Hey, it’s me, Hannah. I’ve been gearing up to do some gardening this year. Just a couple of raised beds in our backyard for some easy to grow vegetables – tomatoes, peppers, things like that. So for my project this week, I’ve decided I want to try and make another apron dress, one that’s specifically for such a task as gardening. I have been following @itssewbecca on Instagram for a while now and she is just the most lovely Cottagecore / Farmcore / Hobbitcore sewing content creator that I’ve come across. She is a homesteader and a slow fashion designer, so I thought to myself, if I want to grow my own food and live my best hobbit-y lifestyle the way that she does, then I need to dress the way that she does, obviously. And conveniently, she has just released a sewing pattern for the most perfect apron dress, the Forager Pinafore – I’ll link to it down below.

I bought this pattern the day that it came out and I have just been sitting on it waiting for the right time to start. And now that I’ve got some time before my next fantasy creator event and it’s come time to plant those hardware store pepper plants we’ve purchased, I’ve decided to sew up the forager pinafore as this week’s video project.

Since @itssewbecca has already created a video to go along with her pattern explaining how to make the dress, this is going to end up being a lot more of a just a sew along video. I’m just a baby sewist, anyway, I don’t think you should be taking anything I say as gospel. I’ve already cut the pattern pieces, so now I’m ready to begin cutting the fabric.

This is fabric from my Grandmother-in-Law Fabric Haul video. Check that out if you haven’t seen it and let me know if I’ve chosen the right fabric for this project. It took me forever to decide, and I’m still…we might have to make this dress a couple of times over. There’s just so many fabric options, but I’m going to move forward with this one.

So let’s get to cutting.

What’s cool about this pattern is that it comes with two bodice options, a crossover bodice for the front or back, as well as a simple scoop neck. I think that I am going to go with a crossover bodice for the front and a basic bodice for the back – that way I can wear it different ways, front or backwards to get different looks. 

Shoot.

I ran outta thread like an inch from finishing, an inch and a half. This is my first time doing the burrito method for any sewing project I’ve done. I don’t feel like I need to explain it. Becca does an amazing job explaining it in her video, so I’m going to drop a link down below. Make sure you go watch that if you need help, because it really helped me out.

Alright. I have pinned, just pinned the sides together, just to check the fit. And I’m pretty happy with this. It’s not supposed to be super like form fitting, kind of a loose fit to the bodice. So I am pretty happy with this, and I think I’m going to go ahead and wrap up for today, and we’ll work on getting the straps and skirt put together for tomorrow.

Good morning. Alright. So today all I have to do is sew the side ties onto the bodice, the pockets onto the skirt panels and then the skirts onto the bodice and then a quick hem and we’re done. It should be a pretty easy day. I am fighting off a little bit of a cold, so I’m feeling pretty grateful that I shouldn’t have to rack my brain in order to make this work. This pattern is pretty easy, so let’s get this wrapped up and get a garden planted. 

Alright, here is the finished bodice piece. I have attached the straps and everything looks pretty good. If I were to shorten this piece, now would be the time to do it. But I’m actually really happy with the way that this falls. I also I have the crossover in the back right now, but lest ye forget, it is reversible.

So this is what it looks like with the cross over it in the front and the scoop neck in the back. I’m very pleased with this. Also with the ties – you can have the ties on the side like this, with a cute little bow. Or if maybe it’s just a little too flowy for what you’re looking for, if you want it a little bit more form fitting, you can achieve that by tying the back ties into the front again. This will be like under the skirt. So. And then the front ties … tied up in the back. And you can see how that can cinch the waist just a little bit more. And that is that on the bodice. Now it’s time to go ahead and focus on the skirt and the pockets. 

So because I want to be able to wear this both front and backwards, I have decided I’m going to go ahead and put pocket squares on both skirt panels so that I have front and back pockets, no matter how I wear it.

Alright. So while I’m gathering the waist of my skirt, I figured we could talk about the garden. So I have actually already sown a couple vegetable plants that I can sow directly into the garden. I have sown peas and carrots and spinach and rhubarb, and I’ve also planted a tomato plant. I’ve also got two beds – we’re planning to do a lot of pepper plants – bell peppers, hot banana peppers, jalepeños, I believe. And also some herbs like basil. Maybe some radishes, because that helps with pests. We are trying we try to be strategic with like making sure that the plants that we are planting together are companion plants and help with things like pests and nutrients and things like that. So we use an app called Planter. You can use it to plan out your your garden beds.

We ended up having enough banana peppers from our pepper plants to pickle and we will definitely do some pickling and some jarring towards the end of the summer, you know, late summer, early fall. Maybe I will film and take you along with the pickling process. It’s just a fun thing to do together and it’s just another way that we can enjoy what we harvest and, you know, take that into the winter.

That pride of knowing that we were able to grow and maintain the plants that we pickle. Alright, all done. Let’s get this connected to the bodice. 

Okay, how cute is this? I feel so quaint and it was just so handy to have while we were gardening. Just like having something to wipe my hands on, instead of my nice Son de Flor linen dress. Let’s see. We planted rosemary, red bell peppers, hot banana peppers, jalapeños, basil and cilantro. Let me know if you want to see a video on our pickling process. Once we’re able to harvest, we’ll definitely be pickling our banana peppers. So let me know if that’s something you’d like to see. But man, I feel like a proper homesteader with my my garden and my Forager Pinafore. And I just feel so grateful to @itssewbecca for their constant inspiration online and of course for sharing this pattern with the world. Please go check it out again. The link will be down below. 

And personally I feel like between this and the Luana Pinafore that I made in a previous video, I’m really getting the hang of of apron dresses and pinafores. Let me know if you think that this whole channel should just be me trying out different, different pinafore patterns. No, but this apron dress serves a totally different function than my other Pinafore video, which honestly kind of ended up being more of a strappy summery dress than really an apron dress. And I’ll probably wear that more just out and about once the weather starts to get a little bit warmer. This pinafore, however, definitely gave me a couple of opportunities to learn some stuff and try out some new techniques. I’m really proud of how quickly I got the burrito roll method down and I’m definitely going to take that forward for sewing armholes in future projects.

This was a pretty quick sewing project and I had just had so much fun making it, and if you had as much fun as I did, it would mean the world to me if you would like and subscribe. And if you do, I will see you in two weeks for my next video.

Take care.