Somehow I kept my apron clean on Thanksgiving...

My aunt used to make aprons, lots of them.  In fact, aprons have always been kind of a "thing" in my family.  The women all seem to collect them.  My uncle Gary used to have a restaurant and I still have one of his aprons from the restaurant in my kitchen - it's the one I use the most, actually.  That could be because it's brown and it's really hard to make it look dirty.

One of the first sewing patterns I ever bought was for an apron, though I still haven't made that pattern.  I fell in love with this pattern a few months ago online, and knew I had to have it - it's by Sew Liberated and called the Emmeline apron.

I really wanted to make the exact apron in the picture, but alas, it's difficult to find a lot of AMH's Chocolate Lollipop collection these days.  I wound up finding some adorable fabrics from Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird collection and I knew they'd be perfect for an apron.

My mother visited while I was still at work on this apron and overheard me telling a friend that garment sewing was just something I'm not any good at, and my mother tells me that if I could manage to make this apron that I could certainly try my hand at garment sewing.  I think that's what I loved so much about this pattern - it feels like a retro dress in a lot of ways.  Maybe one day I'll try sewing a dress...

Naturally, when the apron was actually on me and in use, no one snapped a picture.  Not that I'm surprised, but if I don't take the picture in my family, no one else will.  I did tell my husband to take a picture of the turkey coming out of the oven, and you can see a little bit of my apron there.

All in all, I really love this apron, though I worry that I will seriously cry when it (inevitably) gets dirty.  Oh well, then I can make another one.  :)

And in case you're curious about how Thanksgiving went, the main event of Thanksgiving wound up not being the turkey, at least not for my munchkin.  From the moment I started making it, the flourless chocolate  was all he could talk about.  He kept talking about smelling it the day before Thanksgiving and as soon as we all sat down to dinner, that's all he could talk about.  He ate every last crumb of it and declared it the best part of Thanksgiving.

*UPDATE * And because curious minds want to know...here's the recipe for my flourless chocolate cake...

Easy Flourless Chocolate Cake

4 oz bittersweet chocolate (I use the brown label Ghiradelli, 60% bittersweet)
1 stick salted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 c cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Prepare an 8" round cake pan by greasing it, lining it with parchment, and greasing the parchment lining.
2. Melt your chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, and stir until smooth.  Or, wait until it's really melty, then stir, making sure it's good and smooth.
3. Remove bowl and whisk sugar into chocolate, making sure it gets fully incorporated.  Add your eggs and whisk well.  (Yes, I know the chocolate is still hot, don't worry about your eggs.)
4. Sift 1/2 cup cocoa powder over your batter, and whisk until just combined, then pour batter into prepared pan. 
5. Bake in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes, until the top has formed a slightly crackled top.  Cool cake in pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate.

You can serve with powdered sugar, sifted over the top of the cake, whipped cream or ice cream.  Or best of all, all of the above!  This cake keeps quite well, at least a week, if kept in an airtight container.