More aprons, plus a little sewing tip

As I said before, March is birthday madness around here!  Here are two more aprons I made as birthday gifts, this time for a couple of sweet boys.  Just like with the last set, they are reversible, with the backside using the same fabric as the straps & pockets.  I love how these turned out!  It's cool to see how something so simple can have so many different looks just based on fabric choices.  Although I have to say, I never realized just how hard it is to find boy-ish looking fabrics!  Kudos to all you sewing mommas of boys!  I don't know how you do it!  I'm feeling pretty lucky to have a little girl right now. ;)

Now onto the tip:

So topstitching was something I always absolutely hated doing.  I used to just skip it, but it really does make things look more professional and finished, so I felt compelled to keep trying.  I'm a bit OCD though, and I felt like I could never really get an even, straight line, so I spent a lot of time ripping and re-stitching.  Super sucky. :P

But when I bought my new machine last year, it came with a "new owner's lesson" which provided tons of super-useful tips.  One of them was how to topstitch using the blind hem foot that came with my machine, which worked great, but only if I had to stitch to the left side, not the right.  But then I happened to get a stitch-in-the-ditch foot as part of a quilting set, and I now have perfect topstitching every time!  

So I figured it's about time I passed it on: get yourself a stitch-in-the-ditch foot.  It's usually used for quilting and looks like this:

That little ridge in the center is normally used to keep your needle lined up with the seam or "ditch" as you quilt.  But if you put the edge of your item against one side of the guide and then move your needle to the same side (assuming your machine has this capability), you can stitch extremely close to the edge and never worry about veering off in one direction or the other because the guide in the center keeps you sewing in a perfectly straight line.  It's like magic!