A Reversible Apron From A Skirt; A Jeans Skirt; Shrimp Gumbo;Magnolias

This was finally finished. I looked around for a pattern that would be good for gathering laundry or vegetables or fruit, but I didn't find any I could share....so I made one! I'd seen some very pretty halter top styles, and I knew I wanted that-mostly because I need that cover over my boobage (I think that's French for The Girls) - where I spill everything. And I needed it to cover my plump hips.

I also used some pretty lavender and orange floral print for the reverse. Don't I look like I should be boiling a hog's head in the cast iron pot outside? LOL That means I look like my Granny :D

I measured my top and how far down it needed to go, just above my waist, and cut it out adding a few inches to each measurement so I could gather it, and cut out 2. Then I measured how long the neck ties should be, and the top piece. I cut the top piece out at an angle so it would fit flat against me without drooping.

For the skirt of the apron, I cut one row of blocks off the hem, and just used the length it left me, and then used that row for the reverse. The waistband was cut from the original waistband of the hippie skirt, and a strip was cut from leftover fabric and sewed together. I marked where to put 3 buttons and the strip...which would hold excess apron skirt after it's buttoned. It was very quick and easy to make, fully reversible, you can use the center strip loop to hold a dishtowel.



If you'd like I can draw up a tutorial. Feel free to copy this design or improve upon it in any way. Try to recycle fabric you already have, a bedsheet would be perfect and you could get 1 or 2 or 3 aprons from just the one sheet-if it's not reversible. Use a men's shirt and you won't have to do much sewing with it :D
Pay no attention to the voluptuous old woman who modeled this for me, I think she's one of those crazy junk ladies who digs around in other people's trash at the curb....lol!

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here's a jeans skirt from a pair of old jeans and a red rose floral skirt I got at the .10 cent sale. I've already cut my jeans down and the top of the skirt off.



cut some more off the skirt..then more (yeah I'm short :D )in my case saving the box pleat in the center top of the skirt. Now that you've got it the length you want it, gather the top of the floral skirt and pull the stitches to the size of the cut-off jeans. Pin-pin-pin...pin it to death! Pin it to the cut off jeans and sew it down. If you use pinking shears to cut your denim you'll get a nice frayed edge on your denim. Use thread the color of your denim. If you're using a stretch denim, then stretch it as you sew.



back view. I added some old lace to my seam. It's still a bit too long! I can always cut the bottom of the skirt off and hem it :D
Speaking of The Girls...not that I'd show you anything BUT the jeans skirt...as my daughter is about to take the first photograph she says "your turkeys are done". And at my age and pharmaceutical level, I have no idea what she's talking about. So "huh?" She says "your turkeys are DONE...the buttons have popped up". Turkey? She's roasting a couple turkeys I didn't know anything about? In this heat? When did she buy turkeys? Is this one of her pregnant lady cravings? TWO turkeys..god, she must be hungry.....seeing that nothing is registering to me she says again....and this time POINTS to my boobage and says "your HEADLIGHTS are ON...you must be COLD...your TURKEYS are DONE and the timers have POPPED UP...MMMOMMMM"...and Hoss is grinning and saying "tig ole bitties"....oh, crap. I know what THAT means. NOW I get it.
Good thing you can edit and crop your photographs. No, I wasn't cold. It was 87 degrees outside yesterday before those big storms hit.

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Twin made some shrimp and chicken gumbo...we hope it won't be the last for a while with the oil spill coming in. The prices are already rising....

a nice cup of hot gumbo...and yeah, it was gooooood!

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I picked some magnolias out of the tree by the back deck. The thing about magnolias is the petals will turn brown where anything touches them, so I tried to move fast :D Glad I picked some that day because it's been raining ever since!


pretty..

very pretty....

the prettiest! and the smell is so sweet!

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The puppies are still small at 5 months old. It's getting soooo hard to tell them apart these days, they're the new twins around here! I'm KIDDING, of course :D lol! But that's Cosmo on the left-he's a good boy-and Wanda on the right-she's a sassy girl. Yep, named after The Fairly Odd Parents :D We don't get them collars anymore, they'll just eat them off of each other in fits of jealousy....look at them sitting on grandson's blankie while he's at school! They sat still because I told them I had "get in the house cookies" for them. I lied.

kudzu