What does a crafty person do for a group of friends you meet with once a month to share stories, laugh and enjoy a great, gourmet, home-cooked meal? Aprons of course!

Theses are my Dinner Club buddies, minus one, modeling the aprons. We have two white elephant gift exchanges per year, one during the holidays and one during summer. This year I decided that part of my white elephant gift would be another white elephant. The recipient of my gift got a bottle of sake and the final pick in my white elephant. Once the initial white elephant was complete, my white elephant began.

I made 5 aprons with the same pattern and one black sheep. In every white elephant we've had zero, ZERO, gifts have been stolen. This is good, because everyone gets what they want the first time around, but bad, because there's no excitement in seeing who will end up with what. It was no different for the apron white elephant.

Pattern: Emmeline Apron, Montesorri by Hand
Fabrics: Banadana Print by Joann Fabrics, Apples and Pears by Alexander Henry and Kona Cotton

This is a very simple, straightforward pattern. The I love both prints, but I think I like the bandana print more.

The only think I'd change is to add patch pockets. My one minor gripe about the pattern is that the apron skirt doesn't like flat. It curls in and shows the reverse side at the sides.

Pattern: Butterick 4945 view E
Fabrics: Various stash cottons

I've made this apron before for another friend. This pattern is also straight forward. I made no major modifications to the pattern, except for making the apron ties "reversible." I cut 4 instead of 2 apron tie pieces, stitched around the long sides and pointed end and turned it out. It actually looks finished this way as opposed to having the wrong side of the fabric show if you follow the pattern directions.

Everyone loved their aprons, as I hoped. But there's always that little voice inside me that thinks they'll think it's a kitschy homemade gift. But I guess it's a good sign when the end of the night approached and everyone left for home still wearing their aprons.