Halloween Apron Swap gift received - so cute!

George the mailman was my friend today. Just as I was sitting down to work on a Christmas project, he brought me a little Halloween something from Micki who was my swap partner for the Halloween Apron swap. Here's what I pulled out of the package...


...a nice little bundle of softness all wrapped up in a piece of fun pumpkin fabric and black ribbon. I was liking it already! But wait until you see what was inside...


Check out that very fun and fancy Halloween apron! The picture really does not do it justice. It is a half apron with a wide orange waist panel, then the main body of it is the candy corn fabric with a black pocket. The bottom ruffle is orange fabric with sheer black spider fabric over it and it is so darn cute, I can't even think of words to say how cute it is! The black grosgrain bow finishes off the fancy look perfectly.

Also in the package were some happy pumpkin socks, a candy corn kitchen towel and a Halloween hot mitt that will very quickly replace my old one that keeps burning me!


Here's a close-up of the spider fabric. Isn't that just so fun and festive? Even my husband noticed and commented on it - and that's saying something! You can't see it in the picture, but the spiders have sparkles on them which just adds to their appeal.

What a fun swap this was for me on both sides of it. I thoroughly enjoyed designing and making the apron I sent to Micki. And the apron I received is so unique and fun and far beyond my expectations. I think I'll wear it when I answer the door on Halloween night!

Thanks Micki! Thanks also to Aunt Pitty Pat for organizing this fun Halloween swap to get us all into the spirit (pun intended!) of the season.

Happy Stitching!

Click here to return to HookedOnNeedles.com

The making of the Halloween Apron

Yesterday I showed you the finished apron I sent for my Halloween Apron swap gift, and today I'm going to show you how I came to that finished design. It all started with the fabulous variety of fat quarters I received from Grace Full Creations this past summer. With so many fun fabrics and colors to choose from, I could create just about any scene I wanted, but this one of course would have to be a spooky Halloween scene. I had asked Micki what she liked about Halloween, then tried to incorporate some of that into the design. I knew she was very much into the spooky aspect of the holiday, so the graveyard scene seemed appropriate, and perfect for the bottom of the apron. Then of course there must be a full moon for a bat or witch to be flying in front of.

Here's how I started...


Just as I had done with some of my other aprons, I cut the leg off a pair of old jeans and opened it up. The hem edge became the top and armholes were cut out. Then I began drawing the scene right onto the denim using my air-erase marker. I had printed out lots of different elements for this design so I could choose whatever I thought would look best as I went along.


I had to get a skull in there somewhere because Micki said she liked them!


And every graveyard scene needs a scary ghost or two just to set the mood!


Then I went through my fat quarter collection and picked out fabrics for each element. None of these fabrics had a Halloween-specific theme, just great colors and interesting designs.

The pumpkins and the bat were traced from the graphics I printed out from various free clip art sites. I had planned to use a witch silhouette in front of the moon, but in the end decided I liked the bat better.

The tombstones and cross and ghosts were drawn freehand along with the sections of the hilly ground. The moon was drawn with my handy dandy school compass to get that perfect full-moon shape.


Then all the fabric was cut into the appropriate shapes and fusible web was added to the backs to adhere the pieces to the denim. I've decided I really like fusible appliqué!


I used a loose zig zag stitch on my sewing machine to stitch around the edges of all the shapes using black thread. I also added some details on the pumpkins and the leaf using the walking foot on my sewing machine.



The ghost faces were hand embroidered using black embroidery floss, along with the year on the cross tombstone.


The bat's eyes were just little straight stitches of white perle cotton...


...and the RIP was backstitched using the same white perle cotton. The spider web was machine stitched using the walking foot, after I drew it freehand using the air erase marker. That is one of my favorite elements on this apron!


I wanted to add a pocket to this apron because Micki said pockets are very important to her, so I found this darling fabric panel that had many different little blocks of Halloween scenery on them. I thought this one would make the perfect pocket for the middle of this graveyard scene. I lined it with the same orange fabric of the pumpkins, leaving just a little strip visible at the top edge of the pocket.


There's a cute little pumpkin just sitting there on that hill waiting to be scooped out and carved into something frightening!


The skull design was worked in backstitch using white perle cotton and a little piece of stitch and tear stabilizer with the design drawn onto it. I did not have a marker that would show up on this dark fabric, and this method worked great on the Irish Step Dancing dresses I used to embroider, so I used it here. It worked great!


Once the front of the apron was finished, I cut out strips of fall fabric for the neck and waist straps, and I made the fall apron for the reverse side to match the shape of the denim. Then I stitched them together with the straps in between and the right sides together, leaving an opening for turning. Once the apron was turned, I pressed the edges and top stitched around the whole apron to close the opening and finish it off.


The reverse side of the apron was simply a piece of fall fabric cut to the same shape as the denim, with a pocket of coordinating fabric stitched onto it. This makes the apron useful for a whole season instead of just the time around the end of October.

Next time you want to decorate something with a one-of-a-kind scene, pick through your fabrics and start cutting out shapes. Heat up your iron, practice you zig zag stitch and get creative with your walking foot. You just never know what you'll come up with!

Happy Stitching!

Click here to return to HookedOnNeedles.com

Halloween Apron Swap gift revealed!

Is there anything more fun than wrapping up a few little gifts specially made or chosen for the recipient and then finding out they were received and enjoyed? I think not! I just got an email today from Micki who was my swap partner for Aunt Pitty Pat's Halloween Apron Swap. She received a package in the mail with all of this in it...


I had such fun picking out a few little Halloween themed gifts to go along with the apron I made for her, and then wrapping all of them up in this fun Halloween tissue paper with long, reusable pieces of black and yellow ribbon. Besides the apron which was the main item in the swap, I sent Micki a little ceramic jack-o-lantern, a fall scented candle, enough Halloween candy bracelets to share with her whole family, and some fun Halloween stickers.

When she unwrapped the apron, this is what Micki found...


...an apron that looked perfect for fall with colorful leaves and a large, functional green-leaf pocket across the front. But when she opened it up and really looked at it, this is what she would find on the other side...



...a one-of-a-kind original Halloween themed apron, designed and executed by me especially for her! I cannot tell you how much FUN I had making this apron!

Halloween is not exactly my favorite day of the year, mainly because it has become so much more than just a day and I think some people take the gory, bloody, scary aspect of it much too far with their decorating and such. There are some places here in my own city that I try to avoid driving by at this time of year because I don't like my children to see some of the stuff people have out on their lawns from mid-September all the way until November.

However, I can certainly see the fun in having a practical and useful themed apron for the occasion, and that was the point of this swap. So I jumped into the project with both feet and both hands, and when I came out the other end of it, I was quite pleased with the effort! I used some familiar methods of needlework and some not so familiar, so I went outside my comfort zone to put this together.

In my next post, I'll show some close-ups of the finished apron along with a few photos of the creative process that led to this fun Halloween graveyard scene on an apron.

Happy Stitching!

Click here to return to HookedOnNeedles.com

Halloween Theme Apron Swap

Do you like aprons? Do you like swaps? Do you like Halloween? How about all three together?



Aunt Pitty Pat is hosting a Halloween Apron Swap. Sign-ups are going on now until September 7, so pop over and read about the details. I signed up and I think it will be fun!


Happy Stitching!

Click here to return to HookedOnNeedles.com