Tie One On: local pride (updated)

*Note: this post is currently unfinished.
I will edit it when I have a photo of the full apron.
I wanted to post now, just to show you what I have so far.


(click on image to enlarge)
The challenge for Tie One On was to make a regional apron--to showcase where you live.

I decided to make another apron from a floursack towel.
(I made an embroidered apron for a previous TOO, but I used a heavy duty floursack that I purchased at a quilt show for that one).

For this challenge, I just tried a light-weight towel I purchased at the grocery store.
I took a vintage hankie with a California theme, and fused it to the center of my piece--both to hold it in place and to give it strength.
The hankie is a map of the state, and is surrounded in California poppies (the state flower).
The apron is finished with vintage orange bias tape with white polka dots (why oh why does Wright no longer make patterned bias tape?).

(click on image to enlarge)

The embroidered apron I made previously was folded in half to create large pockets.
This time, I wanted the hankie area flat so the scene could be more visible.
I cut the towel lengthwise, giving me the longest possible piece.
My idea was to make a cafe-style apron that is almost like a wrap skirt (except on my fat ass, um, it doesn't quite reach around...but I digress..).
I wanted the ties extra long so they could reach around the front and be tied there.

Initially I was going to have plain pockets on either side, but then I decided to try someting unique, and I made a horseshoe pocket from a 1920's skirt pattern that I purchased, specifically for that fun pocket with the inverted pleat.


The pattern has only vague instructions, and I couldn't figure out the lap piece on the top of the pocket.
I ended up just finishing it in bias tape, which ties the apron together better anyway.
Because it's so large, I opted to make just one pocket.
I placed it on the left to balance the California on the right...but I'm right-handed, so in retrospect it would have made more sense to place the pocket on the other side.
Oh well, live and learn.
Hard to really see with the scanner, but here it is anyway

(I just realized that the way I laid this on the scanner, the stitching looks cattywampus. I assure you it is quite even. Really it is!)

Here--you can see it better in black and white


I rushed this project, so it certainly isn't my best work, but it's cute.
The orange is so cheerful.