supremely simple child's fat quarter apron - a tutorial

lately, there were fights going on in my kitchen whenever the littlest one wanted to help me cook. she wanted an apron but didn't have one of her own. naturally, she grabbed the smallest one on the rack - a red and aqua number her just-older sister brought home from a baking birthday party about two years ago. also naturally, just-older sister didn't want her precious apron being worn and dirtied by littlest sister. hence, the fighting.

and hence the reason i spent about an hour yesterday morning putting together a small and simple apron. 

i made a larger apron out of two fat quarters for an older daughter over a year ago and referred to that post as i guessed my way through this one. really, it is so simple.

with a needed apron in mind, a few days ago, littlest sister (d5) and i rummaged through the spare fat quarter basket for a print she liked. serendipitously, later that same day i happened upon two and a half yards of cast off ribbon, that may or may not have been slightly grubby from being played with. the ribbon was a color match to the fabric selected. done and done. it wasn't 2" wide like i would have preferred, but it saved me a trip to the fabric store, where lies too much temptation and waiting in lines.

so this is all you need for a quick and easy child's apron:

• 1 fat quarter
• 2 - 2.5 yds of 1" or 2" wide grosgrain ribbon
• thread, blending or contrasting

photography tip - sometimes it helps to stand directly above what you are trying to shoot, even if it's on the table and you have to balance precariously on the table and can't manage to cut your foot out of the shot. some maybe your foot is in the shot, but it's also a nice, flat aerial view of what's on the table. actually, i just wanted to show off my blue toes.

step one - prewash your fabrics 

(which i forgot to do! darn it. i even did not make the apron a day earlier because i was waiting to wash the fabrics. fail.) 

and press.

step two - cut pieces

a fat quarter is approximately 18" x 21" when squared. mine was actually 19" x 21". just go with whatever you have. measure 10" down the shorter (18") side of your fat quarter and cut it in two, resulting in a skirt piece (top) which measures 10" x 21", and another piece (bottom) which is 8" x  21". (or maybe 9" x 21" like mine.) and if you accidentally cut it the other way, you will have a skirt that is slightly less wide by 3". no big deal. don't start over.

subcut the 8" x 21" piece to get an 8" x 9" bodice piece. i fussy cut my bodice piece so i could have that bird placed on the bodice where i wanted it.

set aside scraps for another project. (or, if you're making two aprons at once, and you didn't fussy cut, you could use this as the bodice piece for the second apron!)

cut the ribbon into three pieces measuring about 56", 19", and 19" long each. i did this by folding my 2.5 yds in half and cutting, then cutting one of the pieces in half again. (you can make do with 2 yds by cutting your waist tie shorter, and making the neck ties shorter and adding velcro for the closure. see options at the end for this.)

step three - hem the bodice and skirt

i created a 1/4" rolled hem on the top and sides of my bodice piece, and on the bottom and sides of my skirt piece. to help me get a crisp and accurate fold for my hem, i used my hera quilt marker to crease/score the fabric at 1/4" and 1/2". you could use a pencil mark or just eyeball this, too.

fold the fabric along the 1/4" mark and press with the iron.

then fold over another 1/4" and press again.

starting with the side seams first, backstitch at the top of the seam, then sew the seam just to the right of the inner side of the fold (a scant 1/4" will do it). i had my 1/4" guide foot on and it worked perfectly to keep me a thread or two away from the edge of the fold where i was sewing.

do both sides and then the top of the bodice. you can select a thread that blends or contrasts. i almost always just sew with whatever neutral thread happens to be on the machine (lazy) so mine is sewn with a contrasting white thread, but that makes it easier for you to see the threads for this tutorial, so my laziness paid off.

if you like, you can attach the neck tie ribbons into the top hem seam of the bodice. see step 5 below.

step four - gather and attach the skirt

leaving yourself a few inches of thread tail at the beginning and end, sew a basting seam at the top of the skirt. do this by setting your seam length as long as your machine will allow (or perhaps you have a "basting seam" setting).

then grip the edge of the fabric and pull one of the thread tails to gather the fabric. i did this until my skirt top was about 6" shorter than it had been (now about 15" wide across the top).

this gives you a skirt that is about 3" wider than the bodice on each side.

