Tutorial: Quick and Easy Gardening Apron

There's nothing more that I enjoy, than making stuff for my loved ones.  So when Mother's Day came around, I thought I would make a gifts for my mom and my mom in law.  I made gardening aprons and gave them gardening themed gifts.   Here's the step by step tutorial of the apron I made for my mom.

Gather your materials, I used a 26" long by 18" wide piece of cotton broadcloth. You can also use canvas or denim. Just make sure your material is sturdy =).  Bias tape or binding, I used 1/2" double fold because it is easy to work with. You will also need co ordinating ribbon 1" wide or less. I chose a sturdy 7/8" grosgrain ribbon.

 

Iron your fabric.

 

 

Lay your fabric lengthwise and measure 12" from top edge. Mark with chalk. Do this on both sides.

When your lines are drawn use a yardstick to draw a line all the way across.  Cut on the line. The shorter piece will be your pockets and the larger piece is your to be your apron.

Measure 1/4" from the top, fold and press down, all the way across.

Stitch in place.  I used a fancy stitch because it will help to keep the fabric from unraveling. But you can use a straight stitch if desired.

Here's a close up of the stitches.

Line up the bottoms of you two pieces of fabric with the stitched part facing the top of the fabric.

Using the bias tape tuck the edges of your fabric between the folds. Do both sides first, then do the bottom, tucking in the ends of the bias tape when you get to the two bottom corners.  You can leave the top pieces alone for now.

At this time you can cut the ribbon, you need two pieces about 20" long each, cut ends diagonally and treat with Fray Check.

  

While that is drying we are going to go back to the apron.  The next thing you are going to do is figure out where you are going to put your pockets.  This is up to you, I used seed packets and couple of gardening tools to help me determine where to mark where to put the pockets. Then I used rulers to make sure the line would be straight and marked with chalk.

Stitch around the bias tape as neatly as possible.

Then stitch along the chalk lines using a thick stitch or use a straight stitch and go over it about 3 times.

Flip fabric over, measure about 1 1/2 inches on both sides, then draw a line across.

Fold and press down.

Tuck 2" of ribbon inside fold. Then fold around the bottom of your ribbon.

Using a ruler make sure your fold is 1" all the way across.

Pin in place. All the way across.

 

Stitch ribbon in place on both sides. Then following the fold with the needle as close to the edge as you can get without going over. Clip all loose threads.

Ta Da! You're done!  Now go garden....

...Or roll up, tie with a ribbon and give it to your favorite gardener!