Sublime Stitching's Meaty Treats Patterns, and a Rather Epic Apron for Dad

My dad recently celebrated a birthday, way back in January.  I had the wonderful idea to make him an apron, since he's always cooking for someone- whether in the kitchen for family, on the grill, or for his fellow Masons and all the other organizations he's involved with.  The apron that I had in mind would feature steaks.  I searched and searched for the right fabric but nothing really caught my eye.  I wanted it to be quirky and fun, maybe a little retro.  Finally, with nearly one week to go and no steak pattern fabric in sight I realized it was time to seek out other options.  Enter the amazing Sublime Stitching patterns of Jenny Hart.  

Though familiar with Jenny Hart and her embroidery company, I had never used one of her patterns, nor had I done any major embroidery since I was in the 5th or 6th grade when I embroidered a colorful daisy flower on the back pocket of my most favorite jeans.  A quick Google search directed me to the company and her then newly released Meaty Treats pattern.  I hit the jack pot.  With designs for sausage links, and steaks, and hams, and hamburgers, and chicken wings I was equipped to make the most epic food-themed apron for my dad, ever.  I would not stop with a single steak.  Oh no, I had to add as many items on the apron as I could- complete with a sausage link pennant-like banner across the top from which various meat items would hang and a Sunday ham dinner flanked by two partially eaten chicken wings across the front pocket.

Being the ever so ambitious and adventurous one, I decided to enlarge most of the designs for aesthetics sake- after all, I wanted this apron to be epic.  Did I mention I had one week to do this?  And I also had to sew up the actual apron?  No?  Well, it's true.  In my extreme state of eagerness I failed to take into account how much time the embroidery would demand of me.  I realized this by link two of the sausage link swag.  In the end, I worked on this thing non stop- even on the bus and subway on my commute to and from work.  Things worked out fine in the end, though I did downsize some items (the little steaks and burgers at the bottom) and I had one less salami hanging beneath the sausage links.  

As for the apron itself, I used a heavy, navy colored linen and cotton bias tape for structure.  I loosely based my apron on this project from Needle Book but eventually ended up tracing the shape of Dan’s apron, adding 5/8" for the seam allowance. The linen was so, so nice to sew up but was perhaps not the best choice for an apron that might get a lot of usage.

Here's a photo of it on my dress form (looking rather girly, I might add) before it was finished.  (Oh look- Heidi wanted to be in the picture, too.)  :)

Have any of you used any of the Sublime Stitching patterns?  If so, which one(s) and for what purpose?  I also purchased the Ryan Berkley patterns and plan on working on them this spring.  Can't wait!