The Upcycle Challenge–Making an Adult-Child Apron Set using A Man’s Shirt

It’s a set of Aprons for that special Mother/daughter/son, or Father/daughter/son combo.  And of course there are numerous other combos … the Aunt or Uncle/niece/nephew, Grandparent ……. etc  …

The original challenge  by the 3 other sisters and our mother was to make matching aprons for an adult and child from shirts. If it weren’t an upcycle challenge, I could have just gone out and bought a child’s shirt and adult man’s shirt as a matching set.  But, I also don’t like accepting easy challenges.. what’s the challenge in that?  lol

I found a man’s light pink shirt, a boy’s purple plaid shirt and hoped that some hand dyeing would do the trick to pull them together enough that I could mix and match parts … take from the plaid and put on the solid and vice-a-versa.  But once I set dye to each piece, ugh … I was further away from my goal than when I started.

No, I’m not going to show what that combo looked like.  Just trust me, ugh ugh ugh … not quite gag me with a stick ugh, but it definitely was not going to fly …. so back to the drawing board.

I WILL show you the man’s shirt on the dye boards though.

After all the parts of the shirt were dry and I had set the dye, I found myself tossing all the parts of this shirt from one hand to the other… How was I going to make this work, because I might end up searching the rest of my life for a child’s shirt that would mesh with the pink/dyed purple man’s shirt.

So, it was inventory time… I needed to look at this project differently.  Just what did I have available in my hand that I wasn’t seeing the bigger picture of uses for? I knew I would need most every bit of the back for the ties and I would use one sleeve for the larger deep pockets I like to put on my aprons and then it hit me— every shirt has TWO sleeves, silly — The BIG question though was, can I squeeze a child sized apron out of a man’s shirt sleeve?

And here’s the answer to that question –   YES!  You can squeeze a child sized apron from a man’s shirt sleeve.

Here’s the set together along with the adult apron by its self.

Even the lining is hand-dyed- and yeah, I do like lining my aprons.

Here’s all that’s left of the original “Joseph & Feiss” man’s dress shirt size 16  36/37.

 

Now, as a side note, I can hear some people saying ‘yeah, I can see a woman, mother, daughter, aunt, grandmother wearing a purple apron, but no man I know is going to wear a purple apron… ‘

To that I say  this – ANY GUY will look AWESOME in a purple shirt as well as a hand-dyed purple apron, so give it a go…  (I’d go so far as saying a guy looks “HOT” in purple but I’ve been told, at my age I shouldn’t be saying things like that in public… so – I won’t …… just play like you didn’t read that.  (Unread, Unread – Unsee, Unsee, as Shari likes to say.)

Beyond that,  as I write this post, the apron set is over on Etsy.  If it’s gone by time you read this article and you’d like a set, then send us an email here on the blog at 4TxSisters (at) gmail.com.  Address it to Jennifer – or not—lol – guess it really doesn’t matter who you address it to, so far, I’m the apron maker of the group, so most likely it will be passed on to me.

So, in the mean time….

Live Every Moment, Love Beyond Words, Laugh Everyday,

~Jennifer
4TxSisters at Etsy

The Making of the Man’s Shirt Apron

Using an man’s shirt, no pattern, just an image in your head of what you want instead of a piece of fabric, putting a pattern to it, cutting it out, sewing it up and saying “here’s an apron” … well, it has its own sort of excitement for a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants seamstress.

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But besides the uniqueness of using a man’s shirt, why would I make an apron, and then make an apron for you too? Here’s why.  In my opinion there are three typical issues with aprons

#1 They bunch up my clothes

#2 They come untied

#3 The top rides low and stuff still gets on my clothes because, frankly, there’s a shorter distance between my mouth and my chest than my mouth and the top of most aprons.

So, to eliminate issue #1, the cloth of the apron bunching up as I putter around the house, I line my aprons. And I think you’ll find that once you use a lined apron, you’ll be hard pressed to wear a plain ole’ apron again.

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#2 – They come untied. I made aprons for my 3 sisters and my mother re-purposing some beautiful western fabric Shari had had me make curtains out of years ago. Next older sister, Deb, complained that she never wore hers or many other aprons because they come untied.

