tiny baker
One of K&C’s favourite things to do is to hop up on the island and bake with me. I’m convinced I owe at least 15 lbs to the love of watching them measure, carefully pour, sprinkle, mix and stir. Another batch of cookies? Suuuuuure why not.
I’ve said before that some of my very favorite reading material are cookbooks. Might sound odd – but it’s so true. I find some weird happy place fantasizing about big meals I can construct, and little meals I could make that the kids might actually enjoy outside of the ’10 meal cycle’… you know the one I’m talking about right? Please tell me you have that too? “Greek chicken? Again?” “We haven’t had it in 2 weeks” – sound familiar? I really hope that by getting our kids excited about being in the kitchen, and making cooking together fun, they will start to enjoy more variety and be willing to try new things. I have to say, we’ve actually found it to be decently successful. So I was thrilled to receive a couple of cook books for kids last year as gifts. The big pictures and easy recipes make the idea of kid led baking/making really feasible.
Fast forward to a recent bday party for a friend’s three-year old. We know she’s a little sidekick to mom and dad through most of the day’s duties including prepping meals – she’s also about to be a big sis – so along with a couple of fun books to look at while mom is busy with babe – we got her one of our favorite kids cookbooks and I made her an apron. It was a fun project that I think I’ll do again. I liked that it was something a little bit personal from us to add to her celebration. My not-so-measurement focused how-to is below in case you think you might want to make one too!
If you live near Vancouver, there is a fabric store I go to (infrequently – way too dangerous) that I absolutely love. The patterns and styles in Spool of Thread are gorgeous, bright, and imaginative. Well worth the trip. I bought all the fabric I use in these little projects there. I have found, now that I sew a bit more, that I like to have a few solid colours on hand in larger quantities to act as a base to projects like these and then I buy smaller amounts of patterned fabrics – not even knowing what I’ll do with them. I get this little creative high when I walk out with the brown paper bag filled with fat quarters and a selection of bright solids …oh the possibilities 😉
I didn’t have a pattern for this apron – I just traced an apron that my kids already hand for rough shape. But I’ve since found good free patterns here in case you’d like one. Once I cut out the basic shape in my solid colour I ironed down the seam I would sew along to ensure it all looked even (if you are a ‘measurer’ this is likely not something you worry about the way that I do). I wanted for our little friend to have a good pocket to put her tools, her hands, or whatever else – so I cut a basic rectangle shape out of a fun pattern and folded down and ironed the corners.
I used fabric fuse on the back of a corresponding third colour (follow the instructions on the fuse paper – but essentially you iron it to the wrong side of the fabric and then cut out the mirror image of what you want to show on your design (important to remember when creating letters especially). I cut out and ironed on each of the letters in the name, and then a little heart to iron on to the pocket and tie it all together.
After sewing the edges down (with the girls on the pedals and buttons) I added grosgrain ribbon for ties around the waist and a generous loop around the neck, re-enforcing with additional stiches. I trimmed the edges at the back with a rotary cutter and voila … a little apron fit for a tiny baker. Hoping she enjoys as much as we liked making it for her.
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