Sewing project progress: Steph's purple toile apron part II

So last week my mother made a little package for me-- not the sewing machine, unfortunately, she hadn't yet figured out what was the best way to get it and all its little pieces to me, but another really cool set of sewing tools, a rotary cutter and a mat. These are fabulous tools; the rotary cutter is an incredibly sharp bladed wheel that makes cutting fabric, especially at tricky angles, fast and easy. The mat is "self-healing," which makes it an excellent work surface that won't allow anything to be damaged by the cutter. The ease of motion does make the lines a little bit wiggly, but I will just have to work on steadying my hand.

I used these tools to cut out the pieces for katiescarlett29*'s purple toile apron. The fabric also arrived in the mail last week, and not only is it beautiful, the piece actually is big enough to make the entire project, so no need to make anything in another material. I pinned the pattern pieces I made out of paper to the fabric, laid it out on the mat, and, holding the blade as close to the edge of the paper as I could, saw just what a fun and effective tool this rotary cutter is. I cut out pieces for the main body, the straps, and the pockets all like this.

I want to do the actual sewing with a machine, so I'm waiting on that, but I did prepare the pieces. I folded the edge of the main body of the apron in one half-inch, ironed it, and then one more half-inch, ironed it again, and finally pinned that edge down with straight pins. I am pleased that the piece maintained its symmetry even after having the edges folded under like that. Here is how it looked after all that.

Reading through the instructions, I am having a bit of difficulty understanding how the pockets are supposed to attach. I might make a paper version, or maybe a miniature out of scraps like my mom suggested, to see if I can grasp the theory. I was tempted to just try to use logic to figure out how they're supposed to go on, but I think I should at least try to parse the instructions and do it the right way before I start doing stuff my own way.