Thursday, December 19, 2013

Aprons and Christmas Cupcakes




Every year around Christmas time, instead of a regular lesson, I do a Christmas party for my little English girls. I give them a gift and then we do some sort of activity. The first year, I made them little handbags and we decorated cookies. Last year, I made them DS cases and we made snowglobes. This year, I made them aprons and we decorated cupcakes.

To be honest, with K, T and I all being sick over the past two weeks, the idea of the Christmas lesson had escaped me until Saturday. I quickly mailed the girls' moms and asked if it would be okay to do it in lieu of their Wednesday lesson. Both moms were on board, so I ran to the fabric store on Sunday and after putting the boys to bed that night, I got started on the aprons. As I was low on time, I decided I would just do a skirt apron and all in the same size, although one of the girls is a year and a half yonger than the others. While I didn't have a pattern, I did have a good idea of what I wanted to make. I drafted the skirt bit, and cut out the fabric - two skirt pieces and three strips of 10cm by 110cm per apron.


The first thing I did was prepare the ruffle. I sewed two of the strips together, so I ended up with one super long piece. Then I zig zagged the edge with a piece of really thin yarn in the middle. When it was time to ruffle up, I just slid the fabric down the yarn and it was way easier than pulling strings and having them break on me.


Once the ruffle was about half the length it once wasy, I pinned it to one of the skirt pieces, raw edges together.


I wanted the edges to taper off, so I angled the ruffle out a bit instead of keeping the raw edges flush together. Once the ruffle was pinned on, I pinned it to the other skirt bit so that the wrong sides of the fabric were showing.


Then I sewed it up, flipped it around and ironed it down. Finally, I had to do the waistband. I folded and ironed the last long strip as if I were making bias tape. Then I folded the piece in half and sewed the short ends together. Then I flipped it right side out, centered it on the skirt and topstitched all around.


I love how they turned out. I was so lucky to find the dessert print canvas-y fabric and some cute dots to match.


Each girl was given two cupcakes. I had made some regular whipped cream and chocolate whipped cream, and also had a bunch of toppings they could use - powdered coconut, dragees, candy stars, "Merry Christmas" chocolate piecees, strawberries, candy balls, etc. When I started to get all of the decorations out, the girls gasped. They had never decorated cupcakes before and were so excited.


There was a lof ot concentration going on at the table.






Of course K wanted to join in. (Notice the orange tape on the wall in the background? That was K helping with the Christmas decorations.)


The girls asked if they could cut up a strawberry. I took them to the kitchen and gave them a knife and a cutting board. I asked if they wanted help, but they were pretty insistent that they could do it on their own. K wanted to cut a strawberry too. He used a butter knife and was all boys-gone-wild just cutting it right on the table. He was so proud of himself when it finally broke in half. What a nutter.


All of the girls got really into the decorating. One of the older girls did a Rudolph cupcake and a Santa one. I think they both turned out really sweet.

 
Because of the plague that took over for a while, I am really behind on Christmas stuff. I feel so bad about it. Before he got sick, K had been begging to do some Christmas cookies. We still haven't gotten around to it. I would like to think that we will make some this weekend, but let's be honest, I am going to be crazy preparing for the "Christmas dinner" on the 23rd that we are hosting. Maybe Christmas Eve can be a day full of last minute Christmas shopping and cookie baking? 

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