belated mother's day gifts

I'm giving away my belated mother's day gifts by posting this - but hopefully no mother's of mine will be looking at the blog for the next few days. I've got 5 days to finish... I decided that I'd tackle the silverware bracelets and Emmeline apron for my many "mothers" out there. Both were things I planned to make - though not necessarily in the quantity that I require to cover my moms (birth, step, in law, grandmas, god, etc). Obviously these projects did not get done in time for the actual "day", but I'll be seeing them all this next weekend, so I have a new "due date".

Lucky for me, Dave delivered big time on my own Mother's Day gift and brought me home a ridiculously fantastic sewing machine. I've upgraded so much from my "New Home" basic model that I'm fairly certain that if I just ask this new machine to "sew pants" with just the right words and emotion, it will do it on it's own for me. I now am the proud owner of the Huskvarna Scandinavia - and I nearly tear up just looking at it. Dave didn't understand why I would dance around with a large sewing machine box - but he figured out that he did good by bringing it home!

I broke her (Rowan named her Severina) in last night sewing the first of 6 aprons - and she sewed like a dream!! I had Rowan take a picture of the first apron - (check out Montessori by hand for this pattern - it is gorgeous) so it is a bit fuzzy, but you can get the idea. My own mother picked out the fabric - and while I did not like it much on the bolt, it looks great as an apron. The reverse side is a funky drum, palm leaf motif - yes, my mom picked this out as well. You can tie in front or back. I like the pattern so much that I hated taking this off - it made me look better than my normal clothes - but I'm guessing they'd look at me oddly at Costco wearing it! You can tie in the front or back - and it truly was something I could do on my own. Still challenging - but worth it!







Second project(s)were the silverware bracelets I saw on all sorts of "Trash to Treasure" sites. Dave again came through with a new dremel tool and enough bits and accessories to stock a small hardware store. Then I made a purchase on eBay - from a guy who sells the perfect tool to use to bend the bracelets correctly. Just to disclaim - I did try to make the bracelets without the amazing spoon bending tool - but they were jagged and crooked - and looked horrible.


I finished this first batch of 3 and then realized that I had not really sized them correctly - as they only seem to fit my 5 year old. I'll be working to find the correct way to make them a bit bigger - and fit those of us who have normal to larger sized wrists. Note - I have no excuses for these blurred pics (Rowan did not take them) - except that maybe it is hard to take pictures of silver - and I need a new camera (though after getting the sewing machine and dremel tool, I think I'll be quiet and lay low for awhile!).