written by marieann
I designed this crafty apron for my sewing projects because I am the WORST at misplacing things. I have like six pairs of scissors and I still lose them in the whirl of creative passion all the time. I also hate looking for things so much that sometimes I just settle for whatever I can reach. So I got the idea for this apron and my life had been radically improved. This really is a deceptively easy project.
Materials
Cheap canvas apron
Fabric remnants — I used red, light blue, and strawberry shortcake print
Fusible web
Ribbon
Snap
Tools
Scissors
Iron
Sewing machine
Ruler
Dressmakers’ chalk
Everything you want in your apron tool belt (for pattern drawing)
Instructions:
1. First, you need to decide what items you need in your apron. I chose to make spots for a small notebook, regular pencil, dressmakers’ chalk, seam ripper, measuring tape, pin cushion, eyeglasses, trash can and scissors. It took a decent amount of time for me to plan out where I wanted to keep things. I made a boo boo! Don’t make it. Because I am right handed, when I looked at my apron lying on the floor, I put my pockets that I use a lot (scissors) on the right side. But when I put on the apron, that becomes the left side, and it’s annoying to reach across your body. So you need to put those pockets on the LEFT side while it’s lying down if you’re right handed.
2. Draw pockets out of paper and pin them to the apron. For the scissors I chose to basically trace around them to create the angular pocket.
For the chest pocket, I wanted to have my pencils standing up straight, so I made one big pocket, then later, I sewed in rows so that they wouldn’t fall into each other.
I will explain how to do the specific details of the scissors, chest pocket, trash can pocket, and the heart pockets (and pin cushion) after the basic directions, below.
3. Alright, so once you have the pocket ideas, you need to trace the pockets on to two pieces of fabric. One can be a solid color because this is your pocket lining. The other is the pretty fabric because this is what you’ll see. I chose to line up my pockets perfectly on the print so that Strawberry Shortcake was perfectly centered. You also need to cut out a piece of fusible web for each pattern piece.
4. Iron the fusible webbing to the wrong side of the outer pocket fabrics, and then press that to the lining. This is needed to make your pockets have body so do not skip this step.
5. Iron all the edges of the pockets under 1/4 of an inch. Zig zag stitch this pressed edge down along the tops only of all the pockets.
6. Pin the pockets on to the apron. The edges will all look smooth because you’ve pressed them under. Top stitch around the pockets (of course leaving the top open) for all the pockets.
7. I also cut the apron shorter and then added the pleating to the bottom. It’s easy to do pleating. Just press your pleats in place, then carefully pin that strip of fabric to the bottom, and sew along the top. Walla!
8. The pin cushion. Here I just drew a heart and again, stiffened it with the fusible web and lining fabric. Then I sewed the heart with a tight zig zag stitch to the apron leaving only about an inch opening. Then I stuffed it with stuffing (unfortunately I had no stuffing and had to use batting, but it was all I had and like I said, I grab whatever I can find). Then I held it tightly and zig zagged the rest of the heart shut.
9. The heart pocket. I wanted the hearts to match so I made a solid red pocket (see pocket instructions above). And then I used a tight zig zag (a satin stitch) to sew a heart to the pocket. Then I sewed the pocket to the apron using the same instructions above.
10. The trash pocket. This was a bit difficult and hopefully I can explain it. Press a one-way pleat into the center of the pocket. Then press a double-pleat on either edge of the pocket. Sew the pocket to the apron only thru the back of that pleat. I don’t know if that makes sense, but check out this for a close-up. The point of this is to give the pocket some fluff so that there’s room to reach your hand into the bottom to empty it out.
11. Scissors pocket. When you sew it on, slip one end of a very long piece of ribbon between the pocket and the apron. You should then hold on to the ribbon and reach your arm as far away from your body as you can. This is the length of the ribbon. Then on the opposite end, attach a snap so that you’ll have a loop to hook around your scissors.
12. Chest pocket. After you sew one large chest pocket on, sew from the bottom of the pocket, to the top of the pocket. This will be through the apron of course because the pocket is already sewed on. I would say don’t do your strips up closer than 1/2 an inch up because otherwise you won’t be able to fit your pencils in. I also did a cross-wise stitch across the end because my seam ripper is too short and I didn’t want to have to dig around in the bottom of that small pocket to take out the ripper.
