Tutorial: Easy Apron

Need an apron for summer barbecues... or an inexpensive gift?

Or to protect your clothes while you hurriedly cook splattering spaghetti sauce as your hungry kids cling to your legs? C'mon, I know I can't be the only one whose pre-dinner scene looks something like this (smile added for photo): This apron is very simple to make, don't let those pockets fool you ... and avoids all of the most tedious parts of sewing. No hemming. No cutting out a pattern.

All you need is two dishtowels (*note added* these towels were 15" x 26") and a few strips of fabric:
2 strips 5" x 45" for waist ties
2 strips 4" x 22" for neck ties
I used coordinating, but not matching strips that I had left over from a quilt.
Optional: 8 inches of thin elastic


To begin, lay on of your dishtowels face down. Fold the bottom edge (if there is a specific pattern you want to keep at the top) up 5 inches.


Turn the towel face up, holding the folded edge in place. Fold bottom edge again, another 5 inches:

Take the second dish towel and, with the long edge perpendicular to the short, folded side of the first towel, tuck it under the fold... making sure it is centered:


Another view to show the second towel layered under the top fold of the first towel:


You now have something that looks like this:


Now, make the ties by folding each strip lengthwise, right sides together and stitching across the end and down the side. Leave one short end open to turn. Turn and press. Top stitch if you desire:
Now, tuck the unfinished edge of each tie, under the edges of the top fold, lining up the tie with the top edge of the bottom half of the apron. Pin in place and secure by stitching as the red lines show in the picture below. This joins the two towels, attaches the ties and creates two pockets:


For the apron top, there are two variations. One uses a small pleat (blue). The other uses a little elastic (lime green). Choose which option you like best then follow the corresponding instructions below.


If you like the pleated top, fold the top corners over 1.5" (point to fold) keeping short sides of the triangle perpendicular to the top and side edge. Pin and stitch around edge of triangle.


For the top with the gathered sides, fold the corners over 2.5 inches (from fold to point) keeping the short sides of the triangle (blue lines) perpendicular to the top and side edges of the apron top. Pin. Take your elastic and cut it in half, leaving 4 inches for each side. Tuck the elastic under the fold (red line), pinning in place at each end. Using a long, zigzag stitch, stitch over the edge with elastic sandwiched in the fold line (red line), stretching the elastic to fit the length of the folded edge. Using a straight stitch, sew the corner (blue lines) of the triangle in place.


For either apron, attach the neck ties by pinning the tie (unfinished edge) right next to the edge of the corner triangle. Sew a small rectangle to hold the tie in place.


If you are making the apron with the pleats, now is the time to fold a small pleat just inside of each neck strap. The size of the plead depends on the size of the person (probably unnecessary if the apron is for a man) but 1/2 inch worked for me. Stitch along top edge to secure pleat.


Enjoy your apron, or the compliments from your friends when you give them a handmade gift.
A special thanks to my sister Meredith for her help with the photos. She got these shots in just a few minutes, with three little ones underfoot. Love her!

My Quiet Book

My mom made the greatest things for me when I was little. I have such great memories of them now. One of my favorites was a felt quiet book that she made for us to look at during church. Last year I signed up to make a quiet book for my girls with a group from church. It was taking a lot of time, and the truth is, I didn't really like it. It wasn't even half as cool as the one my mom made. So, I trashed that one and decided I was going to design my own. Well, it has been over a year in the making (working on it a little here and there) but it is finished at last! Unlike my mom, however, I cheated and used a number of pre-made things on some of the pages. I think it turned out pretty cute though and hopefully is sturdy enough to make it through a few kids... we'll see about that. In case it doesn't, I decided to make a record of it.

The animals were these little ribbon bookmarks I found. You can pull their feet and they slide down into the boat. The dove fits in the pocket or in the sky with velcro.

The farm animals are foam stickers, double thick. They fit in the barn (the door is a big pocket) or you can arrange them around the farm on different velcro spots.

I found the terry cloth duck pouch and sewed foam numbers into plastic circles to make the bubbles. The bubbles also fit inside the "rubber ducky".

I "felted" an old wool sweater and used it for this notebook pocket and the pencil pouch. The best part was that the zipper was already part of the sweater so this was the easiest page of all.

Aren't the ladybug and flower buttons the cutest things? I crocheted the flowers and they button on or off around the little flower buttons. You can match the flowers to their background colors, or mix the colors to "grow your garden" any way you want. The ladybugs don't come off (even though Ava sure has tried) but are just there to look cute.

This page is really similar to one in the book my mom made with a worm that lives in an apple. She made her worm out of felt but this one is just different sizes of pompoms strung together... he is really soft though.

This is E's favorite page. You can turn the wheel at the top of the page to change the weather outside, and then pick an outfit for bear. I found the foam bear shapes, and made the outfits. They attach to bear with magnet strips.

I'll probably just carry it in our ginormous diaper bag, but after I had finished it I decided to add a handle down the side so it could be easily carried on its own if I wanted.