Half (Cafe) Apron Tutorial!

I finally finished Grandma's present and it's a cafe apron! Good thing she doesn't read my blog!

This is based on a pattern from the book Simple Sewing. I have made the pattern from the book exactly (you may have seen a green apron with a tan pot holder pocket in a previous post.....thats the one). I also did a variation for my friend but with a square pocket in a cute pear pattern and I also made one in a sold fabric with a square pocket for my brother. I hand embroidered a "N" on the pocket for him, but I unfortunately do not have pictures of either :(
After doing those aprons I modified the pattern a little bit. I made the straps thicker and the apron longer and wider. Here is the tutorial for my version. This is the fabric I chose, for some reason it reminded me of Grandma:

If you are creative this could be made into a double sided apron, but for simplicity's sake I made it single sided. You really should iron the fabric before you cut it, but I was lazy that day and only ironed the fabric before I sewed it. Cut one main apron piece 25in long by 40in wide:

 Now cut 2 apron stings 38in long by 2.5in wide. Also cut one pocket 8in long by 8in wide. You can change the size of the pocket how ever you like:

 

Now I hate ironing so I like to do as much as I can at one time so I don't have to keep pulling out the ironing board and whatnot. If you would like to iron, then sew, then iron another piece that is totally fine, whatever works for you:) Let's start with the pocket. The only thing you can iron right now is the top part that will be the opening. Fold over 1/4in and iron:

Then fold it over 1/2in and iron again:

 

On to the apron strings. So I kinda messed up when I was doing this, so I will tell you the order it should be done in, just ignore some of the creases in the fabric. On one short end fold over 1/2in, iron, fold over 1/2in again, and iron again:

Now at this point you can go a sew this end down, but I keep on ironing. Fold the string in half length wise and iron:

 

Open up the string again and this time fold the bottom half to meet the crease you just made and iron:

Repeat with the top side:

 

And finally fold the entire thing in half length-wise again (don't forget to repeat this on the other string):

Now on to the main apron piece. On the long side that you want to be the bottom of the apron fold over 1/2in and iron:

 

Fold over again 1/2in and iron. Do the same thing on the 2 short sides. For now, leave the top side un-ironed. Here is what the 2 bottom corners should look like (if you know how to do mitered corners, go ahead, they would look really nice here):

Back to the pocket, time to sew! Now since I don't always cut or iron straight, when I sew I usually don't go by a seam width but I use the presser foot as a guide. For the top of the pocket line up the outside edge with the right outside edge of the presser foot (I know thats not what it looks like in this photo but I will explain in a second):

Now in the next picture you will see two seams. Since I didn't do anything else fancy with the pocket I decided to do a double seam:

Set the pocket aside (unless you want to iron the other three sides now). Strings next. The short edge that was folded over before needs to be sewed down. Line up the outside edge of the fabric with the inside edge of the right side of the presser foot (I know, confusing, sorry!):

 

Fold the apron sting back up and line up the open edge with the presser foot the same way as before (outside edge of fabric with the inside edge of the right side of the presser foot) and sew all the way down:

 

Repeat on other string. On the main apron start on one of the short sides and line up the outside of the fabric with the right outside edge of the presser foot and sew all the way around:

Of course there is now more ironing to do, boo!

On the remaining 3 sides of the pocket fold over 1/2in and iron (just once this time!):

To finish the top of the apron, take each of the strings and on the non-sewn short edge mark 1 inch:

Place the apron string near the top edge of the apron and fold the fabric over so the fabric covers the apron string and iron, then fold and iron again:

Insert the string into the fold you just made to the 1in mark you made before and pin:

 

To reinforce the string I sew on top of the existing seam and then close to the edge (sorry for some reason this picture didn't want to stay rotated):

 Time to finish the top side of the apron. After both strings have been sewing in, line up the inside edge of the fold with the left edge of the presser foot and sew all the way across:

 

Put the apron on. Stand in front of the mirror and admirer your work but realize you forgot something! The pocket! With the apron on, decide on the placement of the pocket. It can be either on the left or right. You can either pin in it place (don't poke yourself!) or mark the spot you want with with disappearing fabric marker. Then take the apron off and pin the pocket in place:

Sew the three non-opening sides as close to the edge as you can (don't sew the top shut):

 

And you're done! You may want to iron the apron again in case you wrinkled it while you were working with it. Now model if for everyone (except for the person you are going to give it too!):

And I'm spent! Oh wait....I made a homemade butterscotch pie today but we can talk more about that tomorrow:)

Happy Birthday Dad!

First things first......Happy Birthday Dad! I won't say how old he is, but he definitely doesn't look as old as his birth certificate says he is :)

Tuesday is my cleaning day (vacuum, mop, etc....) and I, finally, started working on Grandma's present. It needs to be done by next Thursday, I think I can do it.

Just a reminder: February I am planning on blogging about how Mike and I will live on a food budget of $150 dollars. Also look for more crafting stuff in February since I just found out I will probably be having house guests the entire month of March (everyone's spring breaks lined up perfectly so that no one overlaps for more than a day so everyone can come down and enjoy our cute little house and the wonderful Florida weather!).

