I’m very excited to share my latest pattern project on passport bebe! This is one of my favorite projects because it was a collaboration with my three-year-old daughter Margot. She reached the phase of questioning absolutely everything in the world, and one of the questions was about my work.
What’s my job?
What do I like to do?
What is design, etc.?
I told her that I love to tell stories and bring the things I love to life. She looked a bit confused, so I thought it would be a neat idea to show her how that idea could translate into something tangible.
In Amsterdam, Margot loved going to a Montessori playgroup called Jacaranda Tree. Unfortunately, we stopped going because I was approaching my 9th month of pregnancy with my second child and was so huge that I wasn’t capable of leaving the house. She was sad about it, and I thought it would cheer her up if we talked about the things she liked in her class.
She said she loved when they prepared fruit snacks, making orange juice, peeling and cutting bananas, and eating apples. So we started having fun drawing these three fruits.
I took photos of our sketches and traced them on my computer. Then I made a simple repeat pattern out of them and sent them to a print shop.
Margot was very excited to see them printed out on a large canvas. We loved how they turned out, big and bold. I wanted to figure out a way she could use the fabric and thought an apron/smock might come in handy since we like to cook and do all kinds of projects like gardening and arts and crafts.
I sent some apron designs to a talented seamstress whom I had met close to my hometown in the Czech Republic. We created two different styles, and they turned out great!
One style has an elastic neck strap and a Velcro closure on the belt. I feel like it’s very “Montessori” since Margot puts it on all by herself and likes that she can do it independently. The second style is a cross-back style. I have always loved the look of the cross-back and wanted to see how it would look on a child. It turned out really great! It’s very functional, and it covers more body area for all the fun toddler work we do around the house (cooking, baking, gardening, arts and crafts, etc.).
Margot and I love them very much, and she wears these aprons almost every day. She calls them her happy fruits, and I think it gives us both pleasure to see how the famous Montessori fruits came to life in our project.
I received much positive feedback and had many inquiries about selling the aprons. The reaction was so heartwarming that I loved the thought of sharing them with children around the world. I decided to create more of them, calling them “Margot,” and they are now for sale online.
We would love to see your little munchkins in the aprons as well as what activities you do in your home. If you do end up with an apron, please share your apron moments on instagram with #happyfruitaprons.
Margot can now see that when you truly love something you can express it in different ways and share it with others. It made her really proud and inspired her to now want to “design” many more things! So we are keeping busy and will soon share more of our art projects here on Passport Bebe.
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