Sister Van Uden is a devout lady. She spends her days handcrafting teacozies made out of old blankets and thanking Him for the blessing of eiderdowns.
That nice woman asked me to share a booth with her at the craft fair De Hippe Markt, in Utrecht, next weekend over at the Griftpark (June 12 and 13, 10-17 hours. Come see us if you can stand a crowd of hundreds of young moms!). She will be showing off her tea cozies and I will sell prints and show my portraits. But for this fair we are also introducing a hot new fashion item: the I-apron.
Basically it consists of 3 leather pockets to carry your mobile phone, your Ipod and your scissors or pens around the house in. It is the artists’ answer to the carpenter’s apron.
And today I set about making the first aprons. This is our dining table right after breakfast. I got scrap leather at the Utrecht Textile Market some weeks ago.
First I needed some labels. I tried printing them with a handcut stamp and screen print ink on labels but the result was too uneven. So I machine embroidered over them. A very meditative job that enabled me to catch up with the news.
Then I cut the leather with my rotary cutter – it is still sharp! And put two sided glue tape on the pockets to keep them in place while sewing – Thanks Titi for that tip!
And happy sewing!
Yes, you can sew leather with a plain sewing machine. I did not know that either. The leather should not be too thick. You need a special needle – although I made my first apron with a plain needle.
One thing you should never do is pull on the leather or help the machine along – it will ruin the delicate balance of the machine, your needles will start breaking and you will have to have it repaired.
As happened to me, indeed.
As soon as I find a model I will put some up in my shop, too.
I love those aprons. I carry mine around the house all the time, since I sew my own pants and I don’t put in pockets. And I listen to pocasts a lot while I am doing the usual, less interesting mom stuff about the house.
Tags: textile
Great going Kitty. Those labels look fabulous. You have much patience to machine embroider each one. I am currently working on a custom stamp for fabric for someone – my first – I wonder how well it will print now that I've read what you needed to do!
I know it should work, may be I was too impatient.. also the label had some texture that made it hard to print evenly on.. tiny ribs.
What a great idea! I broke my almost new android by leaving it in my sweatshirt pocket, running down a hill after the dog, having it bounce out and crack the screen. Luckily–it still works. If I had had an apron…!
Great idea!
I usually have no pockets and end up sticking my iPod in my bra :)
I have a friend who does, too, Jo! A good idea actually but then I also need to put my Ipod somewhere..
Wat een heerlijke kleuren, en het staat stoer zeg! Zo'n naaimachine is toch wel handig ;-)
Hmm, interesting comments on where people put thier iPods. I love this idea and love the colors of the leather. That labeling is phenomenal!! Wish I could be there to see the booth!