H.A.P.

I'm going to start calling these H.A.P.s... Housework Avoidance Projects. Sure, I'm making things that are useful and pretty, but really, I'm procrastinating. I rock at that.

Today I made a smock for the baby.

There were a few reasons behind why I wanted him to have an apron. First and foremost, smocks/aprons are a big Montessori thing. According to www.michaelolaf.net:

An apron, used for cooking, cleaning, woodworking, gardening, etc., sometimes helps the child concentrate by marking the beginning and the end of a task. It also elevates the importance of work in the child's eyes. When a child's work is seen as important to the family, so is the child.
An apron should be made so that the child can put it on and fasten it by himself; then he can work whenever he wants to. A hook for hanging it on the wall keeps it always ready.

The purpose of the apron, at least at this age, is not protection of clothing as much as it is to mark the beginning and end of a task, to help the child focus on the work, and to lend a feeling of respect to this "real" work. This is what counts.

Of course, there is also the obvious reason of wanting to protect his clothes from any messes we might make, whether it be cooking or playing. The big problem I was having with getting him an apron though was that there are TONS of cute mini aprons out there for girls, but none that would work for a little boy.

Before Bubba was born, we bought three crib sheets from Pottery Barn, and two Tiddlywinks brand crib sheets from Target. The Target ones were super thin, kind of rough, and shrunk in the wash to the point where they didn't fit the mattress right anymore. The Pottery Barn ones are as good as when we bought them though, so those are the only ones we use. The other ones have been languishing in the linen closet until today, when I decided to make something useful from them.

I didn't use a pattern, but I have been trying to work out in my head how to do the neck and shoulders so that no raw edges show. I figured it out too! It looks so clean and professional.

I tried to get the boy to model it, but quickly realized that I may have made it a little big. Whoops! It's okay, he'll grow into it. For now I'll just safety pin the collar or something. It's two layers of fabric thick so it should protect his clothing pretty well. I think I'm going to re-do the velcro closing straps. Right now they reach around to the front and fasten in the middle, making this look unfortunately dress-like. I think I will shorten them and just have them fasten at the sides.

Finally, for giggles, I leave you with a portrait of my husband.

He's pretty gangster.