KCWC Day 1: The Swing Swing Apron Saga & My First Giveaway

Elsie Marley is sponsoring her twice yearly Kids Clothes Week Challenge. She challengers her readers and fellow bloggers to spend one hour a day sewing clothes for their children.

I have decided to challenge myself with a garment a day, and for my first challenge I decided to make my godson's birthday present. After my latest trip to the library, I had picked up Bend-the-Rules Sewing by Amy Karol (who blogs at Angry Chicken).

I picked out the Swing Swing Apron, sometimes called The Birthday Apron by other crafters. My journey started out simple enough. It called to blow-up the pattern 237%. I decided to use the old grid enlargement method I learned back in grade school since I did not want to waste any sewing time running to the copy center.

I had the bright idea to simplify the process by increasing to a nice round 250%. The resulting reversible apron was perfect, but would fit a first grader; much too large for my two year old godson.  Here it is on my large four year old:

I rescaled it to 200% and realized that it was a lovely size for a baby bib, but much to small for a toddler. I was beginning to feel little like the Goldilocks of pattern sizing when I finally found my "just right" size at 225%.

I was not able to get a picture on my godson, so Xavier agreed to model it for me before we wrapped it up with a few cooking tools.

The Giveaway!

Now I have a lovely reversible version of the apron available as a giveaway! One side features a soft denim with a whimsical turtle pattern pocket, while the otherside has a toss print of baseballs on a medium blue background with a contrasting red pocket. This would fit size 4 toddler - child's medium. It is pictured above on my daughter who wears a girls' 7/8.

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:

• Giveaway is limited to U.S. and Canadian residents
• To enter:
• Post a comment with your e-mail address below OR . . .
• Become an official follower of the blog.
• You get two entries if you do both!

The nitty,gritty details:

• People in my immediate family are unable to enter . . . just ask and I'll make one for you, silly.
• Please be honest and fair, do not enter more than once.
• Contest ends midnight, October 16, 2011.
• Winners will be selected using a random number generator at Random.org Monday morning.
• If technical difficulties, fraud, or any circumstances hinder the integrity of the giveaway, I reserve the right to notify participants and reschedule.
• I will pay shipping to the winner (hence, limited to US & Canada).
• By entering the giveaway, you agree to these terms and the following "fine print":
• LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY The Released Parties are not responsible for: (1) any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by entrants, printing errors or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Promotion; (2) technical failures of any kind, including, but not limited to malfunctions, interruptions, or disconnections in phone lines or network hardware or software; (3) unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry process or the Promotion; (4) technical or human error which may occur in the administration of the Promotion or the processing of entries; or (5) any injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant’s participation in the Promotion or receipt or use or misuse of any prize. If for any reason an entrant’s entry is confirmed to have been erroneously deleted, lost, or otherwise destroyed or corrupted, entrant’s sole remedy is another entry in the Sweepstakes, provided that if it is not possible to award another entry due to discontinuance of the Promotion, or any part of it, for any reason, Administrator, at its discretion, may elect to hold a random drawing from among all eligible entries received up to the date of discontinuance for any or all of the prizes offered herein. No more than the stated number of prizes will be awarded. In the event that production, technical, seeding, programming or any other reasons cause more than stated number of prizes as set forth in these Official Rules to be available and/or claimed, Administrator reserves the right to award only the stated number of prizes by a random drawing among all legitimate, unawarded, eligible prize claims.