Shop Update

Three new aprons were added to the shop this week. Instead of just new prints, these were actually built from a completely new design. They've been in the works for about a year, so I'm pretty excited that they're finally for sale! A lot of thought went behind each feature, so I thought I'd share a few stories of how they came to be.

Technically these aprons were designed with a man in mind, but I think they look good on women too, particularly the red check. Both the gingham cotton and the denim are durable, heavy-weight fabric, so I wanted the apron to work not only in the kitchen, but in the garage as a work apron too. Besides the fabric, the only feature I could find distinguishing a kitchen apron from a work apron was the tiny breast pocket. So I added one. And I like it.

The one thing about an apron that most affects the fit is the neck strap, so I was determined to make it adjustable on this design. Adding grommets allows you to easily tie all the straps wherever is most comfortable. It doesn't hurt that they look cool too. By the way, setting grommets is not  as easy as it looks. After a couple trips to Tundra Leather and whacking every surface of my workshop, an Ikea cutting board on the bathroom floor seemed to be the only process that worked. Try not to picture that every time you put on your apron, ok?

Another word on straps. Without launching into a sewing tutorial, all you need to know about sewing straps here is that the difficulty level increases as the strap decreases. With this desinn, the straps had to be pretty skinny to fit through the grommets and tie, so I decided to use twill tape instead, which is like a cotton fabric ribbon. However, once we tried on the apron, we realized right away that the twill tape was too uncomfortable on the neck. Back to the drawing board. After several tries, I ended up with a sewn strap that is one-inch thick at the neck and tapers towards the ends to tie around the grommet. Your neck can thank me later.

Finally, completely by accident I discovered that because you can remove the neck strap, this apron can easily be converted to a half apron! Huzzah!

I still get requests all the time for the navy plaid denim apron I sold out of in June, so hopefully these will be an adequate replacement. If you ask me, they're better! Please visit my shop for more pics and details.