Gathered Skirt Girly Aprons

Aprons!  I've been making aprons!  I've written before about my enthusiasm for sewing some girly-girl items when my boys need birthday presents for their female classmates.  Here are two more examples hot off my sewing machine.

Here's how I did these.  I started with my Child's Apron Tutorial.  I used only the top (bib) section and cut the skirt off, leaving 11.5" from the top edge.  I then cut the skirt panel the width of the fabric and 11.5" long.  I ran gathering stitches along the top edge and pinned the skirt to the top section.  I pulled up the gathering to fit and stitched the two together.  I then hemmed the sides with a double-folded hem.  The ruffles were both cut 4" wide.  The bottom ruffle was two fabric widths seamed together.  The top ruffle was about half the fabric width.  I finished the ends of the ruffles first by folding right sides together and stitching.  I then turned and folded the remaining strip wrong sides together, forming a 2" wide strip, before running my gathering stitches along the matched cut edges.  I serged all of the raw edges on the inside of the apron (waist seam and bottom ruffle seam) for a clean finish.  I bound the top edge and the armholes according to the original tutorial.

Here are some of the aprons I've made.  You can see all of the posts by clicking here.

Girly Apron

It’s been an action-packed week, but with a birthday party coming up tomorrow afternoon I needed to get some girly sewing done.  One of my son’s classmates is celebrating her 4^th birthday tomorrow and, as I’ve written about before, any chance to sew for a girl is an opportunity not to be missed.  With my tight schedule this summer I knew it had to be something fairly simple and decided on a personalized apron to go along with a store-bought cooking set. 

I am pleased that everything in this project came from my stash.  I started with a piece of pink denim and added two pink and brown coordinates for ruffles and binding.  Since the denim is very thick I decided against a double-fold hem along the sides and bound the edges instead.  The bottom ruffle was sewn onto the wrong side of the apron along with a bias strip which, when flipped to the right side, was topstitched in place.  This finished the reverse side nicely.  I embroidered the birthday girl’s name on the bib. 

I based this project on the apron tutorial I wrote last July.  I also took inspiration for my project from some aprons my friend Kathy made for her friends' little girl, pictured below.

This week I’ve also been working on several more swimwear pieces, some embroidery for a friend and some “Good Samaritan” repair work on some church garments.  All in all, a satisfying week of sewing.

Join me and other creative types over at Today's Creative Blog for Get Your Craft On.  Lots of great ideas there.

Sharing the Love: Knotty Daughters

Yesterday I stopped by my favorite local coffee shop to check out their Spring Bazaar.  One of the vendors, Knotty Daughters, had the CUTEST aprons for sale.  I stopped to talk to Beth, who told me all about the new business she has with her two sisters.  The girls all grew up on a farm in Iowa and have recently come together to turn what started out as a hobby into a lovely company creating, amongst other things, Bakin’ Babe aprons.  These gems began their lives as kitchen towels but have really blossomed with the addition of a clever tie and buttons.  What really caught my eye when I walked past their booth was the way they had these aprons packaged so I stopped to take a look.  It goes to show that if you are marketing products it is worth putting some thought into the presentation.

All photos courtesy of Knotty Daughters

Beth is working on a fairly new blog for their website where she writes about their products as well as life on the farm.  Take the time to visit their website and blog and see what they are up to.  Or, as their slogan says, “Go on, be Knotty.”