Apron Design

Learn from Your Craft Mistakes

Stewart’s Apron: We All Make Mistakes

Learn from your crafting mistakes.

Look on most crafting sites and all you see are these perfect

little finished projects. I think that’s sometimes discouraging for people who are new at a craft.

That’s how I felt when I wanted to learn digital scrapbooking. I was enthralled by all the beautiful layouts on ScrapGirls but all I could think was, "I could never do that. I have no idea where to begin."

Then I saw a few do-overs by the Scrap Girls design team members (in the free newsletter), where they would take one of their early layouts and re-do it with the skills they had learned in the intervening months or years. That gave me hope and the realization that each one of them had to start at the beginning too.

Here I share one of my do-overs in the hopes it can encourage you to try something you’ve been wanting to.

Perhaps you can benefit from my lessons learned as well. The worst that can happen is you fail; and then learn something from it - a lose-win situation.

Stewart’s Apron: A Great Idea Gone Bad

I had this really great idea - at least it seemed so at the time. Stewart is a master carver and has carved our Thanksgiving turkey for the last three years. His birthday is coming up so I’ve been wracking my brain for a gift idea.

Then I got it - the perfect gift - a chef’s apron with a picture of Stewart carving and the words "Master Carver: Stewart". How cool would that be?

Well, it would have been if I could draw.

There’s an artist in town who gives drawing lessons. His slogan is, "Karl can teach anyone to draw. Guaranteed." I think I’d better sign up.

So here I was with this half-done project and no gift for Stewart, trying to decide what to do. I walked away from it for the day, totally frustrated.

Maybe it would look better in the morning. Ya think? Or perhaps I could figure out a way to fix it.

I wonder if Karl makes house calls.

Stewart’s Apron: Day 2

I put it aside yesterday, ‘cause I just couldn’t stand to look at it anymore. It did not look better in the morning. I wanted to salvage the good part of this project - the apron itself.

I messed it up big-time when I tried to paint Stewart’s face onto it using dimensional fabric paint.

[Note to me: dimensional fabric paint should only be used for simple designs like hearts, hats, stars and snowflakes or abstract drawings.]

Then I tried to remove the dimensional paint by picking, scraping and finally putting it in the dishwasher. I figured "it’s plastic; and plastic melts in the dishwasher, right?"

The good news is that this fabric paint does not wash out.

With only a week left to Stewart’s birthday, I had three options.

Plan A: Print my nice Photoshop line drawing of Stewart’s face onto an iron-on transfer and iron that onto a pocket which would cover the mess I painted.

Plan B: Burn the messed-up apron; sew a new one; and use an iron-on transfer to apply the design.

Plan C: Buy a bottle of wine and drink it - no, I mean put it in a pretty wine gift bag for Stewart.

Stewart’s Apron: The Final Episode

Ta-da! I finally completed Stewart’s apron. I ended up following Plan B, which was "Burn the messed-up apron; sew a new one; and use an iron-on transfer to apply the design."

I like that it really looks like Stewart - having been taken from an actual photo of him carving last year’s Thanksgiving turkey. I’m not thrilled that it has a sheen and has the rubbery feel you get with iron-on transfers.

I wish I had had some Lazertran Silk transfer sheets on hand. I need to stock up on those, but since we have our house for sale I’m trying to use things up; not buy new!

I do like the way the photo came out using Photoshop. As you can see, I removed all the distracting background - down to the tiniest stray pixel.

I first duplicated the background layer and converted the new layer using Filter>Stylize>Find Edges to make it look sort of like a line drawing. Then I zoomed in real close to erase all the background.

Finally I typed text on a circular path.

I deleted the background layer and used Image>Rotate Canvas>Flip Canvas Horizontal to create a mirror image for the iron-on.

These Photoshop techniques are all things I learned from Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed by Ro Paxman, CEO and one of the talented graphic designers of Scrap Girls.

Stewart’s Apron: Lessons Learned

There are always lessons to be learned from failure; and many failures can be turned around. So never let apparent failure daunt you. Discover the lessons in it and, if it’s worth the effort, salvage what you can.

If not, just say "oh well" and move on. Depending on the magnitude of the failure, it won’t matter a whit in a week, a year or perhaps ten years.

The lessons I learned from Stewart’s apron are:

• 1. I want to refresh my drawing skills. I used to draw quite well, but am out of practice. I’m checking into Karl’s drawing classes. Karl is the artist I mentioned earlier who guarantees he can teach anyone to draw.
• 2. Dimensional fabric paint is not good for detailed drawings. It is better-suited to simple geometric designs like snowflakes and hearts.
• 3. I wasted time bemoaning the wasted materials in the first apron. In the end, I was able to salvage the apron ties and only had to make a new apron front.
• 4. Always test/practice a new technique before using it on the final project.
• 5. Buy some Lazertran Silk transfer sheets to have on hand as soon as we move!