Apron for Quilting Tools

Isn't this a mess?!?!?  I have my measuring tape, scissors, eyeglasses, a piece of batting for cut threads and pins, and my Zune for listening to audiobooks.  You know those wires that turn into birds nests behind your computer or TV?  Well, I had that going on around my throat!!!  It was scary!!  Talk about a tangled web, well it was all that and more.  My ear buds would get yanked out of my ears when I'd pull my scissors.  And my glasses were always tangled in the cords.  I'd wind up yanking off the whole bunch, untangle it, and cuss. Plus, I'd always go rummaging around the sewing room for my Line Tamer ruler, tweezers, seam ripper, marking pen or pencil.  

So!  Voila!  A solution started emerging in my pea brain, a teeny-tiny little spark of an idea.  What if they were all right there, but separated from each other, so they couldn't wrestle and make knots of each other.  All the aprons I've looked at online, like the one Nancy V. Taylor wears, have big ole pockets, where you have to rummage around looking for your stuff.  So what if everything had its own pocket, kinda like a purse organizer?  

I set out everything I wanted to have within reach. Eyeglasses, tape measure, seam ripper, tweezers, regular scissors, marking pen and pencil, piece of batting for thread and pins, Line Tamer, Zune and scissors on a fob.  One of the worst problems with using the Zune is the cords for the earbuds.  So, what if I put the Zune into its own pocket, with a hole out the back for the cords for the ear buds to go behind the apron.  I've always used a piece of batting on my right shoulder-ish area for thread snippits, so that was a consideration.  So I drew out an apron shape on paper, drew pockets for all the parts, then finally traced the real tools and cut them out of paper and laid them out on a real piece of apron fabric.  Which, by the way, is a piece of light weight upholstery fabric that won't sag or rip easily.  I cut the pockets from a piece of home dec fabric, adding a seam allowance, turned under the edges, and sewed them onto the apron piece, and -- so far, so good!  Not sure what I want to use for the neck and apron strings.   Oh, I forgot to mention two other little things -- I like to keep my small scissors on a fob that retracts, and I've always hung it on my shirt neckline.  For the apron, I made a little double-folded tab on which the scissors can hang.  And slightly up and right from the tab is a little circle I stitched where I can pull the earbuds to the front, then up to my ears. And I left a space on my right shoulder to pin the piece of batting.

So, there you go!  I hope the idea helps someone else out there who is strangling with tools, or is forever searching for the parts they need!

Now, click the Whoop! button on the left to see some of the things people have accomplished this week, over on Sarah's blog: ConfessionsofaFabricAddict.blogspot.com