Monday, August 17, 2009

Kids' Art Apron from Dishtowel -- TUTORIAL

Today I made an "artist's apron" for Mr. S. using a dollar store dishtowel. This is perfect for a little artist standing at an easel. What little kid doesn't love pockets? And who wouldn't love having a separate pocket for each crayon?


SUPPLIES:
~ dish towel (I prewashed mine)
~ box of crayons


Step One: CUT in this order:
First cut 2" off each LONG side of your dish towel. These will be the ties.
Next cut 2" off ONE SHORT side of your dish towel. This will be the neck strap.


Step Two: Hem the cut side of each 2" strip, turning twice for a nice finished edge. I don't measure or pin -- just eyeball it!


Step Three: Determine the length you want for your apron, then ADD 3". This is the length you want to cut your towel. Cut from the same edge you cut the neck strap, so you still have one hemmed edge on your towel. Then cut out arm holes as shown. I eyeballed this too.


Step Four: Hem all unfinished sides. IMPORTANT: You need to turn the three raw sides to the opposite side the existing hem is on. That way when you turn your pocket up, the "front" of the hem will be on the front of the apron. I did the two sides first, then turned down the top edge with a larger hem.


Step Five: Fold your pocket! I folded mine up 2". Then you will mark every 1" to create your crayon pockets. This was super easy for me, because the towel I chose happened to have 1" stripes!


Step Six: Attach the straps!


Step Seven: Fill it up with crayons, tie it on your little one, and let the art begin!!

44 comments:

Heather - Dollarstorecrafts.com said...

Oh my gosh, SO CUTE!! <-- that's literally what I said out loud when I saw this. Please post this on DSC!! I love the twist on the apron - awesome! Yay!

Tammy said...

This is a great Tut I LOVE it! I am wondering though what is the starting six of the tea towel you are using, it might just be my perception but it seems bigger than the typical size of tea towels here.

Care said...

My towel was approximately 26"x18".

I'd love to see yours if you make one!

Kari Sweeten said...

LOVE THIS! I'll be featuring tomorrow. You are soooo creative!

Stitchnmom said...

Adorable, I love it!

Anne said...

This is SO stinkin' cute!!! My daughter gets invited to a lot of birthday parties, and these would make great birthday gifts! I posted a link to your tutorial on Craft Gossip Sewing:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-kids-apron-with-crayon-pockets/2009/08/17/
--Anne

:o) mg said...

YOU are a freekin' genius. I LOVE this.

Anonymous said...

This is brilliant! What a lovely idea for gifts for young artists.
Thanks for the comment on my first quilt. I'm not really itching to make more as I'm knee deep in junk trying to move to a new home this week :)

Konstance said...

OMG cute, I need to make a couple of these AWESOME aprons!

Brenda said...

That is awesome! Thanks for sharing! I love the simplicity!

mom2three said...

LOVE this one- I'll be making a few for Christmas gifts this year- thank you!!!!!!

HOPE said...

Love this! I plan to make one this weekend for my g'son starting Kinder!

Thank you for sharing this..

HOPE~

raveninthewolfden said...

I love this idea, and i dont think I could express just how wonderful my kids are going to love this. I will certainly link to you when the idea is used.

Loveable-Lerwills!

csbrown said...

Love this got to go find a dish towel. Don't have a blog but will give you credit. My budding artist will love this.

Very Shannon said...

Ohhhh, another great project!!! So handy!
I added it to our link luv this week!

http://www.luvinthemommyhood.com/2009/08/link-luv-roundup_19.html

Have a great day hun :)

michelle@somedaycrafts said...

It looks like you need more links to this post:) I have that exact dish towel so I must make this! I'm featuring this at somedaycrafts.blogspot.com Grab my "featured" button!

Nadia said...

im definately gonna try this thank you so much for sharing!! great idea

Angie - treasuresfortots@gmail.com said...

SUPER cute & SUPER quick and easy! Thanks so much for posting this! I SO want to try it now!

Angie - treasuresfortots@gmail.com said...

BTW, I'm now a follower - I don't want to miss your Giveaway!

I have two going on right now if you want to go have a gander and enter:

http://treasuresfortots.blogspot.com/2009/08/boy-bento-box-set-giveaway.html

http://treasuresfortots.blogspot.com/2009/08/girl-bento-box-set-giveaway.html

Anonymous said...

LOVE it - so creative and cute!

Mama Said Sew said...

I picked up a few of those dishtowels at the dollar store a while ago. I love the colors. And now I know what I'll make with them! :)
Thanks for the great tutorial.

MeUandMaddy said...

How CUTE! I'm a super lazy bones - so now my goal is to find a dishtowel with the same stripes so it can lead the way. Thanks for sharing!!!

Patricia said...

Very cool idea!!!!

Lynn said...

This is adorable!

Andrea said...

This is adorable! I just sent the link to my MIL to see if she could make one for us!

mommy2cjn said...

I'm just wondering what size of a toddler you think this would fit? I am trying to figure out if I should get 2 towels and make one apron, or if 1 towel will be enough. I guess I could always use a bath towel for the larger child....

Care said...

Hi mommy2cjn,

It just depends on the size of your towel. You could always use a separate towel or some cotton webbing for the straps if you need the apron to be larger.

Good luck!

Emily said...

I made one tonight! It took about an hour. One word of advice - make sure your towel is as bright on the back as it is on the front! I think it's still cute. I wasn't convinced the neck hole would fit over my daughter's large head so I made a Velcro closure. Also was inspired to turn an old t-shirt into a skirt for her while I was sitting at the machine! Thanks for this tutorial. Very fun!

Sidnie said...

This is too cute!
My son LOVES pockets and crayons! He'd go crazy over this!
Thanks for the tutorial. I'll be searching for some dishtowels that aren't so girlie now!

Florence said...

what a good idea !! thanks for the tutorial !

Annchan said...

I just made 2 for a couple of sisters. I made a slight change, I pit ribbon around the top and as the tie ups so there was no hemming to do.
-^_^-

Care said...

GENIUS, Annchan! I'd love to see them if you could send me a link or a picture!

Nicole said...

You are beyond brilliant. I just made three of these and they are just adorable. I also put in a bit pocket on the front so my big kids can have 4x6 cards and my sister double folded the bottom so there's a pocket behind the crayons. Seriously. Great job and thanks for sharing this...

Nicole

Corynne Escalante said...

this was the perfect thing to give my kids for christmas... I made two of them the other night. Thank you so much! Merry Christmas!

Tanya said...

I love so many of your projects! Made this one too: http://sewmanydreams.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-thata-couple-projects-on-go.html

Lizzy~Beth said...

I love this!! I will have to give this one a try :)

Unknown said...

Thanks a lot for posting. You have helped me get an idea on what to do as a project for my kids this summer. We haven't tried coloring as a big project though. I have seen forums discussing coloring books, apart from the very colorful books, I would be able to help enhance my kids' arts skills.

Chrissie said...

I understand the two straps you cut for ties but I don't understand the piece you cut from the SHORT end of the towel ( chest...) and what you did with it. I LOVE this and its a great BDay present!!!

Chrissie said...

nevermind...I'm a dork. I get it now.

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