by the seat of my pants

Ok, so here's me, packing boxes for our upcoming move:

Bring boxes in from the garage, carry upstairs to the bedroom.

Need a Sharpie, go down to the kitchen, get one, go back upstairs.

Pack a box. Wait, need the inventory sheet we started to keep track of boxes.

Go downstairs to the basement, get inventory sheet. Go back upstairs.

Tape. Darn, where's the tape. Did I have it in my hand when I went down into the basement?

Go back down, search for tape.

Found the tape, go back up. Whew, now I'm hot. I change into shorts.

Go downstairs with the tape to pack books in the living room.

Pack a box. Hey, where's the Sharpie? In the pocket of the jeans I was wearing before I got hot and changed into shorts...

And that was just me, packing by myself. No husband around to hide tape or Sharpies. Just me, running myself ragged misplacing my supplies.

I knew what I had to do. I needed an apron. I needed to have all my supplies easily at hand, room to room. (I needed an excuse to stop packing and sew something!) So I did it. I took those old jeans and I hacked 'em.

I thought I had seen a tutorial somewhere for making a craft apron out of an old pair of jeans, but a quick search for it lead me nowhere. I had no time. I had (have!) a house to pack. I had 40 minutes before I needed to pick up my kids. I had to start cutting...


As you can see, I used the back of the jeans with the pockets for the front of the apron. I cut away everything else, except I kept the front waistband still attached to the back. Even though I was spontaneous, experimental and short on time, I actually took photos along the way. Of course if it had all gone awry, you'd not be reading this post...

To make the back of the jeans (now the front of the apron) lie flat, I cut the back rise along the seam and over lapped the excess fabric. I top stitched next to the flat felled seam with a zipper foot.
I realized two things. 1) I was going to need more pockets than just the back ones on the jeans, and 2) I was going to need to get rid of the pooch at the top yoke. See how the waistband sort of peaks up to accommodate, um, fullness? So I cut along that seam to take out the triangular yoke shape. Then I made a rectangular pocket out of some scrap fabric and sewed one side to the yoke and the other to the part below the yoke. Now the waistband lays nice and straight.

I attached ties to the ends of the waistband to make it long enough to tie. I cut some flowers out of the scrap fabric and just fused them on with Steam-a-seam. Some where along the line I picked up the kids and made dinner. I finished the rest of the apron long after they went to bed. (You didn't think I got all fancy with the appliques and rickrack in 40 minutes, did you?)

Now I've got a place for Sharpies, a notepad, scissors, and whatever else comes along. I couldn't figure out how to make a tape gun holster (egad, that sounds hideous) so I am just putting a roll of tape in every room of the house. I may do the same with my diet coke as I seem to misplace that a lot, too.

(Ok, one more photo. My 7 year old son took it for me. Not to be left out, my 5 year old son was behind me trying to give me "bunny ears".)

So...how's packing coming along? Ugh...don't ask.