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Thursday 17 February 2011

Step by Step Guide to Making your own Apron!


You’ve seen the Obama apron, below is a beginners step by step of how to make 
one yourself…

First pick a fabric you like, I’ve never seen anything like the Obama fabric before,  
I bought it before I decided I was going to make an apron and then I thought this 
was the best use for it.


Equipment List
  • Sewing Machine
  • Fabric Scissors
  • Fabric – 1 meter wide
  • Threads – ideally that match the colour of your fabric
  • Large piece of paper – (Sunday Times will do the job!)
  • Pins
  • Iron
  • Pencil
  • Wide ribbon for the waist tie
This Apron is a great project to make for beginners or if like me 
you just need an easy project to get you back into sewing and 
using the sewing machine again.

Step 1 – Make your pattern

Think about how big you’d like your apron to be around you 
waist and length. Fold your paper in half and sketch out on 
the fold of your paper half of your apron. When you are 
happy with the shape, add 2cm to the outside for the seam 
allowance.

Lay your pattern out flat
Step 2 – Cut out your pattern
See the picture below, when you cut out your paper design 
and open it out, it has now taken the shape of your apron. 
Lay the pattern flat over your fabric and pin it into place 
and cut the pattern out. I added pockets to my apron, 
but they are often complicated, especially for a beginner, 
however for pattern for the pockets follow the same 
process as above.

Pin to the fabric
Repeat the process for the pockets


Step 3 – Making the frill
This is a complicated part of making the apron, I used half 
of my fabric for the apron and the left over pieces for the 
pockets and the frill. The easy way to make the frill is to not 
be too cautious over the width, just remember to take into 
account the 2cm seam allowance. I started by pinning the 
seam into place, if you have stiff fabric iron it into place first. 
This seam is going to be the edge of the frill.
Pin the seam into place

Iron down the seam
After sewing I ironed flat, to try to reduce the bulk in the 
fabric. I then sewed all of my pieces of fabric together, to 
create one long piece around 2 meters in length and I 
finished it off by sewing a seam at each end of the fabric. 
Again, remember to iron open the joins.

Iron open the seam
Now it is time to pin the frill into place.  On the raw 
edge using thin pins as they need to go through the 
sewing machine (If the pins you have don’t go through 
your sewing machine, that is fine, but you will need to 
pay more attention and go a lot slower when sewing it 
on the machine) There isn’t a rule to pinning a frill, I 
created this one very roughly and hopefully from the 
pictures you will see that the key is to keep the fabric 
close together.

Pin the frill into place
 Once you have pinned all of the length of fabric it’s 
now time to slowly run it through the sewing machine. 
Keep an eye on your sewing machine needle and 
remove the pins as they go through, you’ll start to 
see the frill taking shape.

Step 4 – Making pockets
Once you have cut out your pocket or two the 
next step is to attach it to the apron. First pin 
and sew the seam along the edge of what will 
be the top of your pocket. Then iron down your 
seam allowance onto the reverse side around 
the rest of the edges, this will make pinning it 
a much easier job for you.  After ironing, pin it 
to your apron.

Pin to the apron


Once you are happy with where it is and it is 
firmly in place run it slowly through the machine, 
taking your time around edges.

Tip – When going around edges, stop at the 
curve, leave the needle in the fabric, lift the foot 
and move the fabric around into place to move 
with the curve and then drop down the foot, it 
is much easier than trying to move it when 
you are sewing at the same time.

Step 5 – Attach the frill and apron tie

The final stages and pretty finishing touches 
to your apron is to attach the frill and the 
round the waist tie. Again when attaching the 
frill with the pins remember to use the 2cm 
seam allowance you have allowed for and when 
you begin sewing on the machine, take your 
time and at curves use the tip for step 4 to help
to keep it neat.The apron tie is the last thing to
attach and it is very easy, fist make sure you
have an equal amount of ribbon each side and
then pin it into place always hold it up to check
it before you start sewing and when you are 
happy, sew it on the machine, it should be a simple 
straight line.


You’re finished!
Your apron should now resemble something like this….

Finished! Pretty as a picture.

I brought my fabric from Seam Star 
The ribbon and threads from the sewing machine shop in 
Tooting - 300 Balham High Road, London, SW17 7AA


1 comment:

  1. dude, i am seriously loving the apron! looking forward to seeing you on weds at stitch n bitch xx

    ReplyDelete

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