It all started with this gorgeous fabric from Cotton + Steel’s Wonderland Collection by the Rifle Paper Company.  This canvas weight fabric made the perfect apron for our Juki Club Tea Party.

The new fabric lines come out in America several months before we get it over here in the UK. I was in a hurry so we ordered 2 yards hot-off- the-press from a Stateside online shop called The Fat Quarter Shop. I love the quirky take on the Alice in Wonderland theme. There are lots of other yummy fabrics in the Wonderland range so follow the link and take a peek. We used the paper pattern from the Japanese Style Artisan Apron blog post on the new Juki Club website. This earlier blog post gives detailed instructions so follow the link and have a look.

As it’s a directional pattern, we were careful to make sure that the design was centred and that all the lovely Wonderland characters would still be right side up when the pieces were sewn together.

Once it was cut out we sewed the sides together and stitched the shoulder seams using the Juki DX7. Now came the fun part, we used the Juki MO 2000 overlocker to finish the edges. A fun feature of this Artisan Apron pattern is that there is only one continuous edge to the apron. No kidding; the neck, arm holes, and front and back hem are all ingeniously connected!

We turned off the knife function and simply overlocked the edges all the way around in one go! Isn’t that amazing!!

We selected the 4 thread overlock with an integrated safety seam. Once we overlocked the edges of the apron we moved to the Juki DX7 sewing machine. By the way, this MO 2000 overlocker is a joy to use. First of all, it uses an air threading technology which makes it super easy to thread. Then there’s a screen that prompts you to set it up correctly. Absolutely brilliant!

We simply turned the overlocked edge in and top-stitched it down using a thread that blended into the fabric.

Once again we were able to go all the way around the apron without stopping. What fun!

In no time at all, the Alice Apron was finished and looked great front and back. The canvas weight fabric made the apron hang so nicely.

This project came together so fast! I was all ready for the Juki Club Tea Party.

Lots of ladies told me how much they liked my apron. So I wanted to include a post to show how we made it.

Our Next Juki Club event will be at the Franklins Sewing Shop in Colchester. We’re going to be celebrating Christmas in July with tropical fabrics and Santa too. We’ve expanded the event to cover 2 days:

Workshops on Friday 7 July and our main Juki Club Christmas in July event on Saturday 8 July 2017 

We’ll be hosting a special Christmas in the tropics free-motion quilting workshop on Friday afternoon between 2 and 5. This workshop is limited to 10 people. Each participant will receive one of our special Sunshine subscription boxes (retails for £29.99) with seasonal fabric, thread and embellishments. We use it to make free-motion quilted postcards. Everyone will get to do some free-motion quilting on our Machine Quilter frames using the new Juki TL QVP Mini straight stitch machine. We’ll learn some fun Christmas and tropical line designs and finally finish off our postcards using the Juki Dx7 sewing machines. We’ll make sure to take a break for tea and cakes! Workshop cost £25.00 You get all the goodies in our subscription box for £5.00 off AND the in-person tutorial not to mention tea and cakes!

The main Juki Club Christmas in July event on the shop floor will be Saturday 8 July. We’ll have FREE projects for all the top of the line Juki sewing machines. Experienced staff will be on hand to demonstrate the machine features and answer any questions. We’ll have  fun food to to celebrate the day and  free projects to take home with you.

Our main Juki Club Christmas in July event on Saturday July 8th is free for everyone. Come join us and bring your friends! The Colchester Franklins Sewing Shop will be having sales to mark the day so drop by and pick up a bargain.