It’s appropriate that this is apron 13, because it was a nightmare to make. Just about everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
The apron idea was inspired by 4 leftover reproduction hankies from apron #1. I knew I wanted to make a handkerchief hem, but it took me longer than it should have to come up with a design and a technique for the construction. Things began to go wrong when I started to sew some cute trim around the hankies that ended up being too short, so a compromise second trim was finally selected. After it was applied, I decided I didn’t like it, so I removed that trim and replaced it with the floral stripe you see here. Because the hankies had a bright white background and the stripe was ivory, I figured I would just give the whole apron a light tea bath — what a disaster. What was I thinking. . . the handkerchiefs were produced by Daisy Kingdom and are a cotton blend (unlike the similar and newer reproductions by Marcus Brothers which were all cotton). They barely darkened, while the floral stripe turned very dark. I had to remove the tea with Oxyclean, then brush the tea on each individual hanky until it sort of matched the stripe.
There were lots of other stupid mistakes, and I ended up spending almost the whole day yesterday working on this one silly apron. After all that work, it’s not even one of my favorites. The one good thing is that I got lots of practice with the rolled hem foot, which I am hoping to use with my wedding napkins. Hemming corners with the foot is getting easier.
