!

Next to sew on the ruffle.  I pined the ruffle to the bottom of the apron and stitch it on with a straight stitch.  After stitching the ruffle on,  I could have pulled out the serger (or I could have serged the ruffle on, but once again I decided to try something new.  I pulled out the side cutter foot for the Quattro and  used an overcast stitch to the right side of the ruffle.  This worked great!  If you haven't tried it out, it works nicely and gives a pretty finish to the back side of the garment.  Yes, my serger would have been quicker, but I didn't have it out and it didn't have black thread on it at the time.  Exploring the different feet for the machine was a great experience.

I then put the J foot back on the machine and top stitched the ruffle.

Below is the finished project.  Jennifer from Benton Sewing was kind enough to model it for me.  Thanks Jennifer!

I have to say this was a fun project.  I really enjoyed using the different feet!


Have fun creating something this week!
Cindy