Guess what I made last week? An apron!
Okay, before you all start laughing and think I’ve totally lost my mind, I’ll have you know that there is a new trend and aprons are really chic in certain feminine circles. Homesteaders too!
Me, I just was getting tired of doing dishes and cleaning and getting my clothes all wet and yucky. And I’ll admit I’m not sure why… but when I get on my apron and my bandana, it’s like a signal to my brain that it’s WORK time… and I get right to it!
Well, I almost bought one, but I didn’t really just want an expensive printed goofy one with a saying… or just a plain white chef one that will look nasty in just one wearing. I like purple… and I just happened to have a single yard of nice cotton laying about and I wasn’t sure what to do with it anyway. And then I did a little reading on the web and there were these online patterns that talked about no waste projects and such.
I read a bunch, but then being the stubborn creative type, I had to make my own. Most the ones were CLOSE to being no waste, I wanted to see if I could get closer! The challenge was on.
Well, I believe I did it. And here’s the photography and instructions to prove it!
Sherri’s One Yard – No Waste Apron
Start with one yard of fabric, maybe a nice comfy cotton broadcloth or something that is a little absorbent… that kind of thing. Just your regular 44-45 inch wide yard of fabric.
Lay it out single layer on a big table. I have the shorter side to me. The 36 inch side.
Okay… measure and cut off the bottom 3″ inches of the 36″ side. You’ll make a 3 inch strip. I used the salvage edge, why not. Remember… no waste!
Cut two more strips. These will be the 2 side ties and the neck strap. Set aside.
Okay, fold the remainder together, nice sides together. Like a book.
From the top right corner, measure across 6 inches and make a little mark. I know the photo shows 9… but 9 was a little bit tooooo wide across the chest. I would suggest like 5 or 6. (Remember when it’s open, it will be 10-12 inches across…)
Now measure down about 13 inches from that left top corner. Make a mark.
Here’s the only tricky part. You gotta freehand in a little sloping curve. I just drew down from the top a while and then kinda of swooped out to the 13 inch mark. See the next picture and you’ll see.
Pretty keen, eh? Save those two weird shapes… they are going to be come pockets!
See? I told you!!! Two cool pockets!
PLEASE NOTE…. I am showing you the pockets the wrong side up, so you can see how I placed and sewed mine down! The dark on dark didn’t show up nice. You can have them swoop out to the sides like mine, or have them swoop in. Your decision. Have fun!
Then i just sewed the raw edge of the pockets under, oh about a half an inch. I just finger pressed it, because hey, I wanted to get done fast and I’m not sure where my iron is anyway. Since I was using a dark fabric, it wouldn’t be that noticable anyway. Once you sew all around the shape and sew the raw edges under, I just opened up my apron and figured out where I wanted them and then stitched the little guys down in place.
Don’t forget… don’t sew the top part closed or you ah, won’t have a pocket.
Don’t ask me how I know that, okay?
See… sewing the pockets down!
Did I mention that this took me exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes from cutting to wearing and that included staging all these lovely photos? I’ll bet if you weren’t doing the pictures, you could do this in less than an hour. Nice little fun gift for a party gift or friend or something…
Next is just to sew under the edge of the apron all the way around. Now you can just do it once if you want, but as you wash it, it will fray on the backside. Me, I sewed it down a quarter inch or so, and then folded that over and sealed the seam a second time. I just thought that would look nicer and not fray.
My mom taught me to sew and she wasn’t fancy about it, but she did mention that if you take your time to do something nice, it will last a long time and won’t look so, well, home-made and sort of sloppy. Moms are good for reminding you of that fact.
Plus it was fun to have the sewing machine whizzing along. Ain’t nothing easier then to sew nice big straight seams. Be careful around that wonderful little curvey bit we took out….
Okay boys and girls… almost done!
Take those three 3″ strips from the beginning? Remember? take each one and turn it right sides together, and on two of them… stitch one short edge and then one long edge, along the open side. Not the fold side.
That’s a bodkin.
Then turn them around to the right side showing. The two are your drawstrings. I like to use a little dude called a BODKIN to turn my fabric tubes. It’s sweet and it works great. You can get them at the sewing joint. They are like a buck or two and save you a ton of time and frustration of turning fabric tubes!
The last one, you don’t have to do the short end… thats the one that will be your neck strap and will be hidden on the inside of the apron.
Now, I fingerpressed my tubes flat and top stitched down the sides just because I wanted them to lay flat and look nice. You really don’t have to… especially the drawstrings. But the neck strap would lay a little nicer if you did this.
I think you should do it. Really. My mom would insist.
My camera ran out of juice at this point, so I don’t have a pic of each strap and the neck. But it’s easy. You probably already have it figured out.
Take the apron and kind of lay it on you. Put the neck strap over your neck and under your hair if it’s long and just see how much strap you need to have the apron up high enough to protect your shirt, but not too high that it’s rubbing your throat. Then just add a little bit for seam allowances and cut it off. Then sew to the top two corners. I made a little square and then put an “x” in it. Just because.
And then attach the open short edge of each drawstring to the sides and sew on like the neck strap. Pretty easy.
And then you got your fancy, one yard no waste apron and can dance around the house with your broom and clean and wash dishes and all that fun stuff.
One size pretty much fits all. Maybe not little children, but most adults. Skinny folk will have more apron to wrap around them. Not so skinny will still find it ample to protect the front of you. And stash your little bits and pieces you find while cleaning and such.
Jessy snapped a pic of me as I was girding my loins to take on a sink of dishes.
I’ve washed mine once already and it’s all nice and soft and comfy. I imagine it will keep getting that way. I’d like to make one out of like terrycloth, like a big bar towel hanging on me for dishes! hahaha…. That would be nice and absorbent, too…..
Okay, I kinda lied. There was just a teeny bit of waste.
I didn’t need the whole neck strap, so mine ended up knocking off a couple inches of the neck strap… and I got fancy on the ends of the drawstrings and rather than making them square, I rounded my ends. But that was it. Nothing else was wasted!
And you could always make a pencil cosy out of the left over neck strap bit. Or a short snake warmer… oh, a crochet hook bag! Many many uses for a little one and half inch wide tube of fabric….
Enjoy! Let me know if you try my pattern out! Hope it’s clean enough. Just write if you have any questions….
Pin It
Hi Sherri,
I like your zero waste apron idea. When I get a chance to make one for myself, I think I’ll change the pockets a bit by sewing them together along the long edge, pressing the seam open and then sewing it on the apron to look like a large kangaroo pocket. But instead of leaving it as one big pocket that will likely gap open, incorporate a little sewing trick I learned in Home Ec (yeah, I’m old enough to have actually gone to Home Ec). It’s called stitch-in-the-ditch, which is quilter’s hidden stitch that is accomplished by pressing a seam open, and from the right side sewing along the seam in between the two joined pieces of fabric over the seam stitches. This tacks the seam stitches to the back fabric (and results in quilting if batting is used). I hope my description makes sense. Here’s a I found that demonstrates it quite well.