Apron for Nana

Last week Nan suggested that she could use a new apron. She prefers the half-apron style rather than the full, oil cloth, make-a-total-mess-and-wipe-off, version my mom and I both use. My aprons are from Harrods and I love them, but there's something about a sweet little half apron that just gives me the urge to sew.

Yesterday after work I headed over to our local pharmacy/appliance/porn/party/fabric shop to buy some cute foodie fabric. I didn't see any sketchy dudes walking out with paper bags this time, but I did get some discrete photos with my phone just to prove to bridesmaid C that I wasn't nuts and that the best fabric store in this crazy city also has a porn shop in the back. It's only a matter of time before my license plates are ripped off in the parking lot.

After browsing for a while and chatting with the shop ladies about mu-mu patterns (they're so not in style I don't even know how to spell mu-mu) I walked out with three fabrics, each with a fruit print: lemon, bananas and cherries. I was also assured by the shop ladies that my 87 year old grandmother has earned the right to wear my great-grandmother's thread bare mu-mu if she wants to. Whatever, she didn't like her mother-in-law and the thing is nasty. But I digress, this trip was about the apron, we'll address the mu-mu on another day.

Last night in bed I sketched out my apron pattern and calculated my cuts. This morning I woke up, had a frustrating experience at JoAnn and then got to work on these cuties:

Reversible half aprons with big bow ties. One for me and one for Nan.

I also spent the entire day with one eye on the front yard where the baby birds from the palm at the edge of our yard were jumping from the nest and learning to fly. Having made the mistake of putting a baby bird back in its nest years ago, I now know that when baby birds leave the nest their first step before flying is to find cover in shrubbery for several hours to a few days. Fortunately, it was very hot so the neighborhood cats were fairly lethargic and I only had to hiss away two. I'm a little nervous that as it cools off tonight the cats will be out on the prowl. Huge fan of the birds, not so much of the cats.