step four - attach waistband tie ribbon to skirt and bodice

line up centers and pin with ribbon under the skirt, not on top as shown here

mark the center of your waist tie length of ribbon (mine was 56" long) and the center of the skirt with a pin. (find the center by simply folding in half and marking rather than measuring.) line up the centers, wrong side of skirt facing up and ribbon on top, and pin in place with a generous 1/4" above the ribbon's edge.

backstitching at the beginning and end, attach skirt to ribbon with a generous 1/4" seam.

if you are using a 2" wide ribbon, use a 1/2" seam allowance so there is more skirt above the ribbon. or just do this if you want a bit more room to work with when attaching the bodice to the skirt.

if you want the threads showing on the front of the ribbon to be placed more precisely/accurately, then pin well and sew with the ribbon facing up, not the skirt.

the backside of the skirt with ribbon attached

in preparation for attaching the bodice to the waistband tie and skirt, fold the skirt in half and mark the center with a pin again.

do the same with the bodice to find and mark the center.

now you are going to attach the skirt to the bodice before attaching it to the waistband.

fold the waistband ribbon down out of the way, exposing the seam allowance of the skirt behind the waistband.

line up the centers with each other and pin the bodice to the skirt.

make sure the ribbon is folded back out of the way while you attach the two fabric pieces together.
in retrospect, you could attach the skirt and bodice together first and then place the ribbon on top. but i guess i just liked it the complicated way and enjoyed the challenge of not sewing the ribbon into this seam.

backstitching to secure at the end and beginning of the seam, make a scant 1/4" seam to attach the bodice and skirt together, making sure not to catch the ribbon in your seam. (really, i'm seeing this would be easier to do the ribbon after this step.)

press the seam to the side, and flip the apron open.

working with whatever seam allowance appeals to you aesthetically, attach the top of the ribbon to the bodice. i sewed just below the edge of the ribbon.

step five - attach neck ties

i noticed on the sample apron that the neck ties were sewn into the hem of the the bodice top, but i didn't want to have the neckties in the way when i was doing my other sewing, so i chose to do this last. but it would look neater and maybe be a bit more sturdy if you did this first. to do that, tuck it under the rolled hem before sewing the hem seam, flip the tie up and over, then sew hem seam.

fold under 1/4" of the ribbon's end.

with end side of the fold down and the length of the ribbon extending off the top away from the bodice, pin the ribbon to the hem of the bodice top on the outside corner.

backstitch and sew the tie to the bodice at 1/4". for sturdiness, i actually sewed back and forth over the whole length of the tie a few times. do this for both sides.

if you'd like, you can attach velcro to the ends of the ties so the little one can put it on themselves. or you can just leave it to be tied in a bow by whoever is handy.

cut all four ribbon ends on the diagonal and treat with a fray check product to prevent unraveling during use.

and there's your cute little apron.

now go get your little person and watch her smile and giggle with delight as she puts it on:

 "mama, it's so pretty! i like to tie it like this." see, those ties are generously proportioned to a nearly-four yr old, but that's just room to grow.

 that's some sass, right there.

 with posing ideas all her own. heaven help us!

after it's been properly admired and modeled, go bake something together. maybe our favorite blondie recipe here. (which, by the way, you can use real eggs in for the egg sub. sub for the sub with the real. haha.)

that's three of them with their own apron so now the only fighting should be over who gets more cookies or who gets to stir.

better in the morning

 i decided to take some better photos of the ultra-bright apron in real daylight. natural lighting almost always improves appearances in photos. i still don't love the apron, but it did look rather cute on d3 today when she happened to be wearing a coordinating outfit.

whipped up an apron

this afternoon, i played project leap frog - jumping from one project to the next - as i cleaned up my sewing space. everyone was supposed to clean a part of the downstairs and i picked my sewing room. that's kind of cheating, now isn't it? well, it did need to be done. so i cleaned and straightened and worked on bits and pieces of wips as i went along. and i actually completed an entire non-quilting project!

i turned 2 fat quarters and 2 yards of grosgrain ribbon into an over-due, eye-blinding apron for my 7 yr old, d3, working off a sample apron given to d4 last year. for reference, normally, she wears a size 8 or 10 girls. there was enough fabric here to make an apron for a large child, teen, or even small-ish adult. i had about half of the accent fat quarter left over after using it for the bodice and skirt trim. also, i would recommend 2.5 yards of ribbon so you could make a cute bow for the waistband like the sample apron has.

