Aprons

I'm a bit behind on blogging.  It's been a bit busy up here lately what with spring planting, summer gardening, horses, farm festivals, work, and school.  That's not a complaint mind you(well, the last two might be), just an excuse for not being inside on the computer.  Another excuse, if I need one, is that the weather has been fantastic and we've spent several evenings sitting by the fire.  Campfire season is always so welcome, like greeting an old friend!

This post should wrap up the winter activities series.  This past winter was fantastic!  I got new old cross country skis and worked on that skill, built an end table that is effective if not elegant, and did several leather projects.  So far, these aprons are examples of my best work.  They started life as an 8 oz side of leather.

You can see some of the blemishes here.  It was a fun challenge to use all of the leather and incorporate the brands and marks in a pleasing way.

I cut the leather to a similar pattern, but made Adam's a little bit longer thinking he could use the length to kneel on while he works on his bikes or whatever.  Dad's is a little shorter as stained glass work doesn't require so much kneeling.

These buckles were fun to make.  I like using the rivets and grommets to give the whole thing a little bit beefier look.  Hopefully they hold up.

You can see my sketchbook here.  If I keep making these, I'll need to standardize some of the measurements and patterns to make the work go faster.  The pockets and loops could definitely be made with a standardized pattern even if the size of the apron changes a little.

These knives were the starting point for the whole apron.  I saw a short film about R Murphy Knives and was stoked to see affordable blades made in the US.  These shop knives were too cool, and I immediately saw a shop apron take shape around them.  Since I already made my apron and have a critical mass of knives, these became gifts.

The workbench.  Multifaceted and super handy!

One apron, almost done.

Attaching the hammer loop.

Thanks again to Veneta for hand delivering the finished product.

Two Posts for the Price of One

Ok, here's a two for one post.  Last weekend we went to Bob and Jenn and Zhora's house for a night of ballet, tomato soup, aggressive balloon swatting, magnetic stone gaming, and Valeria June dancing.

Sarah and Zhora set the tone for the evening with some dancing and lots of high energy play.

After a wonderful dinner of tomato soup and chicken sandwiches we played some magnet game that everybody got in to.

The magnets were a little noisy as they crashed together.

But we all had a good time anyway.

After that, it was back to balloon swatting.  Bob won this game when he swatted the balloon into the pencil behind my ear, which elicited giggles from the girls.

This is just a little picture of a Hot Wheels car that was sitting around at the end of the night.  I slapped a little vignette action on it to make it pop!

In addition to the wood, I've been playing around with a little bit of leather.  Originally this was going to be a pair of chaps.  But chaps are complicated and I'm short on tools, so I thought I'd play around a little bit and just get used to working with the leather.  Some sheaths and wallets came out of this work, but I wasn't really pleased with any of those.  Then I hit upon the idea of making a shop apron.  Starting with a few odd square feet of leather, I managed to find enough to cut out a roughly aprony shape.

Using webbing came naturally, and the grommets were both aesthetically and technically pleasing.  Pockets are always handy, so I added a couple of those, too.  Everything had to be hand stitched since we don't have a sewing machine or anything.  Hand stitching is like hand crafting in woodwork, very gratifying and very time consuming.

I love working with the carpenter's pencils, but they don't sit well behind my ears and I'm forever searching for where I set them down, so this pocket was a no brainer.

The clasp is actually a piece of horse tack.  Don't know if it'll ever come in handy, but I think it looks cool.  I also sewed a hammer loop on the side, which I'm sure will come in handy.  Ready to finish up my little end table project now and get on with the kitchen table.

Cheers!