Monday 20 February 2023

I can iron for miles and miles and miles...

The apron project took hours and hours.  It was a not a lot of sewing but tons and tons of cutting and acres of ironing.

I cut out all the pieces for the apron.  Easy peasy.  Then I searched for something I wanted to try for a while now, continuous bias tape.  There are all sorts of videos and blogs about how to do this nifty trick on youtube and if you have only ever made your own bias tape by cutting the fabric and then sewing the strips together, you should give this a try.  It is kind of interesting.

You take a square of fabric and then you do a certain kind of cutting and marking and pinning and sewing together.  That is where the tricky part comes in.  Look for the videos.  Continuous bias binding.


And then, you cut on the line and you end up with this vast long strip of bias tape ready to be pressed. .  


And then you take up a position at your ironing board (trust me, this will take a while) and you press in the double fold that make a purchased double fold bias tape so handy.  It takes forever.  I have an iron that has a large water capacity for steaming and I went through three fills of the reservoir as I pressed.  Honestly forever.  

And then you sew the shoulders and sides on the apron bit.  That took ten minutes, maybe less.  And then, you look at the bias tape which you already worked on for four hours and you are sure you are starting to hate and you start debating attaching to the apron.  You leave it for the next day.


Wise move because this morning, you are feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed and the dratted bias binding attaches like a breeze.

You may note that I switched from I to you as I wrote.  I think that I needed to separate me from the whole bias tape experience just a bit.  I was just too close.  

I will repeat the bias tape experience again, I am sure.  There is so much that you can do with a bias tape you have made.  You can choose your colour, your width in a way that can be a very fun part of the process and can add a bit of individuality to your sewing.  

But I ain't gonna like it.  Much.

Updated to add:  And then you sew on the pockets.  Easy peasy.

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