Ruffle Apron

Finally! 

Here it is!

The long awaited ruffle apron tutorial!

Now those of you who didn’t win it…  :(  …can make your own!

Hooray!

…but before I get to the tute, I’ve just got to let you in on a little secret of mine.

I{heart}aprons.

I mean more than that.

I just might be obsessed. 

I have NINE of my own, and have made and sold almost THREE HUNDRED at craft fairs and online.  I just love sewing them that much! 

They are by far my most favorite sewing project ever.  So, naturally, I need to share my obsession with you and teach you how to make one. 

It’s super easy.

Are you ready?!

This sweet little apron is so fun and easy to make.  You could even scale it down and make a child sized apron for a Mom and Me set! 

For this project, you’ll need:

• Three or four different coordinating fabrics
• Thread
• Sewing machine, serger, scissors, etc…

To start off, you need to cut the back piece.

This piece is 18 inches wide by 22 inches long.  This size will fit an adult or older child.

Serge around the side and bottom raw edges of this piece.  If you don’t have a serger, just zig zag stitch around it, then hem it--or you can double up the hem so that you don’t have any raw edges exposed. 

Next, cut the side ties.  These are 24 inches long by 3 inches high.  There are two ways to sew these ties.  You can do what I did--which was fold each tie in half so that they are 1 1/2 inches high.  Serge the raw edges together, and when you get to the end, taper them off.  That’s it.

If you don’t have a serger, you can fold them in half with the right sides together, sew down the long side where the raw edges meet.  Now you have a tube, and you need to turn it right side out with a safety pin.  Just like I did here with the strap on the nursing cover.  Just be sure to hem one of the ends of each tie so that the ends of the ties don’t have raw edges.

Now for the ruffles.

You’ll need four strips of coordinating fabrics, and they need to measure 6 inches high by 48 inches long.  Serge or hem the sides and bottoms of each ruffle.  I used the rolled hem option on my serger.  All I had to do for that was slide this finger down into the rolled hem position.

Let’s gather the ruffles now, m’kay?

If you have a ruffler foot, you can use that.  You could also use this method for ruffling the strips.  Or, you can tweak the settings on your serger and ruffle that way.  This is the way I did it. 

To gather or ruffle on the serger, you need to set your stitch length adjusting knob at max. (usually 4)

Then set your differential feed adjusting knob at 1.5-2.

Now you can start ruffelin’ on your serger!!

This is what it looks like (in a different fabric) when you’re finished:

See how nice and gathered it is up at the top?  You may need to practice on fabric scraps until you get it right.  Every serger is different, and this is what worked with mine.

JUKI MO644D Portable Serger   (in case you’re interested…)

Okay.  Now let’s attach the ruffles to the back piece of the apron.  Using a fabric marker, mark where on your back piece you want to sew your ruffles.  No worries.  It will wash out.  Be sure to measure your ruffles, and leave room for overlapping so that the tops of your ruffles aren’t showing.

Now sew the ruffles onto the back piece in whichever order you want the fabric it, but start at the top.  Once that ruffle is sewn on, flip it up and sew on the next one.

Almost done!  Now let’s make a waistband, shall we?  Oh, do lets!

Cut a 19”x4” piece of fabric.  Use whichever fabric goes next in your pattern.  Or not.  I won’t tell!

 

Fold that piece of fabric in half with the right sides together.  Pin the raw edges of the ties to the ends of the waistband, on the inside of the waistband.  Like so:

The ties are on the inside of the waistband.  Sew them into place and turn the waistband right side out.  (disregard that serged edge…I got ahead of myself!)

 

Press it flat with your iron.  Top stitch around the sides and top of the waistband.

Take the bottom of the waistband and line it up with the top of the apron.  Pin it into place.  I didn’t get a picture of the pinned waistband, so enjoy this picture of me lining up the pieces.

Sew the waistband to the apron, then serge or zig zag the raw edges…AFTER you’ve reset the serger settings!  ;)

Flip the waistband up…and…

Hooray!  You’re finished!

Just think how cute you’re going to look making dinner!  Even if you don’t know what you’re doing in the kitchen, at least you’ll look hot doing it!  :)

And?! If you don’t want to make your own, I still make them and sell them. Just email me and let me know if you want one.  I can hook you up! :)

Summerize Your Winter Wardrobe

Last Thursday, I showed you how I turned one of Firecracker’s shirts into one for Monkey.  I also mentioned that Monkey has lots of hand-me-downs that are either too big or Winter clothes.

