The Apple Picking Corduroy Jumper

 Apple picking sounds fun. 

This thought went through my head a few weeks ago. I texted my friends, "I want to go apple picking"

"My cousin just said the same thing" my friend texted back, "She knows a place. Do we want to make an outing of it?"

"Yes!!!!"

Apple picking was scheduled for the next weekend I would be in town visiting my family.

For the occasion (with the ulterior motive of getting my friend to take pictures for me), I wore a corduroy jumper I made back in the spring. This jumper didn't get much wear upon completion as it quickly became too warm to wear corduroy, so I was excited to pull the dress out and give it some attention!

I found 2 yards of dusty pink pinwale corduroy in the pre-cut bin at Walmart and snatched it up. Then I spent a couple weeks brainstorming what to make out of it. 2 yards really isn't a bunch of fabric to work with, but I was sure I could figure out something to do with it.

Around the same time I picked up Simplicity 9449 on sale, and just wanting to make something out of the fabric before it went to languish in my stash I decided to use that bodice pattern with a plain, rectangular, pleated skirt to make a jumper/pinafore.

I squeezed the bodice onto as little fabric as possible, cut the remaining yardage in half to make two skirt panels, cut the bodice facings out of scrap cotton, and cut two patch pockets out of the scraps of corduroy leftover from the bodice. From cutting out to hemming, the dress only took a few hours to make. It was done in a day!

The big patch pockets made it the perfect apple picking dress!

The orchard had several different types of apples and sold them by the 5 gallon bucket. 

My friends and I decided to pick a 5 gallon bucket of each variety we liked. So we stuck the bucket in the middle, all went out to different trees to pick apples and brought them back until the bucket was full.

My pockets transported lots of apples from the trees to the bucket!

Once we had all the apples of one variety we wanted, we loaded back up in the car.

And drove to the trees of the next variety we wanted, with our apple picking sticks hanging out the windows. 

You can fit a surprising amount of people, buckets, apples, and apple picking stick things in a small car!

And more apples we would pick!

I ate quite a few apples over the course of the afternoon. They're one of my very favorite fruits!

By the end of the afternoon we'd picked 6 buckets of apples to split between us.

And we had a ton of fun together!

It had been much too long since I'd just spent an afternoon with my friends!

We divided the apples amongst ourselves, and after everyone else took what they wanted, several buckets full went back to my parents house (because #apartmentliving, I don't have room for everything at home) to be used through the winter. 

I have plans to make apple pies, and apple cakes, and cooked apples, and maybe even apple sauce! Last week I made dried apples for the first time ever with the bag full of apples I brought home with me.

The plan was to mix these with my morning granola and yogurt, but they were so good I ate them all up before that could happen. Apparently next time I visit my parents I need to bring home lots more apples to make more! They're so easy! And yummy!

Apple picking really was splendid! 

I think we need to make at a yearly tradition!