It's official. Christmas gift crafting is officially over. The last gift has been completed and I can now concentrate on more important things, such as procrastinating on my Knitting Nature projects that I have yet to tell you about. Pattern: Butterick 4945 View C Fabric: Anna Griffin, Elsie's Kitchen and a coordinating solid purchased at Purl Patchwork in November. Both fabrics are cotton. Notes: The sewing was pretty easy for this pattern. I learned a pretty cool new "trick", understitching. The only part of the pattern I had difficulty on was attatching the bottom border to have the point on the upper part of the "V" lie flat. The material puckers a bit there and I tried to iron it out the best I could. I noticed that this pattern didn't give as much instruction as the other apron I had made earlier this year (which I just realized that I also never blogged about). This could be due to the fact that they're from different companies. The one I knit for Steph was a McCall's pattern. What I love most about this apron has to be the fabric. Everytime I look at it, I can just smells the lemons. Take a whiff! I originally purchased this to make an apron and oven mitt set for myself. But since purl also sells this online, I can always just order some more. What I'd do differently is choose a darker color for the contrast fabric. I love how the yellow looks with the print, but for future aprons like this, I'll try to choose a darker color for the contrast. If you look at the border against light, you can see the seam allowances on the inside as well as the clipped corners. And one more note, if you are under the impression that once you learn how to machine sew, you'll never have to hand sew anything ever again, think again. I had to slipstitch two facings and the WS of the border in order to finish this apron. Torture, I tell you! Pattern: Too hot to handle oven mitts, Denyse Schmidt, "Quilts" Fabric: Fabric: Anna Griffin, Elsie's Kitchen and a coordinating solid purchased at Purl Patchwork in November, cotton batting, cotton canvas and thermal fabric. Notes: These are the 4th and 5th oven mitts I've made from this pattern (obviously, I didn't blog about the others -- I should try not to make this a trend). I pretty much follow the pattern except for a few steps. I don't trace the oven mitt onto the quilt sandwich until after I've finished all the topstiching. (A note on the topstitching: You may think it's a good idea to save time and thread by "zigzagging" the topstitching, i.e. sew one line from top to bottom, then the next line from bottom to top, then next from top to bottom and so forth. But don't do it. Do all your topstitching in one direction, otherwise you'll distort the seam line between the two fabrics. If it doesn't bother you, then do it. But it bothered me so I haven't topstitched like that since.) I also don't hem the bottom of the mitt by turning up the edge. I've found the quilt sandwich too thick to finish in that manner. So I use bias tape to finish the edge instead. Instead of applying the tape after you've sewn the mitt together, I sugesst sewing the bias tape on each side before you sew the mitt together. The stitchlines and bias tape may not line up, but I find this less annoying than trying to get the bias tape to fit perfectly over the shorter rounded edge (the side where I've added the loop). Of course mamaFasu tells me after I've finished that I should have sewn the the mitt together starting at the longer edge, then attach the bias tape, then finish sewing up the mitt. This way, I'd have one perfectly clean edge. There's always next time. The final difference in my version of the oven mitt is that I added a hanging loop. I made the bias tape myself and used the excess for loops. You can't have mitts without a loops to hang it! I have no idea why this important feature was left out of the original pattern. These mitts make great gifts and are quick and easy sewing projects. The only drawback is something that Steph pointed out to me. The pattern is very wasteful. You cut out 9'x12' pieces of fabric, create a quilt sandwich, draw the shape on the sandwich, and then cut away all the excess. I'd love to try the Amy Butler pot holders instead, but I'm a little to budget conscious right now to buy a grommet tool. So think this will be the last any kind of oven mitts for a while.