Cute, Quick, Festive Aprons.

Who doesn't want a cute apron to wear when they're baking?  Especially around the holidays.  Just take a second and picture it now - there's a light snow falling outside the window, the fire is nice and toasty warm, the Christmas carols are playing in the background and you have a nice cozy cup of hot cocoa and a super cute apron to wear as you take your freshly baked Christmas cookies out of the oven.  Sounds nice, right?

Ok, well I can't make tutorial on how to make all that happen - although it would be fun to try.  How to make a toasty warm fire tutorial, step 1:  you'll need some fire wood so go outside and cut down a tree -  anyway, what  I can give you is a tutorial on how to make a cute apron to wear during the holiday season.  If you're not a sewer, have no fear!  I'm not a professional sewer by any means so if I can pull this off, so can you.

Once you're done it will look something like this:

Cute, right? Look like something you would enjoy?  Here's how you do it:

This apron is pretty easy.  It can be basically made by cutting out a bunch of rectangles, hemming the edges and sewing them all together.  You'll need to grab a couple yards of fabric first.

1 yrd. of a fabric of your choice for the main apron

1/2 yrd. of a fabric of your choice for the waist part of the apron and a pocket

First things first - you'll need to cut all of your rectangles.

• Sash - two 34 in. x 3 in. rectangles (these two put together fit around my waist with extra room to tie it in the back. Make sure you keep in mind the size of the waist of the person who will be wearing it)
• Apron - 26 in. x 22 in. rectangle (22 inches went to right above my knees.  You may want to measure to find a good length for you)
• Pocket - 4 1/2 in. x 5 1/2 in. rectangle
• Bow Rectangle # 1 (left side) - 29 in. x 2 1/2 in rectangle
• Bow Rectangle # 2 (right side) - 16 in. x 2 1/2 in. rectangle

Step 1:  To make the sash around the waist of your apron take your two 34 in. x 3 in. rectangles and sew them together on one of the short ends to make one long sash.  From there, you need to hem the sides of your sash.  I like to do a double fold for hems because it makes it look neater.  After you've double folded and pinned both sides of your sash go ahead and sew them.

Step 2:  If you want to make the ends of your sash curved or angled for a little extra flair you can simply cut them into the shape you desire, double fold them for a hem and sew them.  This will cause a little extra fabric on the ends of your sash like this:

Just snip that off so it's even with the edge. Your finished end should look like this:

Step 3:  Put your sash to the side, you're done with it for now!  Woohoo!  Grab your 26 in. x 22 in. rectangle that you are using for the main part of your apron.  Double fold and pin all four edges of this fabric and hem them. Just like that, you're pretty much done with the main section of your apron.  See how easy this is?

Step 4:  Here's where it gets the teeniest bit confusing but I promise it's not bad at all.  Grab the sash you made earlier and lay it out on your workspace backside up.  Grab your apron and lay it out as well, backside up.  Line up the bottom of your sash with the top of your apron (I look at the lines I've already sewn to help me line them up well).  Make sure you have it evenly laid out so that it is right in the middle of your sash.

Step five:  To make the pleats in your apron you can just fold a small part of the fabric over itself and pin it down.  Do this several times until the whole top of your fabric is pleated  Again, make sure you are keeping the top of the apron even with the bottom of the sash.  It should look like this when it's pleated and all pinned up:

Step six:  Go ahead and sew down your pleats using the lines you've already sewn on the hem of your apron fabric for a guideline.

Congratulations!  You've successully made a cute apron that is perfect for baking and gift giving.  You can stop here if you want or you can go on to add a pocket and a bow at the top.

to make the pocket

Cut a square (4 1/2 in. x 5 1/2 in.) of the fabric you used for your sash.  Double fold and hem all of the sides.  Pin it to your apron wherever you like and sew down three of the edges.  Bam - done!

A small tip - when you're sewing your pocket to your apron, if you line up your sewing needle with the lines you've already sewn when you were hemming it, it will make your pocket look much neater once it's all done.  That way you don't have one line from hemming it and one line from sewing it to the apron.

to make the bow

You'll need the two rectangles you cut earlier for the bow.  From there, lay out one of your rectangles back side up and fold the top edge down so it's almost even with the other edge, leaving just 1/4 in. of space and pin it.  Fold the bottom edge over the top edge and re-pin.  Now you should have a long rectangle with none of the backside of the material showing.  Sew down the area you just pinned and trim off any extra edge that may be left.

Repeat this step with the other rectangle that you will be using for the bow.

Grab your apron and lay it out.  Pin the left side (longer rectangle) of your bow onto your sash.  It should start where the edge of your apron is and end about 4 inches past the middle of your sash.  Take the other part of your bow (shorter rectangle) and pin it to the righthand side of your sash.  Again, starting at the edge of your apron and going until it meets the other portion of the bow. Sew it all down.

Tie a nice little bow in it and throw on your new apron!

So that wasn't so bad was it? It kinda looks like a lot all written out but I swear they're easy and pretty quick.  The whole thing took me about 3 hours. And the best part? Now you can buy a bunch of different fabrics and make one for each season!  They would make awesome housewarming or bride-to-be gifts too!