As somebody who is bringing up four children and runs a small accommodation business, I think I can claim that I know a thing or two about washing. There is a lot of it. All the time.

Scotland is not the best country for drying your washing outside, but we have good days, actually quite a lot of them here in the East of the country. Even if there is a bit of a drizzle the washing will still be dry at the end of the day, because there is usually a bit of a breeze too. And if there isn’t, there is always tomorrow…

There we have it, me, talking about the weather, I’m sure the Germans make fun of the Brits talking about the weather. The fact is though that the weather over here IS so much more interesting and definitely something worth talking about (did I ever think I would say that?), unlike the continental climate, which is very predictable and does not leave much room for speculation. And let’s face it, it’s a good ice breaker, and as somebody who is absolute rubbish at small talk I have learnt to talk about the weather at least.

I digress. Having two washing machines I am able to take advantage of nice days and do multiple loads in one day. So, I really need a very big container for clothes pegs. I have an old peg apron which is so full it almost spills over and kind of weighs me down so I thought I’d make myself a nice big new one (pictured), and I had just the fabric for it! Then I thought maybe other people would like one but probably not a jumbo one like mine, so I started making a few more standard sized ones. I have to say, I am terrible at following fashion, so I just make things I like and hope somebody out there will like them too.

So I made a few more peg aprons:

I use the small pocket on the front for broken pegs, stowaway paper tissues (WHO DID NOT CHECK THEIR POCKETS!!!) or random bits of rubbish I find in the garden.

Thinking about it, I think it might be useful to wear one of those around the house, just to have a space for things which need to travel from one part of the house to another, and I simply love having large pockets full stop.

This is definitely NOT a Mother’s Day gift, although my husband said he would wear one, the birdy one in particular, but then again he is not your average kind of guy. But hey, maybe I could market (at least some of) them as a Father’s Day gift? I think another look at the fabric range is required. Nothing wrong with giving your man a little hint, I suppose? 😈

When I was growing up women used to wear some kind of overall apron type of garment, a “Kittelschürze”, some kind of apron-dress hybrid, which stopped somewhere above the knee. These were the days before automatic washing machines of course, but I am sure many older women still wear them, and in fact I was seen sporting one of those when I was a girl too. I loved it, because it had decent pockets, perfect for carrying little kittens around in them. And in the summer you would just wear that over your underwear! Not to be advised with my aprons mind…

And then there’s the story of my mum emptying her apron pockets into the coal fire, only to realise (too late!) that the paper she was burning was a 20 Mark note, which would have bought food for the family for a week. Needless to say she never lived that one down….

I’m going to leave you with some photos of my mum (“Mutti”), my granny (“Oma”), and even myself wearing a “Kittelschürze” (although that photo was taken more for the puppy than my attire), I definitely wasn’t a cool kid…

A note on fabric requirements:

To make the apron, you will need one meter of fabric or 4 fat quarters for the apron, plus 0.5m for the strap.

Binding: you will need 2m. If you would like different binding for the pockets you will need another metre of that (you only really need 60cm for the pockets but it is sold by the metre, costs just pennies mind).

As well as the fabric range mentioned above I used this beige fabric and also this beige binding and this grey binding and this dark grey fabric for the strap.

I have actually written and drawn the pattern which I am happy to include with your order, just let me know. Looking at all the materials needed I should really put up the price for the finished article, but as I mentioned before, I am a really bad capitalist…. 😕

Happy Stitching!

Kathi