it was so completely simple that i was able to guess my way through it by looking at the sample apron. as i got started, i decided to photograph some of the process for anyone interested. however, it was late afternoon (no natural light left) and i was working with 2 different types of light in the room, with no desire to keep switching my white balance back and forth. so, i apologize in advance for the crazy photos of some ultra-bright fabrics selected by a 7 year old. (i had to put that last part in there just so no one thinks i chose the fabrics. my vanity wouldn't permit it. i will, however, claim selecting the ribbon.)

this is not a precise pattern, more of a walk-through of how i assembled the apron. you can measure the child or teen for whom you are making the apron to come up with your own measurements.

 first, i trimmed up the prewashed fat quarters to give them clean edges. then i cut a 3" strip of fabric off my accent fabric to trim the bottom of the apron skirt. to hem it, i rolled one edge about 1/4", twice, pressed it, and stitched down. then i attached the trim to the skirt with a 1/2" seam allowance. if you have a serger or overlock function, this seam allowance would be a good place to use it.

 press your seam open on the front side. the bottom of your skirt is trimmed.

finish both side edges of the skirt by turning under 1/8", twice, pressing, and stitching down. in retrospect, i would have finished the sides before hemming the skirt, but it's not that big a deal.

next, gather your skirt.

 using a large, loose basting stitch, sew across the top (opposite the trimmed edge) of the skirt, then pull the strings to gather to the desired length. i made my skirt about 10" wide, but would go wider next time.

after gathering the skirt, i attached the ribbon waistband to it.

view from back after skirt is attached to waistband

i cut about 2' off the ribbon for neck ties, leaving 4' for the waistband. i folded the ribbon in half and marked the center, doing the same with the apron. then i lined up the two center marks and attached the ribbon to the skirt, wrong side of the ribbon to the right side of the skirt, with about 3/4" seam allowance to the skirt but the seam about 1/16th" from the ribbon's edge on the front. (see photos below to view how this looks on the front.) you can now remove the basting strings, if desired.

make the apron bodice by turning and securing the edges, like above, of 3 sides of an approximately 10" x 10" square. (hello, leftover layer cake square!) then attach bodice to the skirt.

WARNING -  this is the WRONG way to place your pieces!!!

resulting in a backwards bodice. oops.

do not do like my first attempt and place the right side of the bodice to the wrong side of the skirt. oh, no. please do it like this:

correct placement of bodice to skirt

place the skirt on your work surface with the right side of skirt facing up, ribbon waistband turned down away from the skirt's top edge, and align the right side of the bodice's unfinished bottom edge to the right side of the skirt's top edge. pin together and sew with a 1/2" seam allowance, or whatever you can manage without sewing into the ribbon. since you can't see the ribbon, you can feel for it as you sew. this seam will be hidden behind the ribbon, so some wobble won't show.

these two photos illustrate where are all the pieces are while making this seam:

wrong side of bodice on top

ribbon folded back away from skirt's top edge so that right side of skirt is touching right side of bodice

when you are done sewing the bodice to the skirt, it will look like this:

press the seam open, being careful not to scorch or melt your ribbon wit the cotton setting on your iron.

 all the threads you see in my seam allowance between the bodice and the ribbon are my basting strings and the threads from my two previous attempts at attaching the skirt correctly, which i was too lazy to remove.

at this point, i meant to make another seam further securing the skirt's edge to the bodice, but i forgot to. it probably won't matter, but would have been nice.

 lay the ribbon waistband flat on the bodice and attach with the needle just inside the edge of the ribbon. if you use a matching thread, it will be hidden. i don't think i own a thread this color and didn't care to purchase any, so i have a high-contrast white stitch on my ribbon and hems. with a different ribbon and maybe a decorative stitch, this could be really cute.

use the remaining 2' of ribbon for the neck ties. i folded one straight edge of the ribbon up before attaching to the top corners of the bodice. cut the loose ends of the ribbon on the diagonal and finish with fray check. do the same for the waistband tie ends.

an alternate finish for the neck ties is to sew a long strip of Velcro to the ties, allowing it to attach easily for a child.

now your apron is complete!
you are ready to surprise your 7 year old daughter with the apron you promised to make for her months and months ago only to hear her respond, "mom! i said i wanted to make it myself, not you to make it for me!" don't worry, she will begrudgingly wear it anyway.