the apron skirt

it all started on a rainy tuesday afternoon.

little L's preschool teachers had changed up her class room and added a little cafe corner with coffee maker, paper cups, register and all. 

so on this rainy afternoon at home, the Ls were doing their own thing ...

i started thinking that if one works in a fancy pre-school cafe, one must have the proper attire!

i stumbled upon these two links ( lilblueboo and this tutorial) and kind of made my own version, combining the two.

i used fun fabrics out of my HUGE stack and went to work.

et voila (5 hours later) our little cafe barista had a heart and soul works apron skirt to show off.

as you can see, the two front pockets offer lots of room for all sorts of must-have-utensils for every barista (like a potato smasher and a pan cake flipper ;).
my little barista tested the strength of my seams rather well ... thank god for my new judy 2.0, which performs rather superb when it comes to sewing tight seams.

i absolutely LOVE the fun fabric combination!

i added a rick-rackseam to make it look a bit more finished and FUN.

in an on-the-job-test the new apron skirt reached high marks for storability, comfort and durability as well as its AMAZING esthetic looks :)

the marks for the customers were not so high :)

after the first proto-type worked out so well the little barista ordered a dora-apron-skirt and one for her little friend K from school, who recently had a b-day.
little L helped with the prep-work ...

and after another few sewing-filled hours we had three heart and soul works apron skirts.

little mrs. K loves princesses, so naturally we had to make her a royal apron skirt.

and little L's dora skirt turned out very purplelicious!

the two apron skirts for little L have been in use quite often.
apparently some baristas work and sleep on their work attire :)

addendum to the use of the pockets:
the pockets are an excellent hiding spot for chocolates stolen from the valentines stash of older sisters and also offer proper space for bark, rocks, sand, dirty feathers, miscellaneous treasures (aka garbage)  collected at the play ground :)

i am taking birthday present orders for little  heart and soul works apron skirts now!!!

~ be well

{inspiration}

heart (hard) work

mr. cz was very much hands-on when it came to valentines for his sweets this year.
he handcrafted THREE freezer paper stenciled shirts.
I witnessed the two he made for the Ls and admired his patience and eye for detail but that was nothing compared to the one he made (secretly) for me.

since big L has recently discovered her love for books I was very excited when i found this image (here)
now it was time to hand over the project to the master of patience!

he printed the image on freezer paper, cut out the image and then arranged it on the shirts. the stencil was then ironed on.

he then added two coats of fabric paint with a sponge-brush (very carefully to not push paint under the "seams" of the stencil).

ironed over the completely dried (24 hours at least),
image et voila ...

two lovely "love to read" shirts for his Ls.

they proudly wore them all day on v-day, all night and the next day again :)
big L even broke her uniform rule at school to show off her papa's art.

well done papa!!!! we LOVE those shirts!

but if you think this was cumbersome then take a look at his midnight project of 02/13.
not only did he create a logo for heart and soul works but he also cut out this VERY detailed image and ... over night made me a heart and soul works shirt.

i absolutely LOVE it!

we'll add wings we decided (partly to resemble the soul part of the name and partly for my Willie boy ... of course he is always on my mind!) and then make shirts for everyone!!!

families and friends ... get ready for many shirts for b-days and such :)

we celebrated v-day very quietly with lovely flowers.
these were for big Ls teacher, with her hand made can-vase wrapped in wool and decorated with red buttons.

more flowers for the girls of the house.

and a sweet v-day party with good friends!
little L created lovely little heart baskets and filled them with little goodies for our honorable guests.

i went all out and printed labels for the refreshments,

filled the dishes with sweet love,

and more sweet love,

 and even more sweet love :)

we sang "happy valentines to you" and enjoyed our sweets and great company.

the little people insisted on candles ... so we had candles and made v-day wishes and sang v-day songs.

all in all a wonderful day and now i am VERY happy it's over.

if you have two kids in school valentines day is almost as involved as christmas!
the crossing guard, the secretaries, the teacherS, the friends and class mates, family and friends ... it never ends. once you start you can't stop and the Ls would come up with more and more to shower with love.
i drew the line at the grocery store employees!
we treated them for x-mas already ... we don't want to over-spoil the neighborhood :)

this is the round up for v-day. now back to regular crafting and making.

~be well