Make It Mondays - Craft Apron Tutorial

With my upcoming craft fair, I decided a craft/vendor apron was a must.  I didn't want to spend any money, so I just used some leftover lanyard fabric - and waa-laa!

I'm pretty happy with how it came out - I was inspired by a picture on pinterest...but there was no link to a tutorial or anything...so I just made this up as I went.  So here's my craft/vendor apron tutorial.

First, I just started with some scraps of fabric - I would say 1/2 yard to 2/3 yard of each fabric (4 fabrics total - three for the front and one for the back) would probably be enough - the random pieces I had were probably less than that.

Start with the main apron piece first, then we'll add the waist band/ties at the end.

Cut the fabric as follows
- layer one: 7" x 21"(very front piece of fabric)
- layer two: 9" x 21" (middle fabric)
- layer three: 14" x 21"
- back fabric: 14" x 21"

Once you have your fabric cut, lay your back piece aside - you won't need that for a bit.

Then focus on layer one and two - these two layers will form the fronts of your pockets.  Using a nice and hot/steaming iron, focus on one of your long (21") sides - fold it over once approximately a quarter of an inch and iron it down.  Then fold that over a second time and iron it down as well.  This way you'll have a nice pretty edge and no fraying.

Once you have the side ironed - sew along that edge to secure your new finished edge.  You want to do this to ONE long side of both layer one and layer two.  These two sides will become the tops of your pockets.

Now lay your pieces as follow - layer one on top, layer two below it, and layer three at the bottom.  All three pieces of fabric should have the right side facing you.  Your finished edges on layer one and two should be toward the top of your fabric.  All three pieces of fabric should have the bottom edges all lined up (as shown in the picture).  Basically, your fabric should be laid out just as it will look on the apron.

Now determine where you want your pockets to be placed and go ahead and stitch straight vertical lines from the top edge of layer two down the the bottom edge of all three fabrics.  These stitched lines will break up your pockets.  I made sure to include multiple skinny pockets for pens, medium sized pockets for scissors, and larger pockets for tape, cell phone, and cash.

Now that you have the front of your apron done, you need to secure it to the back.  Place the front of your apron face up on your working surface, then lay your back fabric face down on top of it and line up the edges (note - the fabrics should have the right sides facing each other).  Make sure that all of the front layers on your apron are all lined up - they should already be secured in place but double check before you begin sewing.  Now sew around the edges of the two pieces of fabric, leaving an opening large enough for you to turn the apron inside out.

Now go ahead and flip the apron inside out.  I used scissors to push out the corners.  Once you have it flipped inside out - iron out the edges so that they look nice and crisp.

I also ironed around all the way the edges - that will close up the hole from turning it inside out and sewing it the whole way around also gives it a more finished look.

Now the apron part is done, so you'll want to make your waist band/ties.  Here's where I literally just pieced together what I had left of my fabric.

I used layer one (the smallest pocket) for the main visible parts of the apron - but I didn't have quite enough for ties so I put some fabric from layer three on the ends.  These pieces are 5" wide and the longer pieces are 31", the shorter pieces are 15". 

I cut one of the longer pieces in half and laid out my strips as followed:

shorter fabric from layer 3, shorter fabric from layer 1, longer fabric from layer 1, shorter fabric from layer 1, shorter fabric from layer 3


I basically centered the long piece of the layer 1 fabric.  I didn't want a seam right in the middle of my waistband in the front of the apron - that's why I cut one of the longer pieces in half and centered everything else around one long piece.

Now I sewed each piece together end to end to form one long strip of fabric.  Moral of the story - you'll need one total strip of fabric that's 5" wide by approximately 90" long.  Once I had that done, I centered it over the front of my apron.  I place the apron piece and the waist band with right sides facing, and the top edge of the apron lined up with the edge of the waist band.  Sew along that edge, then flip the waist band up and iron into place.  It should look like this:

Now focus on the other side of your waist band - I ironed the fabric over approximately .25" - like so:

Now line up the new ironed edge you've created on the waistband with the back of the apron - there should be a stitch line from when you attached the waist band.  I simply lined my new edge with that stitch line and then ironed the fabric over in place.

Look at those steam/water stains on our ironing board cover...yuck!  Anyway, sew the waist band in place by sewing along that edge where the waist band and the back of the apron meet up.  Make sure this line is nice and straight and pretty because it will show up on the front of your apron.

Now to finish the ties off, I simply ironed over each edge of the tie .25" (just like we did above) and then folded the fabric in half so the two edges meet up - then sew them together with the wrong sides facing.  You'll have to do something similar at the ends of the ties as well to finish them off nicely.  I'm sure there's an easier/better way to attach a waistband, but this worked well for me and the finished product came out really nice!

If you have any questions about this tutorial - I completely understand because my instructions were probably a bit confusing!  Feel free to leave a comment or email me at janesgirldesigns@gmail.com.  Oh, and if you make one (and better yet if you have a way to improve on this tutorial) - send me a pic and tell me all about it!!!