Making a Christmas Apron

From the Desk of My Frugal Family

Yesterday, I posted that I had made an apron using a photo I had found online. It's supposed to be a children's apron made from a dishtowel & pot holder, only it came out huge. I haven't yet started working on that apron to size it down, but will do that at some point today.

This morning, I grabbed the other set I had bought, which happens to be Christmas themed. Or, rather, snow themed. The pot holder is star shaped, and white, with a red snow flake on it. The dishtowel is printed red with white snow flakes on it.

To start off with, I decided on the length, and opted to just cut the towel in half, length wise, giving me enough material for 2 aprons. If you do these this way, and get a 2 pack of pot holders at Dollar Tree, you can make an apron for $1, plus the cost of the ribbon used! I then messed around with it a bit, and played with pleats before settling on a loose box pleat in the front, with the white edges folded to the back.

This made the towel the perfect width for the pot holder, and created a gathered, more girlish apron 'skirt'. Once I had the pleats I wanted, I pinned it in place, and sewed a zig zag stitch straight across to hold it in place before attaching it to the pot holder.

When I got that done, I arranged the pot holder, and sewed it from the back, so I could see where the towel met up with the pot holder, just a simple zig zag stitch, with the ends reinforced with a back stitch. I took a moment to get all artsy with my photos, and took a few macros. ;)

This morning while I was starting the project, I cut the loop off the top of the pot holder, and nicked the bias that edged the pot holder, so that white was showing through. After a few minutes contemplation, I decided to add a simple bow to the front top where the nick is.

To do this, I took a small length of white ribbon, and folded it over on itself, then sewed a line to hold it in place. After that, I used the cut off loop of bias  tape, and cinched the middle of the bow together, leaving a small tail behind it, which I used to sew the bow onto the pot holder.

After that, to keep the bow down far enough to cover the nick, I hand stitched the backsides of the bow loops directly to the potholder. I think it turned out super cute, and added a bit more girly to the apron.

Lastly, I attached the straps to the front and sides. For the sides, I opted to 'hide' the stitches as much as possible. To do this, I folded the front of the pot holder up, and safety pinned the sides of it together. I sewed the side ribbons straight to the towel, where it is covered by the pot holder.

What do you think? I love this one!