Sep 2, 2011

For ME Friday - ruffle apron {tutorial}

Thanks to John being in preschool and my MIL kindly taking Matthew for the day, I had time to craft FOR ME yesterday! Looky what I made!







So, here's the deal. I hate regular aprons. For some reason when I am in the kitchen my hands are ALWAYS dirty or wet. So I need something that actually absorbs all that mess. Normal aprons just don't cut it. I also seem to use about 235 dish towels while I am cooking and baking. Mostly because I set one down, can't find it in the mess and grab a new one from the drawer. By the time our meal is cooked and the kitchen is cleaned up, 5 dish towels have been added to the laundry. Soooooo, I decided to make an apron out of a dish towel so I knew where it was at all times and it was the nice, soft, absorbant material I was looking for. I got this particular towel in February from my mom, thus the Valentine's hearts print. So I have been sitting on this idea for a while! :)

Now that you have been sufficiently prepped on the back story, here is how to make your very own ruffle dish towel apron!

1. Gather supplies: Dish Towel (duh), ribbon (wish I had wider on hand today), scrap fabric for ruffles, normal sewing items (double duh).


2. Measure how much ribbon you need by wrapping it around your waist. Fold in half to find center (long ways). Fold dish towel in half (short ways) to find center. Pin the ribbon along the top edge (long ways) of the dish towel, making sure to line up the center of the ribbon to the center of the dish towel.





3. Sew your ribbon onto the towel. I did a zig zag stitch down the center. I also zig zagged the ends to keep the ribbon from fraying in wash.

4. You could stop now and have the easiest apron EVER. I decided I don't get to sew girlie stuff often considering I have two boys, so I added some fun ruffles to my apron. To do this I cut two strips of coordinating scrap fabric and sew them into one long strip. I needed two strips since the fabric piece was small. You may only need one long strip!



5. Fold in half and iron.



6. Sew along the edge of the folded side to give a nice finished look.

7. Time to ruffle! Sew along the open side using the longest stitch and tightest tension. That should make a cute little ruffled strip of fabric.



8. Pin the ruffle to the right side of the bottom edge of the apron. Pin it sew the ruffled seam is at the edge of the apron and the finished edge is toward the center of the apron. Then sew. DON'T FORGET to reset your machine!! I always forget to do this...boo...



9. I then flipped the ruffle down so it was facing the correct way and sewed on the right side of the apron to keep the ruffle laying flat and not flipping back up. You can see that seam in the picture- I sewed on the dish towel itself.



10. Put on the apron, have your husband take 500 pictures in attempts to get one that magically makes you look thinner, magically puts make-up on you and magically makes your hair look decent even though it is 7:00 at night so it is pretty crazy. Good luck with this step. It is a challenging one.



So, I haven't used this apron yet but I KNOW it is going to be awesome the next time I am cooking. And yes, Mom, I have been cooking!

I think I like the apron so much I need to make some more...but maybe without the ruffles.


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6 comments:

  1. It is so cute! What a great idea. You could even use two dish towels to make a "housekeeping apron" with pockets...I seem to need the dish towels the most when I'm cleaning up the house and not just cooking. :)

    And you look great, even at 7 pm after a crazy day. Just like you did in college, crazy curly head! :) (love, the other crazy curly head)

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  2. This looks like something that I could do. (I'm not so sure for the ruffles, but I would love to try). Very nice last picture :)

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  3. Great idea. So creative. It turned out so cute too! I would love it if you would stop by and share at the crafty link party going on right now at Lines Across My Face.
    I hope to see you soon,
    Rachel
    http://linesacrossmyface.blogspot.com/2011/09/cure-for-common-monday-7.html

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  4. Looks very cute! I like the fabrics too!

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  5. Cute! And I love the fabric you used!

    I'd love to have you share this and any other of your amazing posts over at my linky party Create and Share. It posts every Wednesday. We open the party Tuesday evening at 8 pm for those who like to link up early. Hope you stop by... http://thetrendytreehouse.blogspot.com/2011/09/create-and-share-features-too.html

    Tara @Trendy Treehouse
    http://thetrendytreehouse.blogspot.com

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