Little girls apron!

I've been busy moving so a bit quiet on the blog but there is lots happening in the background!

I was invited to a first birthday party rceently and wasn't sure what to give as a present but I had realised a while ago that my little girl Belle doesn't have an apron! Not acceptable in a family of hobby bakers. So I thought I'd make two simultaneously and then I can blog about it too!

3 birds, 1 stone. Genius!

So here is how I made this pretty little apron...

You Will Need

*    Material, main body - 41cm x 49.5cm & frill - 180cm x 7cm
*    Bias binding 2.5metres
*    My basic sewing supplies

Why not try recycling two pretty tea towels? I love the patterns on Cath Kidston ones but they’re not the best for actually drying up and make sure you use tea towels with some life left in.

I used some scraps of Clarke & Clarke fabric I had leftover from other projects which worked perfectly.

I used an old child's apron I found at my mums for a template but reshaped it. To make sure it is symmetrical fold fabric in half and cut out like that.
Here's my measurement & rough template.

Add 1inch (2.5cm) seam allowance to the neck of the apron but there is no need to add seam allowance on the arm holes or curve of the apron.

For the frill I used a piece of fabric that was 21cm x 62cm, just cut into strips and sewed pieces together (with 1cm seam allowance at ends) to make one long strip.

Iron strip in half (wrong sides together), sew and finish off ends.

Adding the frill always seems to take ages but is so worth it! 

Pin the strip into a frill on the right side of the apron around the curve, keeping raw edges together. You can free hand sew this if you are confident but it's quite hard to ruffle the strip as you go without making mistakes.

Once sewn on, remove pins & sew again for security. 
To prevent fraying I do a really short & wide zigzag stitch the hole way around the edge, but this is not a compulsory step.

Iron the frill out so it edges the apron and top stitch in place.

Double hem the neckline, so no raw edge are one show, using the 1inch seam allowance we added at the beginning.

Cut the 2.5m bias binding in half, so you end up with two 125cm strips, iron them in half so they create a casing for the arm holes and will make neck & waist straps. 

Finnish off the ends by quickly stitching them over.

Pin into place allowing approx 40cm at the top for the neck strap and top stitch in place.

That's the apron finished!

I hope it is simple enough to follow and you too end up with a pretty little girls apron!