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! :)