Upscale Crafty Apron

Want to make something awesome for your crafty friend, super mommy, or best chef? This handy multi pocket apron is super stylish, slightly upscale and just as useful as your usual kind of apron.

I sew, but I don't use patterns and my seams aren't always perfect....but with this crafty apron that's not a problem, because we want our finished product to be embellished, patchworked and slightly tattered. Best of all this is all made out of scrap fabric and leftover trim!

Materials include various small squares and rectangles of fabric, cotton, rayon, light canvas etc. Ribbon, lace, tassles, rick rack, seam binding will be used to trim the apron. Don't have any? Fabric stores sometimes have really inexpensive "grab bags".

The main body of the apron should be 25-27"long and 12-14" wide.

Strap & top binding approx 3" wide piece 72" long

Not a hard and fast rule, that's just the approx measures of the old regular apron I used for a template. I like this size, it hits me at mid thigh, and the pockets aren't too low.

I happen to have a bunch of light upholstery/canvas fabrics that I got at a fabric barn clearance sale of their 18" sample squares. So to make up the body of the apron I used two pieces. An 8" piece and 18" piece. Sew these together first I off set the contrasting piece for interest. You could also just the whole main body out of one piece as well.

The pockets can be various sizes. The apron I made for my friend had two big pockets, a little 6" x 4" in one corner and a tall pocket (spoon/scissors) on one side... The one I made myself 5 pockets! I imagine this coming in very handy at shows so I made a tall pocket, a large pocket, two phone/gadget pockets and little coin pocket (3" 1/2 x 3" 1/2). I just start cutting varies size rectangles and start placing them on my main body. I was lucky in that many of my fabrics had selvage edges, I just zigzag stitched right over them. You could fold and iron them under.. I'm not that patient! I like to keep ironing at a minimum.

Design the apron. Lay everything out first and pin together pieces that need to be sewn first. If you want to you should turn your mainbody edges under and sew them down (unless like me you plan to cover them with trim) You can iron and sewed the strap onto main body first or last its your call. The strap piece will also cover the edges of the top of the apron and become the apron ties. I did iron this piece, turning the edges down 1/4" and ironing and then folding in half and ironing again. Find the middles of the main body and the strap and line up and pin together. The raw edge of the apron is sandwiched between the strap becomes a nice binding for the top.

Most important is to sew the little pockets on top of the big pockets,before sewing to the background. You can also take a larger piece and sew dividers into it and create smaller narrower pocket. I sewed a small inch of fabric (kind of a gusset) on the edges of large pocket and then tucked the bottom together to make the pocket stick out. Some embellishments need to be sewn on first, if they are on the top of the pocket. If its just trimming around the edges than that can be done after its sewn on. I actually sewed the pocket down...make sure not to sewn it shut! And sewing the trim on reinforces the pocket and beatifies at the same time.

I have a lot of frayed silk ribbons so I went to town sewing these around the edges in an effort to hide some of those ugly edges. I made couple of little appliques that I thought added to the whole piece. One of the aprons has a puffy heart in the corner, I cut the shape sewed it on the background, leaving a space for stuffing bit of polyfil and sewed it shut. I later ribboned around it. the zigzag and satin stitch is your friend. Experiment with textures and patterns, there's no wrong answer, some things I didn't think would work actually came out great.

These aprons can be sleek and modern, or patchwork and eclectic. Whoever gets them will love them!

Cut the pieces.

Pick your trim and pocket patches.

Design the layout. If two pieces, sew the main body together.

Iron the strap and sew to main body

Pin the pieces. Sew little pockets to larger pieces.

Embellish to your heart's content.