The idea is to take a mens shirt and have them made into aprons. I told Deb that i had a special idea in mind and if i could have 6 of Daddy's shirts. She still has his full closet of stuff. She let me pick out some and i picked 2 that i actually had bought for Dad and seen him wear them often.
I asked a lady at work Penny if she could make them for me because i knew she knows how to sew. I have a sewing machine but dont know how to sew. I got to change that!! Anyway, this was in November when i asked my coworker because i wanted there to be plenty of time before Christmas. Her husband happens to be a pastor and so Christmas season is very busy for them. However, she volunteered her sister Michelle , who also could sew and definitely could use extra money. YAY!
I printed out the ideas from Pinterest and wrote on the pages what i wanted. I asked for the 6 shirts to be intermingled such as part of one shirt being used as the pocket on another apron, etc. Michelle looked at them and said they would be no problem and that she only wanted 15$ per apron.
The day i brought the shirts to work to pass off to Penny , i explained my comments written on the pages and then i held one of dad's shirts and hugged it. Immediately i started crying. I guessed it was like hugging him.
A few weeks later, i sent an email to Penny and asked her if she would tell Michelle to save any of the scraps. I just didnt want any part of his shirts being thrown away. I'm still just wanting to hold onto every little thing i have of his. Penny never replied back. She is super super busy at work so i didnt think too much about it.
The week before Christmas, Penny brought the bag in with the finished aprons. All of them were so cute! I discovered the reason that she didnt reply back to my previous email asking for the scraps. She had already asked Michelle to make me a small lap quilt with the leftover fabric from the shirts. I cried and cried happy tears!! I dont have a picture of it but its so cute. Its at home on my quilt ladder. Penny said that when she saw me crying while holding daddy's shirt, she knew then what she wanted to do. I wrote the check for Michelle and tipped her on top of the fee because she did such a great job. A cool thing is that Michelle brought the aprons to church to hand off to Penny to bring to me and when doing so, a few ladies from church saw them and now they are going to make some for fundraisers.
The week of Christmas i had lunch with Mimi and Aunt Brenda and gave them their aprons, i mailed Aunt Tammy's to her house in California, i gave Deb's to her on Christmas Eve and then i kept the last one for myself. They all really loved them and i am so glad they do because i love mine. I've been using if too!
