Beginners' Apron

Happy Mothers' Day Everyone! This post is inspired by my Mum and would just like to say that I love you and appreciate everything you've done for me. Now that I've got the the soppy stuff out the way roll on the tutorial. I made an apron for my mum for Mothers' Day this year after she not so subtly hinted that she wanted one. We went to Abakhan and my mum picked out the below cow fabric. Its a vibrant fabric and quite soft too. We both agreed it would make a great apron so I bought a metre of it, I also bought a plain red cotton so that I could make contrasting neck ties and waist tie.

Click here to buy it!

What you'll need
Roughly 1.5/2 metres of fabric.
Matching Thread.
Trim/Embellishments (Optional)


Cutting the top/bodice of your apron

Choose your desired shape for the top of your apron. For a simple rectangular top to your apron use these measurements:

Measurement A)
Measure from the crease of your armpit to the other and subtract 3 inches. This is the width of your top piece.

Measurement B)
Measure from the crease of your armpit straight down to your waist. This is the length of your top piece.


Cutting the skirt of your apron

Measurement C)
Measure AROUND your waist. You will use this as the width of your fabric. The skirt will be gathered so that its final width will be roughly halved, so that it just covers the front of the body

Measurement D)
Now measure from your waist to where you want the skirt to end, for me (...well my mum) this is above the knee. Add 1" to the length for hem and seam allowance.



Cutting your waist tie.

I'd recommend cutting your waist tie piece with a width of 6 or 7 inches and AT LEAST two metres long. If you will be piecing two pieces of fabric together to make your waist tie, make sure you consider where the join in the fabric will be placed.


Cutting your neck ties.

I'd recommend cutting your neck tie pieces with a width of 4 inches and about one metre long. If you will be piecing two pieces of fabric together to make your neck tie, make sure you consider where the join in the fabric will be placed.


Making the skirt of your apron.

Turn under 1/4 inch on the short sides of your apron and press. Repeat this again with another 1/4 inch and press. Sew this into place. Do the same for the long sides of your skirt piece, folding 1/4 inch under twice and press both times. This prevents your fabric from fraying over time.



On one of the long sides of your skirt piece you will need to gather the fabric. One of the simplest methods is to sew a gathering stitch along its whole length. To do this increase your stitch length to the highest possible and use a straight stitch. Make sure you leave long tails of thread before and after you sew. Do not back stitch at the beginning or end because this won't allow you to gather your fabric. 
Once, you've sewn your gathering stitch, hold both of your bobbin thread tails in one hand and use the other hand to push the fabric away from you, gathering the fabric as you go. Gather your fabric until the width is how wide you desire it to be. I find I like the width to measure from hip to hip once gathered. Once you are happy with the width of your skirt piece and you've made sure all your gathers are even, tie the bobbin tail and top tail in a knot on each side of the skirt.
If you struggle with this method, I have a tutorial on How To Shirr and will be posting other blog post on methods of gathering in the near future.


Making the top/bodice of your apron.

Turn under 1/4 inch on the short sides of your apron and press. Repeat this again with another 1/4 inch and press. Sew this into place. Do the same for the long sides of your top/bodice piece, folding 1/4 inch under twice and press both times. This prevents your fabric from fraying over time.




Making the ties for your apron.

Fold your ties in half, right sides together, and press. Choose which shape you would like for the ends of your ties. Here are some ideas:

Tie end ideas.

Trim the ends into shape. Stitch along the edges of your ties leaving a 2 inch gap so that you can turn the ties right sides out. Turn your ties right side out and stitch the gap closed, you might find you get a neater finish by sewing this gap closed by hand.


Attaching your pieces together.

First find the centre of your top and waistband, match these up and place the waistband right sides together with edges lined up. Stitch these two pieces together. Now do the same for the skirt piece, placing waistband on the skirt piece right sides together.



To attach your neck ties hold your apron in front of yourself and decide where you want the neck ties to attach to the apron and mark this with a pin. Measure that the pins are equally spaced from the centre. Pin the straps to where you placed your pins. Now stitch this onto your apron, I would recommend sewing these straps by sewing a rectangle with a cross through the centre for extra strength and durability.



Ways you can customise your apron.

There is no limit to how many different ways you could customise your apron. I find searching for aprons on Pinterest or Etsy gives me lots of inspiration. Check out my Pinterest Board for fast, easy inspiration: Apron Pinterest Board!

One of my favourite ways to customise is to add a lace trim. I use 1" wide lace trim. I find adding lace to ANYTHING makes it cute and girly, which I love. Another easy way to customise is to add ribbon or bows, big, small, shiny, matt, glittery... It's up to you! But it can give a variety of looks!

Because this garment is an apron a great customisation idea would be to add a pocket/pockets. Whether you choose to make a patch pocket or in-seam pocket, or maybe you will choose a more decorative pocket than functional. It's completely up to you!


This really is a simple tutorial that is ideal for beginners because it only requires cutting rectangular pieces. This can be made for children or adults. I really hope that you decide to make an apron using this tutorial. If you do I would love to see a picture. You can send your pictures to the email sewdarnneat@gmail.com or tweet me using the hashtag #sewdarnneat.


Goodbye for now!