I’ve been on a bit of an appliqué kick, with this first string of posts. I think it has a lot to do with my latest project.  

Cooking Mama Apron

It’s a Cooking Mama Apron! Or rather an apron, adorned with a hand cut felt appliqué of none other than Cooking Mama of Nintendo fame. It’s a little bit of a joke with my friend Heidi, who was the recipient, but I am really excited with how it turned out.

To start with, if you’re not framilar with the game I’ll give you a quick overview. Basically your goal is to make different dishes like sticky rice and sweet fired egg following along step-by-step as instructed by Mama. Each step along the way you either succeed and earn her praise or fail and have to bear Mama’s wrath. Here is a still from the DS game, specifically a still of Mama, when she is less then happy with your work. 

Original

When Heidi last came to visit I let her borrow the game. We joked about her fireball eyes and repeated the line “Don’t worry, Mama will fix it.” So late one night over IM I was brainstorming with my friend Lindsey, trying to come up with something to make to cheer Heidi up. There were a lot of good ideas but when we finally got to the idea of a “Cooking Mama Apron” we both knew that was the hands down winner. (Thanks again Lindsey!)

So I got to work making patterns from the screen cap of the game. Then I traced all the patterns onto paper-backed, double-sided fusible webbing. 

tracing the design
When I was done tracing, I ironed the fusible webbing onto the felt and got to cutting.

 
I started the cutting with an x-acto knife but found I made better progress with my super-sharp gingher scissors. Each piece was hand cut and adhered in layers with the iron-on adhesive backing. Below you can see some of the cut pieces before they were fused, and after. I love how the layers of felt create some dimension, almost like a sort of a low relief sculpture…

 
It was also important to me the apron was just right. The pink gingham fabric and the lace were essential for the kitsch factor. I found a great little tutorial and pattern for the apron on craftster. I also thought it would be a nice idea to turn the little “score” box into a little pocket, which I trimed in blue lace to match the game.

So this is the completed project. I’m really excited with how it turned out. It’s one of the more complicated projects I’ve done in a while, and it made me feel all accomplished when I was done.

The gift was a hit and I hope you like it. :)