For My Dad

I wrote this on June 11th 2013

Thirty years ago today, my life changed forever. 

Knowing full well that he has been watching, I often wonder what my dad thinks of us four kids, now that we are grown and have families of our own. Proud as hell I’m sure!! 

All four of us are now older than you were when you passed. You would now be 67 years old, and still full of piss and vinegar as ever, but maybe a bit slower. You have gained three sons-in-law, and a daughter-in-law, that I am sure you are proud to call your own.


You also have seven grandsons and a granddaughter that you never had the chance to play with or hold, but I am positive you are watching over them as they go through life, and I am so thankful for that. I am also sure that you have inspired some shenanigans in these grandchildren that make us, now the parents, aware you are truly with them.


My dad was the kind of guy you just don’t forget, but maybe I’m a little prejudice. I still have people tell me things they remember about him, and that just warms my heart. 

I know he is in a better place than we are and I also know a lot of good people have joined him in the past thirty years. I picture him having a grand old time with some long lost friends and family. 

One day I will see you again, but until then, I just want to say, thanks for looking out for us Daddy, and we miss you. 

For Frank Mathias Suhr

April 16th 1946 to June 11th 1983

Egg Gathering Apron

Egg Gathering Apron

I saw a crocheted pattern for an egg gathering apron and was inspired to make one for my friend that has chickens. 

I combined several apron patterns I came across, and this is what I came up with for the first draft.   My friend is now testing it, and will let me know if I need to make any changes. 

I started with an old pair of jeans. I measured from my waste to my knees (or as long as you want your apron to be), then cut the jeans at this length and then cut them up the side and along the inseam to separate the front from the back.

I then sewed the inseams together.  You will need to use a straightedge so you don’t have an uneven apron front.  Then I used that straightedge to even up the bottom before I went continued.

The contrasting fabric I used was simple muslin.  I cut a length about 2 inches wide for the apron ties and sewed it on under the belt loops. 

 

I cut 6 inch wide strips to make the egg pockets.  I used 2 ½ times the width of the apron as a measurement for the amount of 6 inch strip I would need for each pocket, and then hemmed the top and each side of the strip. 

 

 

For the bottom pockets, I flipped the apron over the pinned the muslin pocket on (right side of pocket to wrong side of apron) placing 1 inch pleats about 1 inch apart. I sewed this together and flipped the pocket over to the right side to sew a finishing stick along the sides and bottom of this pocket.

 

For the top pocket, I used the same process, of sewing the pocket on and then topstitching the sides and bottom. 

 

 

 

 
 

Now I just had to make the decision of how big to make the egg pockets…  It looked like 2 pleats for each egg pocket would work, so I then sewed vertically on each pocket after 2 pleats on the top and bottom pockets to finish the apron.

 

 

Once I get some feedback from my friend, I’ll tweak the pattern J