Child's Ruffle Apron Tutorial (at last!)

Well, this is my 201st post. Wow. And, here is that apron tutorial I have been promising! Hope you guys enjoy it!



Materials:

• One 9 x 9 in piece of fabric for front of top flap
• One 9x9 in piece of fabric for back of top flap
• One 5 x 6 in piece of fabric for the pocket on top flap
  
• One 12.5 x 10 in piece of fabric for the bottom back (I used the same fabric as I used for the back of the top
• Three 20 x 4.5 pieces of fabric for ruffles on front of apron
• Two 13 x 3 in pieces of fabric for the belt of the apron (I used the same fabric for this, the pocket up top, and all the straps)
• Two 15 x 4 in pieces of fabric for the waist straps
• Two 13 x 3 in pieces of fabric for the neck straps
• Coordinating thread
• Embellishment for pocket
• Snaps or velcro (optional)

Cut materials.

Making Apron Bottom:
Now, first, we're going to make the bottom part of the apron. You need to fold over the two short edges and one of the long edges of each of the ruffles about 1/4 in. Then, iron. Then, fold them over again and iron again so that the raw edges are enclosed. Now, sew along the folded over edges. **Note that the top stitch in this picture is a basted stitch, it is a later step)

Next, do the same for the back piece of the apron.

Now, take your back piece and draw three lines from long edge to long edge. Place these lines three inches apart starting from the bottom. These are where you will be attaching your ruffles.

Now, baste along the top of each of your three ruffle strips and gather them so that they are the length of your bottom back piece.


Starting at one end of the bottom back piece, pin the bottom ruffle to the bottom back piece, making sure your ruffle is right side down and facing upward like you flipped it up (does that make sense?). Make sure you line up the edges.


Go ahead and do the same thing for the middle ruffle. Don't do the top ruffle, because we are going to attach that a little differently. Now, stitch just below your basted line. Try to keep straight and don't cross the basted stitch.



Now, go ahead and line up your top ruffle, wrong side down and sew it on just below your basted line. There is no need to flip this on over as the top edge will be enclosed in the belt of the apron. You should now have a completed bottom of the apron.


Making and Attaching the Pocket:
Take your pocket piece and fold and iron all the edges, then fold and iron them again so that all the raw edges are enclosed. **In my pictures, only the top of the pocket is folded over twice, but that is because I cut it too small. the measurements up top have taken into account the extra fold, so that there is less of a risk of fraying**


Next, attach any embellishment that you want to put on the pocket. Mine was and iron-on thing, so it will just depend on what you use on how you need to attach it.

Sew across the top of your pocket.

Center and pin pocket to your front top piece.

Stitch in place.

Making the Straps:
You will make both the neck and waist straps the same way, so you can go ahead and do all four now, although you will use the neck straps first. Take your piece of fabric and fold in half and iron.

Now, open that up and fold the edges in to where your first crease was and iron. Next, take one end and fold it so that you end up with a point. It should look like this:

Now, fold that in half an iron again.

Now stitch around both long edges and across the point. Then repeat for the other 3 straps. Yours will, hopefully, come out a little bit neater than mine :)

Making the Top of the Apron:
Take your neck straps and pin them to the back top piece, about an 1 1/2 from the edges and pin them.

Fold the straps over and pin them to the right side of your top back piece. This will make sure that you straps end up on the outside of you apron and that they will not get sewn into the side of the apron.

Place your front top and front bottom pieces against each other, wrong sides facing and sew them together being careful not to catch you straps! Now, turn right-side out, push out your corners, un-pin your straps and go ahead and iron everything to make it all pretty :)

Attaching Top to the Bottom and Attaching the Waist Straps:
Take your two pieces for the apron belt and pin them on either side of your apron bottom. Sew that all together. Iron belt pieces up so you have nice crisp seam. Next, fold over the tops of both sides the belt so that you don't have a raw edge when you sew on the top. Like this:


Fold and iron the short edges of the belt like this:

Now, pin the top of the apron and both waist straps in place (top on top and straps in the sides) and sew around the entire belt section, bottom included.

And here are my two little aprons. They are going to be packed up and saved for Christmas presents. I would say that I feel very on top of things to already have Christmas presents made, but I wanted to make these for last Christmas and got started...what like 4 months too late? Anyhow, I hope this made sense. If not, feel free to e-mail me! They really aren't hard to make if you can just figure out my instructions :)