The challenge for Aurifil Artisans for February 2024 was all about upcycling. Admittedly, I dithered to and fro about participating in this months challenge as I wasn't sure what to contribute. Last year, I using colourful Aurifil12wt threads to do some visible mending on some old jeans, which I really REALLY enjoyed. 

Read about last years project here: https://www.sameliasmum.com/2023/05/visible-mending.html

I looked around my kitchen and wondered what I could upcycle. Then it hit me. Well, no, it bounced out of my over-full tea towel drawer. A tea towel apron. 

A woman came into the store where I work to buy some cotton tape in different colours. I, of course being nosey, asked what she was working on and she said that she was making aprons from pretty old tea towels, for her friends. I admit that I was a little bit sceptical about the prospect, thinking they're way too small to make a useful apron... but I was very wrong!

I bought this tea towel from a gift shop in Auckland, on our trip to New Zealand last year. The colours and print captured by attention straight away and I had to have it. It's quite a decent size tea towel and great quality fabric. I held it in front of me and thought that it'd be pretty good for an apron.

The next step was to google how to make one. I found a old tutorial on YouTube by Jenny Doan (Missouri Star) and jumped right in.

I didn't have cotton tape at home, so I made my next strap / ties (is that the word?) out of a solid fabric from Island Batik which matched the reds in the print beautifully. I even found the most perfect shade of red #2270 in my Aurifil collection to put it together and top stitch.

I'm quite pleased with how my upcycle project turned out. I have a useful item to now use rather than leaving the tea towel in a drawer, unused because it's too precious.