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!!

More Aprons

I just had to make myself a beet dishtowel apron!
It went together so fast -- literally 5 minutes!


A couple friends on my street want to learn how to make girls' aprons. I will sieze any opportunity to teach anyone how to sew something, and to draw others into my sewing obsession!

I'd never made a girly, frilly apron before, so I gave it a go with some stash fabric. Here is what I came up with:


Then I got to thinking maybe I could make one out of just two fat quarters. I gave it an attempt last night, and here is what I came up with:

I'm not in love with these fabrics for this particular apron, and the pattern may need a little tweaking, but overall it's not too shabby. I'll give it another go this week and see if I can simplify it at all, and then post a tutorial!

Dish Towel Aprons for Kids! -- TUTORIAL

I have been on the lookout for dish towels to make into aprons for my boys, and last week I finally found some cute ones:

The towels were quite large -- 18"x28" -- so there was plenty of space to cut out all the parts.


This is how I cut them into apron parts.


I folded the side straps into thirds, encasing the raw edge inside, and topstitched around the two long sides and one short side.


For the neck strap I pieced the two parts end-to-end, folded it with the "right" side of the fabric on the inside, and sewed along the long edge and one short edge. I then turned it and topstitched all the way around.


Here are all the parts.
I cut the pocket piece to size, created a skinny little "loop" piece (about 5/8" wide and 2 1/2" long finished), and serged around the raw edges of the main apron piece and the pocket.


I simply turned the serged edges about 3/8" and stitched around.
(I love you, serger! I really didn't want to roll all those edges!!)

Attach all the side straps in the right places, and turn under the edges of the pocket and sew it on.


This is where the loop piece and neck strap go, so that the neck strap is adjustable. Of course it could be done the traditional way as well...


...but if you do a handy little loop, adjusting the neck strap is oh-so-easy with the quick tie of a half-knot!


Ta-da!!

Here's Mr. S. in his carrot apron...

Buzz in his pea apron, and...

...my cute niece in her TURNIP apron.
(I love the turnips!!)

Now I am thinking with how large these dish towels are, I might just go pick up a red radish dish towel and make myself a half apron!!