Granny's Clothespin Apron from "One Yard Wonders"

Saturday I finally made something from One Yard Wonders. I reserved a copy of this book from the library months ago and waited and waited for my turn to come. Once I saw inside I was quickly convinced that I have to get my own copy.  There are soooo many cute projects here! And I like the fact that each one only takes a yard or less.

So my need for this clothespin apron has stemmed from our cloth diapering experiment which overtook much of my sewing time and has changed our little day to day lives. Thank goodness I think I have almost enough diapers sewn. Now I'm just getting the laundering routine down and I finally put up a clothes line in my backyard. This is something that I asked my husband to do weeks ago but he really resisted. He called it redneck. He got cranky. He fixed everything else on his to-do list (admirable, huh?). But he would not put up a clothes line. So I went out there and did it myself. One end is tied to a fencepost and the other end is tied to a tree. I don't think it's redneck, just... provincial. I like that word.

Anyway, if my clothespin apron doesn't look exactly like the one in the book to you, that's because I didn't feel like pulling out and tracing the pattern pieces (library copy, remember?) so I just skeched comething out on the back of my fabric. And I used a scrap of bias binding instead of making binding per the instructions.

And I love it. It is so nice to wear something pretty while you work! Maybe I need something like that to help me inside the house.

As for the instructions in the book, they are good, but not perfect. I'm pretty sure that the illustration for step 3 should be different, showing the front piece too. You can either follow the picture and sew it wrong the first time, or follow the written instructions which are right. I followed the picture first, and had to rip parts out to fix it. Not really a big deal, but it is confusing.

Then my waistband turned out too narrow to fit the ties inside. I don't think this is my fault because there were no pattern pieces, I just cut the waistband and ties from the measurements given. And I followed the books' stated seam allowance. Again, not a big deal. My ties just have cute little pleats where they fit inside the waistband:

Sooner or later, I will have a copy of this book.