Grandma’s Treasures

I’ve been waiting to post these photos for a while now, and am finally getting around to it. But first, a little story. 😉
My grandparents (on my dad’s side) have FINALLY moved out of their horrible, disintegrating little house in the country, and into a very nice apartment in town. It has been long-overdue. This all happened several weeks ago, and my parents went down to help them clean some things out of their old house. A lot of the relatives were there dividing things up amongst themselves; things that grandma no longer wanted or needed. My mom got in on all of the good stuff and brought home at least two boxes that were stuffed to the top and overflowing. The best treasure…….this dresser drawer filled with vintage containers (both plastic and glass), which in turn, were filled with antique buttons. Most of these were my great grandma’s. WOW! It took a lot of sorting, throwing away of things that were unusable, and cleaning (everything had been neglected and was SUPER dirty…..see pics ;), but we finally ended up with a box full of buttons and beads to be split between my mom, me and two sisters at a later time.
Another treasure that Mom brought home was a box with fabric and aprons. Each of us girls got to choose an apron and the fabric was divided between Alayna and I mostly. I’ll have to post pics of my fabric pile at a later date. 🙂
For now, I hope you enjoy these before and after photos of our buttons, and other miscellaneous stuff gleaned from Grandma’s house. 🙂
This bag and box are both full of fabric, with aprons laying on top.

More fabric, patterns, zippers and other miscellaneous stuff.

The button drawer!

Every container was full of buttons…….yummy. 🙂

Gross! Look at all of that dirt……..

The buttons all washed and laying out to dry.

Ooops…….where did this “before” photo sneak in from?

Some of the really pretty buttons. 🙂

My second apron order

I’d like to share my second apron order since the one I first made for myself several months ago. This one was designed around the vintage handkerchiefs given to me by the child’s mother. I was able to use pieces of the same hankies, both on the child’s apron and also on the matching American Girl apron. Aren’t they cute? And I think that I found the perfect fabric to match the handkerchiefs. When I bought the fabric at Hancock’s, I didn’t know if it would match or not……….but look how nice it turned out! I used handmade bias tape on the edges to give this apron a different look, and switched the placement of the pockets around. Another new thing for me was the creation of several yo-yo’s for each apron. Yo-yo’s have been my most hated embellishment in times past, but I have recently acquired a love for them via Etsy. 🙂 I think they add the perfect vibe to these retro aprons!
All of the buttons on both aprons are vintage, as are the hankies (supplied by the customer). Everything else was store-bought, but it all blends in quite nicely with the whole retro-vintage feel.
The photos don’t do these two justice, but……………
Thanks for taking a peek! 🙂
Click for larger photos!
Together:
Child’s Apron:


Doll’s Apron:


Tag:

6/15/09

After viewing Dottieangel’s apron/wraps about a dozen times, I decided to make one of my own. I’d love to buy one of hers someday, but at the moment I’m on too tight of a budget.

I started with a store bought tea towel ( I just love those things) and some cute repro fabric with puppies and kittens all over it. The striped fabrics are also new and hand frayed. I added two pockets; one on each side. The long striped pocket is perfect for holding a wooden spoon or scissors if you use it as a crafting apron, and the upper pocket is made using some new swiss dot fabric and a vintage hanky. I have quite the collection of vintage handkerchiefs and this was the perfect project to use one. 🙂 I also added some new vintage-looking lace and vintage ric-rac. The buttons are mostly vintage, as well. I like the way this apron turned and out and I’ll probably be making some more in the future. Drop me a comment if you like it!



Ps. I wanted to put a plug in for Corra from TheMayberrySparrow. She made the stamp which I used for the tag on this apron. Didn’t she do a great job for me? It looks exactly like my Umbrella Ave. logo. 🙂