Apron » by elke

Patchwork Apron

I made this a while ago for my husband. He is a really great cook & was just ruining his shirts so I thought this would be a practical but fun gift. I took a 4 pack of IKEA dish towels & just sewed them together to create the base than cut out the shape of the apron. The straps are linen & all the patches & embroideries were made by hand & then sewn on. I made my own stencils out of plastic sheets. This really is a one of a kind apron made especially for him. I must have had a lot of patience back then as I’m not sure I’d have the time any more to create such a detailed piece.

Silk Screen Totes, Aprons & Dish Towels

I started sewing the silk screen scraps into functional items & so far, this is what I’ve come up with. I’m thinking of putting together just 4 “Ultimate Kitchen Gift Bags” for the holiday Firefly show. Each gift bundle would include a shopping tote, cafe apron, linen dish towel, pot holder & perhaps a selection of different salts…. Any other ideas? Each item has a hand screened picture & the bags were made with the natural vegetan leather straps with the contrast signature painted tips, The dish towels have a linen ribbon attached to the top corner with an antique button for hanging on a hook. Being that repetition is not my strong point, each package will be different & unique.

Silk Screening

I just completed my silk screening class ! I have wanted to learn to silk screen ever since I can remember & just my luck, I stumbled over this one available just down the street from where I live. It was way to convenient to pass up. We had an initial meeting then were given 1 week to come up with some designs. Our Teacher Edie was fantastic & in just 1 day we were on our way. I decided to work on a kitchen motif as I’ll be making these into cafe aprons with bright straps! The most fun was when Edie insisted I try the discharge print on a t-shirt. It was absolutely the coolest process & the effect is my favorite. I’m ready to go load up on all the silk screen supplies & print away!

Working Apron

This Apron was made from white canvas & the stripes were hand painted. The side leather tabs were put on to carry over the feeling of the handbags. When I wore this at the show, I totally matched my booth with all the white painted recycled items with yellow stripes. It also happened to be very handy! After wearing this the past 2 weekends I’m ready to ditch handbags all together & start an apron trend!

Stenciled Linen

Linen Dishtowel with Stencil

The above stencil was cut out by hand using an exacto knife on a piece of plastic velum. I have used this on many dish towels & aprons. I sewed a piece of natural twill tape on the bottom that I decorated with dots printed from a pencil eraser dipped in fabric paint. I made a set of these towels as a house warming gift for friends moving into a new apartment.

This linen apron was made for my sister a while back & it’s apparent that it needed some ironing. I used the same stencil that was on the above linen dish towel but used 2 colors for the top & bottom borders. The straps were made from some really great polyester striped taping that I found at one of my all time favorite Japanese ribbon stores in NYC. When it was all finished I embroidered around one of the bottles & added a flower.

My Linen Apron

The last version of this stencil belongs to me! I use this cafe apron constantly. I sewed on a small red cross detail for interest & hand stitched the bottoms of the strap with red embroidery thread.