A perfect hostess gift

When one spends a weekend under the hospitality of someone else, one needs to consider giving the hostess some kind of gift.  Not only is it the polite thing to do, but normally one has a certain amount of affection for the person one is spending time with.  That certainly was the case with our hostess Nicole this past weekend.  The biggest problem with a gift is figuring out tastes, wants, and/or needs so that the gift of choice will be meaningful.

I was just getting back into sewing at the time of the wine festival last year.  I've had an idea for a project for a number of years and never had a chance to do it, so I thought a hostess gift would be a great opportunity to try it out.  Unless she hated it, at least my project would serve a double purpose of being a new piece of clothing and something warm with all the wind her region gets.  This is the one of a kind sweatshirt I created:

Springtime butterflies

For this year's gift, I thought an apron would really be perfect.  I know she wears them constantly in the kitchen (definitely too modern to leave one on all the time!), and I'd observed that she had a couple of them hanging on the hook that were getting rather worn out.  I've never made an apron before, although apparently I made my daughter remake her Home Ec one that was way below any standards I found acceptable for the daughter of a seamstress, despite the great grade the teacher gave.

Aprons may be practical, but I guess I'm from a generation or a lifestyle where they just weren't in!  I see them now all over the place on various sewing sites, I've wondered why they seemed so popular, I can't imagine being caught dead in one.  I have seen more French women (and not the old hausfraus, either) actually wear them (any I've somehow managed to collect just decorate hooks), and both Nicole and her daughter live in them over the wine weekend.

I happened to have some mid-weight cotton plaid (which also is supposed to be quite in vogue at the moment) in my stash, and I found some leftover contrast fabric and trim I thought might look nice together.  So this is what I designed for my friend, hoping I wasn't making it too frilly for her fairly practical tastes:

I feel pretty, oh so pretty

It's mine

No, it's mine

Not only did she wear it herself all weekend, her daughter Caroline also made it her uniform of choice whenever she could get her hands on it.

Apparently, my idea for and execution of a decent hostess gift this year turned out to be a success.