She likes an apron with really long ties that she can wrap around and tie in front… So…. that’s why most of my aprons have really LONG waist ties.

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#3 – Aren’t all aprons made too long in the neck for most people? I always assumed everyone bought aprons and just tied, safety pinned, or clothes pinned the neck tie. With that in mind, I have to tell you I was broken hearted when my mother wanted me to have an apron I made for her back because she thought it was too pretty for her to wear.

She hadn’t safety pinned, clothes pinned or tied the neck part shorter. She’d taken a pair of scissors and whacked, yes, I said “WHACKED” that neck tie almost at the half way point and tied it to the length she wanted.

Well, once I got off the floor from shock, I realized that was an issue all of its own. Then I went to visit sister, Shari. She wears her apron almost right under her neck. She said it’s either that or a bib- lol – so then I knew… there’s a BIG issue with apron neck heights… well, at least in my family, so it was time to ‘fix that’.

And this is only a couple of ways to fix that…

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And now you can, adjust away  Winking smile

Recently I have even gone back to the basics of aprons by making them with ties- which makes it TOTALLY adjustable–of course, up to the length of the ties.  lol

So, there, now you know why I’ve done some unusual things with my aprons by lining them, making the neck adjustable in most cases with buttons,(now with ties)  and then made really LONG waist ties on many of them.. I hope you will give one a try. I don’t think you will want to buy another apron off the shelf again much less give something like that to a loved one.

You can find more of my Man’s Shirt Aprons over in our 4TxSisters Etsy Shop.

 

So, in the mean time….

Live Every Moment, Love Beyond Words, Laugh Everyday,

~Jennifer

4TxSisters at Etsy

Traditions

Today in Shari’s corner of Texas…

I know the holidays are when most of us think about traditions. It’s hard not to remember when the kids were young, or the smell of food cooking in grandma’s kitchen. Ah, now I want my grandmother’s cornbread dressing.

However, for today, I’m talking about the more day-to-day traditions, and passing on skills that may be lost if we don’t make the time to share them with our youth. It is tough to get them to step away from all the electronic distractions, but I have found that once they start working on something, and see it coming together, they also begin to enjoy it. Okay, maybe not always, but more often than not.

A few years ago, I ended up scoring a chair that once belonged to my grandmother. It was long past the need for a makeover, so I decided I’d learn to reupholster so I could make it something she’d have loved.

Here’s how it looked when it was given to me:

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Okay, the cat did not come with the chair. 😉

Her favorite color was purple, and she was a fun woman, so my choices of upholstery ran along those lines.

Here is how that vision manifested itself:

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By no means a perfect job, but I still love it, and I know she would, too. I can imagine her sitting there as I write this.

I found reupholstering furniture to be something I enjoyed. It’s tough to find people who do this anymore, so being able to do it for myself gave me a sense of accomplishment. More importantly, I get to decide how it looks in the end.

Today, I’m teaching my sons how to reupholster a chair. Sure, they may never do it for themselves, but maybe some day they will simply because I took the time to teach them to do so.

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Of course, I can already hear the arguing over who gets to sit in it.

We all know that answer to that:

MOM!

This holiday, give your family the gift of yourself; it is the most valuable gift you can give them – ever!

Love and best wishes to all,

Shari

DIY-Old Cabinet to Dog Bed

From tacky to happy……

Thought I’d share my recently completed transformation.

It was a sad 70’s or early ’80’s end table that had seen better days. My plan was to love it back into use as a pet kennel for Spirit.

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The inner shelf was completely removed, as was the glass panel.

I used a blue chalk paint and followed that with a black glaze to give it its current look.  It appears a dog may have “loved” it in the past as there were chew marks on the corners. I chose to embrace those rather than repair them, and let he glaze settle in those areas.

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The glass was replaced by a piece of plastic which we had purchased when Zazzy the cat was little to protect her from falling off the balcony.

This plastic sheeting allows plenty of light and airflow.

The hardware was spray painted with a specialty black paint known as “hammered”. It helps hide any imperfections.

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So, how did it turn out?

Of course, the real question is: did Spirit like it?

You tell me.

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Love,

Shari