Apron Redo and matching towels

I bought this plain apron and figured I could make it a little more stylish. 

At first I thought I would just add a little bit of trim to it but then I came across this Halter Apron by Heather Bailey and wanted to try to convert the apron into this style but I didn’t want to buy the pattern for just one apron so I decided I would try to wing it and this is what I came up with:

Here’s a brief overview of how I did it.

Materials:

Basic Apron

2 Fat Quarters

Solid cotton scrap about 64” x 4” that matches the fat quarters

Cut down the center of the top.  Flipped the two pieces of the top so the armholes then became the neck line.  Then did a little tapering to the outer edge of the top making it go smaller as you head to the top of the apron. (be sure to remove the side ties but leave the neck ties attached)

Then cut your fat quarter in 4” x 21-22” strips.  You will need five.  Three for the waist and ties and 2 for the ruffle on the bottom.

I sewed the three strips together and then attached the fat quarter strip and the solid strip to the top of the bottom portion of the apron so that the right side of the fat quarter strip was facing the right side of the apron and the right side of the solid strip was facing the wrong side of the apron.  I sewed all the way around the strip except leave an opening at the top wide enough for the top portion of your apron to slide in.  Turn the strips inside out and then press.  Make sure to press the opening so that the edges are folded inside.  Now slip the lower edge of the top of the apron into the opening and stitch the opening closed.  I did a stitch from one end of the ties all the way across the top to the other edge of the tie.

Then trim up the bottom of the apron to the length you would like.  Sew the other two strips of fat quarter together and then press it in half, right sides out.  Do a basting stitch along the raw edge to use to gather the fabric.  Pull one of the threads and gather the strip so it’s the same size as the bottom of the apron (make sure to do a rolled hem finish to the ends of the ruffle so you don’t have any raw edges showing).  Then pin the  ruffle lining up the raw edges on the right side of the apron.  After stitching it in place and went back and did a zig-zag stitch to finish the edges.  Press and your done!!

I used the remainder of the second fat quarter to make 2 matching towels.  I got the towel idea from Sew 4 Home here.

 

***on a side note I didn’t wind up attaching the top of the the apron as I wasn’t sure how it would fit her so I left it off making it only a half apron instead of a full apron***