I don't know why I pulled out some ribeye steak to thaw last night, I really didn't have a plan for it. After extensively searching my go to cook books, I didn't find anything I was in the mood for. So for the first time in a while I popped on over to the Food Network site and typed in ribeye steak. These recipes by Ming Tsai (who I love to watch on PBS Create) caught my eye. Granted I only had one type of pepper, but we still did his basic rub. I also changed up the aioli a bit (no dijon and half olive oil, half canola oil) and drizzled the tomatoes with the aioli. As for the panko fries, that was a no go since I do not have panko breading. Since we were having steak, I searched steak fries and picked this Rachael Ray recipe. I used the oregano, but I had no thyme. Instead I used some seasoned salt I got from Tastefully Simple. Ming had suggested to use the aioli as a dip for the steak and fries, so we did that. I didn't take alot of pictures today (sorry, I forgot!), but here you go:

It came out surprisingly good. Having a simple salt and pepper rub on the steak let me really taste how good the steak was. And the steak fries were super good too. In her recipe, Rachael says to cook them in high oven. I cooked them for 30 minutes at 450 flipping them half way through and re-applying olive oil, oregano, and seasoned salt.

Thats it for today....sorry! Please enjoy this picture of my friend with one of our research geckos on her thumb......she loves geckos!

Sun Burn

I don't know why I thought no sunscreen was a good idea on a sunny, 75 degree day on the beach in Florida. I look like a red raccoon and I have a interview tomorrow....yay! I am going to look like a stupid tourist.

Mike is sick (as you learned in yesterday's post) and as part of "doctor's oders" fishing was in store. We trekked down to Venice Beach on the gulf coast so Mike could fish with my Aunt on the jetty while I read and got sun burnt. Here ya go:

There was a high surf advisory today and there were a ton of surfers out today (these pictures don't really do them justice).

 

Mike after snagging a ladyfish:

 

Lorri caught this 6lb black drum:

And then she said "This will make great meal", so she started to gut and fillet it right there on the jetty.

 

And home we went with fresh caught dinner.

 

Mike made a orange butter sauce with lemon and basil (did I mention the oranges were from a tree at my Aunt's house....yay more free food!). Before cooking:

And after a few minutes on the grill:

 

Put it with a little rice and it's magic:

 

Some of the best fish I have ever had! I usually don't like fish (except salmon) because it comes out too flaky or dry or too fishy, but this was really moist and not too flaky and paired amazingly with the orange. I say "bravo" to both the fisher-woman (Lorri) and the chef (Mike)!

Until tomorrow, here is one of our babies, Canti:

 

 

 

Soup-er Saturday

PBS Create usually has a theme for their Saturday shows and today was 'Soup-er Saturday" and how appropriate it was since Mike is quite sick (but tomorrow we are going fishing to try and "cure" his sickness...sure sure). After spending the morning watching some of our favorite chefs (*cough* Julia Child *cough*) I decided I needed to make soup. Since we have a 10lbs bag of russet potatoes in the fridge I had already decided on this Creamless Potato-Celery Soup from the Light Cooking book (pg 119, I think) except I was going to use carrots instead of celery (I apologize for the glare...this book is shiny):

Then I thought " I have that chicken carcass I saved from the roast chicken last week, I should make my own chicken stock". And thus I did. Here is it at the start:

And after I strained it and jarred it:

It finished too late to be used in my soup today, but as soon as I try it I will let you know how it is. Oh, and I roughly followed my Betty Crocker cookbooks to make it. They said a layer of fat on top of the stock helps store it longer but to make sure to skim it off before use. Got it!

After I started the stock, I made some more of those fake buttermilk whole wheat biscuits I made the other day. Now you may be asking yourself "You already ate all those biscuits? You piggy!", but I assure you there are still tons left. I had some more milk left that had just gone bad and I wanted to use it, so I actually made the freezer buttermilk biscuits. Here is my beautiful dough....the mixer is so awesome!

To prep them for freezing you can cut them how ever you like. I chose squares since I am so creative:

And then you put them on a sheet and pop them in the freezer for a few hours till they are solid. Then put them in an air tight container and they will last up to a month. 

 

Then when you are ready for them just pop them in the oven! So when we finally finish the biscuits I made before, we can have more....yay! I use whole wheat flour alot in place of white (or a mixture of the two) not only to be healthy but Mike and I both really like the flavor. It's sort of an acquired taste I think, so if you haven't tried baking with whole wheat flour before I suggest only replacing a 1/4 of your flour with it until you get used to it. Just a suggestion!

Okay, biscuits done. Now time to start the soup. Here is everything simmering:

Normally I would just leave my soups like this, but since this was supposed to be a creamy soup the recipe called for putting half the soup into a blender (and we just got one!) to puree and then adding it back to the rest of the soup and adding a little skim milk. And the finished product:

 

Oh it was soooo good! It's really really creamy! I wonder how it would have been if we had used celery like the recipe called for. I didn't peel the potatoes either and it still came out very smooth. Even if you aren't a big fan of creamy soups, you should totally try this one. The recipe doesn't call for salt or pepper but I still added just a little :)

And now it's time to relax....tomorrow will be spent in Sarasota so probably no cooking. To tie you over, please enjoy this picture of Charlie when he was a puppy: