Grandmas smock

This is for you, yes you dear sister who reads this blog on weekends even though I don't post on weekends.  This whole post is for you as is the little treat I made.

For the rest of you reading....its for my sister. :)

As I have shared before, my grandma was a painter.  She always had a few paintings sitting on her easel, whether she was painting or not.  She had landscapes, still lives, portrait (one of John Wayne too!) and others.  On the side of her easel hung a smock.  A blue and floral smock.  I don't know that she ever wore it as it is considerably clean for a painter, but it hung there as much a fixture in her art room as the boxes of magazines, paints, and John Wayne.

 

{Original pocket rick rack.  Red rick rack is used on the pocket and the neck line of the original smock.}

My grandma passed away on the day I was having our 3rd daughter, Lauren.  I'd had a pretty traumatic experience that day with labor, c-section, and horrible amounts of depression.  Dean brought in Lauren, wrapped up and oh so sweet, put her in my arms and we sat there for a bit.  After we cooed for a while he said "Your dad called, your Grandma has passed away."  We knew it was coming and while it was no surprise, it still was a shock.  Later that night, as Dean was snoring in the chair, I looked down at Lauren and said "Did you get a chance to see Grandma before you came here?".  She opened those newborn eyes and stared right into mine.  She blinked, held contact, and then slowly went back to sleep.  I take that as a yes.

Anyway, months later my dad brought a load of grandmas stuff.  Sewing odds and ends, yarn, clothes, paints, that great easel, and the smock that hung on the side.  Now this is a good place to mention that I was given nearly all grandmas belongings.  All my siblings got a few odds and ends but for the most part I was given all that was left.  This comes as a great irritant to my sister (am I right here?) because there were things she wanted to have (I don't have those things but anyway).  When I saw grandmas smock I knew that this was something that I could easily share with her.

And so last night, after a particularly long and draining week for my sister, I sat down with thoughts of her.  I grabbed out the ole' sewing machine, the smock and scissors.  I didn't want to change much about the smock because its such a permanent memory for me.  So I chopped it in two, snipped a little here, tucked a little there and viola! it's an apron.

{Because I kept the front of the smock I needed to add a pocket for this apron.  I used plain white cotton shirting and added a piece of scrap to tie in the fabrics. I really wish I would had red rick rack.}

{The neck strap is wider than usual.  I didn't want to alter the shape of the smock by much so the neck line isn't like a normal apron neck line.  I used a knit stitch down the middle of the strap with straight stitches down the sides.}

{Ahh a little red rick rack.  I can tell you I don't like rick rack for the most part.  However on this little baby, it works just right.}

Grandmas smock turned apron (I have the matching half) for my sister who is by all accounts the greatest friend I have  even when I am mad at her or flabbergasted by her (or she by me).  And now she can have a little piece of grandma at her place too.