First Tutorial.... Children's Apron

Well I thought it was time that I posted my first tutorial so here goes:

A couple of months ago my mum and I were at Spotlight and I noticed that the quilting material was half price so I just had to get the Michael Miller High Tea and Yummy fabric as I have been meaning to make my girl's and their cousin an apron and matching chef's hat for playing dress ups.

The first one I made was for my 4 year old niece for Christmas:

Materials:

1 metre Michael Miller's Yummy fabric

1 metre natural calico

2 metre's red cotton heading tape (25mm)

3 metre's red bias bind tapes (25mm)

2 buttons

Before I started I actually ironed the bias tape in half (double folded) as this is the first time I have really used it and I found it easier to pin to the edge of the apron.

So for a template I used my daughter's apron from her Jamie Durie's gardening set for kids:

Step 1: fold your template and fabric in half (fold fabric with right side facing in) then place the template on the fold of the fabric.  Draw outline of the template and cut out (I am using calico for the back of the apron and for the top of the matching chef's hat).

back of apron



front of apron



Step 2.   Now pin together the two fabrics with right sides facing out and sew together.

 Before I pinned the bias tape on, I trimmed any over hanging fabric. 

Step 3. Now for the bias tape.  At the beginning fold the end of the bias tape for a nice neat finish:

then you pin all away around the apron and leave a bit of length at the end so that you can  tuck it under the beginning of the bias tape:

Step 4. Now sew all away around.  I put the bias tape join at the bottom of the apron.

Step 5.  Now for the straps.  The apron that I have used as a template uses Velcro on the straps but I decided that I wanted to add a button hole at one end of the heading tape as I have some really cool buttons that will go so well with this fabric.

Now for some reason I have not taken any photo's of what I did for this part but here goes:

Cut a 50cm strip of the red heading tape and fold ends about 1 cm and sewed for a neat edge.

Step 6.  Sew one end of the tape to the top of the apron and then on the other end make a button hole (i used my button hole attachment for my machine).  If you don't have a button hole attachmeant for your machine, you can sew on velcro and still sew a button on the top.

Step 7. Sew the first button on top of the heading tape that you have attached to the apron.  Then sew the other button to the apron so that you can place the button hole end of the tape over the button to secure.

Where did I get the buttons will I purchased an assortment of Beutron buttons from spotlight that has hearts, flowers, stars, whales, bows, apples and of course these cute tea pots.  I thought the light green ones suited the apron best:

Step 8. So now for the ties on the apron.  I just cut the rest of the heading tape in half, sewed about 1 cm at the end over for a neat finish, then attached them about half way down each side of the apron:

And here is the finished apron!

For the Chef's hat, awhile ago I found a great tutorial that you can download from Making It Fun.  Check out this great blog and all the other great tutorials that you can try.

Here are a few more tutorials that I have found:

Oven Mitt tutorial at Skip to my lou
How to make a Chef's Hat for your budding masterchef at Curly Pops.
An Apron in an Hour by Stop sharing and start sewing
Make an Oven Mitt! at Prudent Baby
Free Pattern: Mini Me Apron Set at Living with Punks
Favourite Oven Mitt Tutoral with template at Pickup Some Creativity
Child sized oven mitt at Lily Bug Designs

Happy Sewing!!!!!