Apron

For a while there my number of posts and my number of followers were neck in neck.  Now it seems that the number of posts are lagging.  Must do something about that.  I'm sewing.  I'm always sewing something - it's just that at times things don't get quite done, and then they don't get photographed and then...  Well, you get the picture.
My grand plans for the start of spring and summer sewing did not get off to any kind of a start.  My daughter's wardrobe benefited - mine didn't.  Then there was that slight problem of losing my "jacket closet" while my daughter was here.  She did have to hang her clothes somewhere, and I had to move my stuff.  I get somewhat discombobulated when things aren't in their proper place, and that and the continuing cold weather didn't inspire me to pull out and sort through the summer wardrobe.  Hence - I have no idea where to start.  I know there are things that I absolutely need - but what those are I have no clue.  When I look at my fabrics, I'm haunted by ghosts of summers past.  I start to remember what each and every piece of fabric was purchased for, all the ideas I had, and I'm overwhelmed.  Where to begin?
Not to lose sewing time, there's always a smaller project that needs to happen, like this apron.

Kindly modeled by my mother, but only once I promised that only the apron would show.  It's a gift for a friend who moved to Toronto recently.  I made her one earlier, and she asked for a second one exactly the same style.  (The previous one was a pea pod print.)  This is Kwik Sew 3547.

Quite obvious which view I chose.  I made the size medium.  The fabric is a quilting cotton that I had on hand.  (Can never seem to resist the temptation of buying up those lovely prints - more about that later.)  I purchased the bias binding, though I probably should have made my own.  Problem is, my sewing machine refuses to keep a decent tension when I sew through purchased bias.   I have tried everything under the sun to remedy this problem, and nothing seems to work.  Best I can do is to crank up the tension to its maximum and pray that the underside won't be too bad.  The stitches seem to hold alright, despite the rather sloppy look of the wrong side.  I hate the way it looks!  I don't seem to have any problems when I make my own binding with prewashed fabric.  Could it be the sizing in the purchased binding?  Any ideas?
With the Victoria Day fireworks going off all around us this evening, we're staying in the basement either at the computer or the sewing machine, where we can't hear the noise too clearly.  "The great (four-legged) protector" feels the need to sit on top of me (or any facsimile thereof) when the noise is too loud.  So - more sewing is definitely happening.