Seriously..I think it needs stitches.: A Happy 4th of July Apron

Earlier this week, with the 4th of July coming up, I thought I'd try to make a little apron out of this dish towel that I found, to send with my girlfriend to decorate her baked goods booth (pies mostly) at the local farmers market. The USA fabric was donated to me in a box of fabric quite a while ago.

Last time I made a little girl apron from a dish towel, I winged it, and ended up not liking a couple of things about it, so I did this one a little different. And this is how it turned out.

(After my son very reluctantly modeled the first one I made, I didn't think I could get him to do it again, so I had to find something to hang it on. So I drug this out the front door from our entry way and tied it around. :) It's a pretty good makeshift dress form!)

The cute dish towel already did half of the work for me with its embellishments. ;) So I just had to figure out the neck, the ties, and the pocket.

I decided to make a halter neck, with polka dot ribbon.

So I took the top edge of the towel, and folded the corners down at a 45 deg. angle, using a three inch square area on my cutting mat as a rough guide and stitched the edges down on both of the top corners.

After stitching both top corners down, I folded the top edge down, to meet the folded-down corners of the towel.

Then continuing on where the corner stitching stopped, I stitched all the way across to meet the other corner's stitching.

Then I folded each side edge in to meet the same corner, like this, and stitched.

That created a mitered slit to thread the ribbon through. In one side and out the other.

I like how the neck on this one turned out better than the way that I did the neck on the first one that I made.

Then I decided it needed a pocket on the front. So with the USA fabric, I cut two 8x11-ish rectangles, and sewed them up right sides together, leaving about three inches open to turn it.

Then I gathered some smaller polka dot ribbon and stitched it along the top edge of the pocket. Which I'd never done before.. so that was kind of trial on error..

..my stitching wasn't too straight. :/

And then I used the center of the star and the apron border to figure out the center placement of the pocket, top-stitched it on, and then stitched a line just right of center to divide the pocket into two sides.

Then I just had to figure out the ties. So I made basic ties by sewing two tubes of fabric, with one end closed and the other open, and folded the open end in and stitched.

And to attach, I placed it on the backside of the apron edge. right side up and stitched.

Then I flipped it over over itself to the outside and, from the top side, stitched it in place along the very edge. That left a nice finished edge on the back.

And then it was done. The one thing I wish I'd done differently is place the ties up a couple of inches higher. Live (sew) and learn. ;) But overall, I'm happy with how it turned out.

My "dress form" back in the entry way where it goes. ;)

This is the first thing I've really sewn in a while. Summer is keeping us busy this year. Mr. Sonny was previously non-sporty but this summer has taken an interest in golf and tennis, so we are keeping busy with tennis camp and golf camp and lots of summer fun at the pool.

We've never pushed him into sports and he has basically shown no interest in them.. Which made our lives so much simpler than my friends whose kids are constantly going to sports practices and games all over the place. But now that he's taken an interest in a couple of them, I cannot tell you how happy I am that he has chosen the two sports with the least amount of crushing head injuries. haha :D At least for now anyway, his interests will probably change in the future, but selfishly, as a mom, I hope they don't. ;)

Happy 4th of July and Happy Weekend!! :) Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

7 comments...:

Karen H said...

Wow, love the apron! Glad to hear your son has found some sports he likes. It's a good idea to let them choose what they want to do. Happy 4th!

July 4, 2014 at 5:29 AM

A.J. Dub. (Amy) said...

So cute! My 9 year old loves tennis and took group lessons for a while. I wonder if he would like golf? We live in an area with plenty of places to golf.

July 4, 2014 at 4:26 PM

Brandie said...

What a great idea for an apron! I'm going to file this away and try to remember it, lol.
I totally understand about sports. Then they grow up and... Well, they grow up. I'm not going to add to your worries.

July 4, 2014 at 7:06 PM