Apron Fun

We've had a lot of wet weather lately, and my niece and great-niece are having a grand time together in the kitchen.  Just for fun, I stitched them some chef aprons from a solid blue bottom-weight cotton canvas.  I typed their names in a Word document, choosing 250 as the size for the font.  I selected "mirror image" on my printer so that the letters would be reversed.  This makes tracing them onto fusible web so easy.

This was a quick project, and I didn't want to remove any marks afterwards, so simply placed a print- out of their names underneath the fabric letters. I removed the paper backing from the web before I started so that I wouldn't disturb them once they were straight.

After fusing them in place with a hot iron, I placed tear-away stabilizer underneath my work. It makes such a difference in the final appearance of the stitches.

In the top is 50 weight Autifil thread, and in the bobbin is 60 weight Aurifil. I did a simple satin stitch around the edges of the letters.

I always keep corsage pins in my pincushion, and find a gazillion uses for them!  They are a big help removing tear-away from inside the letters

Luckily, these were both short names and I was done in no time. I debated about making matching chef's hats, and in the end wimped out and went with $ store versions...since I figured they wouldn't actually wear the hats anyhow.

My great-niece was excited to get a surprise parcel in the mail addressed to her, and was a good sport about wearing the silly hat.  It was a total guess as to the size, but I'd say there are a couple years of cookie-making in this apron for her.