I’m a cheapskate and I didn’t want to waste these clothes and buy new ones for Monkey.  So, I just refashioned them into Summer clothes.  I did it all while he took a nap. and it didn’t cost me a dime!  Sweet!

I turned seven pairs of pants into shorts, but I just grabbed two for these pictures.

All I did was cut them off at the knees, serge the raw edges and hem them.  I did a tutorial on hemming.  Check it out here if you want to see it.  The thing I like best about these two pairs of shorts is that they are size 12 months.  Monkey is really skinny, and these shorts are a perfect fit for him.  When they were pants, they were way too short.

I’ve used this same method to turn some of my jeans into capris.  When I do this, I make the hem a bit longer and use matching thread so it looks better.  Like this:

You could also cuff them if you don’t have matching thread.  Just serge or zig-zag the raw edge, roll the pantleg where you want it and sew it into place along the side seams like I did here:

Okay.  That isn’t me.  I didn’t get a decent picture of my cuffed capris because I am wearing them and I don’t want to take them off for a picture.  So, I stole this one from the internet.

I took ten long sleeved shirts and turned them into short sleeved shirts.

This is just three of them.  See that one in the middle?  That was the long sleeved romper I refashioned in the basic hem tutorial.  That $1.00 shirt has definitely been used!  :)  Ha!  That green striped shirt is also used in that post!  Welp, now they’re both short sleeved.  This is how I did it:

Since I was in a hurry when I was refashioning Monkey’s wardrobe, I’ll show you what I did with one of my own shirts.  I got this bad boy off of the dollar rack.  Shocked?!  Me neither.

Start with a long sleeved shirt.

Measure the sleeve length with one of your own shirts.  Cut off the sleeve.

Serge around the raw edges, or leave it raw.  Knit doesn’t fray.  Measure the hem and pin it into place.  Set the stitch length longer so that the fabric will still stretch.  I set mine at 3.1.  Stitch around the sleeve. 

You can double stitch if you want.  I did, but it was just for looks. 

Steam press the seams like crazy, and you’re done!  The picture above is in  bad lighting, but trust me, it’s the same shirt.

That is how you Summerize your Winter Wardrobe!  :)

Dolman Style Tee Shirt

Made from knit sheets!

Isn’t that awesome?!

I found a queen sized knit set on clearance for $5 at Wal-Mart.  That’s a lot of fabric.  I couldn’t pass that up!  I still plan on making a maxi dress for me, and some pajama pants for my dudes.  Later, though.

Wanna make a Dolman Style tee for you?  It’s so easy and fun.

Start with the top band of the sheet.  If you do this, you’ll have that cute band at the bottom of the shirt, and you won’t need to hem it.  Perfect!

Measure out your pattern with a big tee shirt.  I used one of Hubby’s.

Make the sleeves longer and drape-y-er.  I know that’s not a word.  I don’t care.  See how I came down to a point with the sleeve I cut?  Don’t do that.  Just make it go out straight.  I ended up fixing that later.  Oh well.  Live and learn, right?

This is what I had.  I needed the band at the bottom to be more fitted, so I cut it in a few inches on both sides.

*note*  again, don’t do it quite this way.  Taper your edges so that you don’t have a boxy waistband.  I cut that part off later…when I saw that it didn’t work.  Here.  I’ll draw it out for you in Paint.

Man.  I just can’t get this right.  Cut as shown above, but since this picture is on an angle, you can’t see the angle in which I cutteth the sheet.  Taper your sides, people.

Now then.  See this nicely sewn edge on the sheet?  Cut as much as you need to finish off the neckline and sleeves.

How will you know how much you need?  Just cut your strips a bit smaller than the neckline and sleeves.  Pin it into place with the right sides together, and sew it into place.

Do this for the front and back. 

Fold it over and top stitch it into place.  This will give it that less-homemade look you’re going for.

See?!  Isn’t that lovely?!  Again, do this for the front AND the back necklines.

With the front and back of the shirt (right sides together) facing each other, sew the shoulder seams together on both sides.

Take some more of that beautifully sewn side seam from the sheet and finish off the sleeve the same way you did the neckline.

Once you’ve done that, sew the side seams of your shirt.

Steam press your seams like crazy, turn it right side out…

…and…

Viola!

You’re done!

I like that the bagginess of the shirt hides all of the “baby leftovers” in my midsection.  I think I’ll wear this style of shirt every.single.day!  :)