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Friday, December 30, 2011

Sewing - Simple Tea Towel Apron to Sew

I save Fridays for posting my scrap pages on this Blog.  I guess I didn’t realize there was a Friday that landed on December 30th for this year as I don’t have a scrap page prepared!  Instead, I want to share a tea towel apron that I sewed.  I’ll get back on track for next week.  I am posting this on both my SU! and Magenta Blogs so if you are a Follower of both my Blogs, you will see this post again.  It is just too neat not to share.
Anyways, if you have 20 minutes to spare, you must try this apron.  I am not the originator of this idea – it has been around for some time.  I had never tried it before and it sure is simple.

Supplies
1 tea towel 19”x 28“ or so.
3 m of 1” wide ribbon or you sure could sew a tube by joining lightweight fabric together.

You need to wash and dry the tea towel to shrink it before beginning.  Now press it.  Check the seams and re-sew if needed.
I found two spots that needed re-sewing on my towel.
Press the tea towel in half lengthwise with right sides together. Find the center of your ribbon and align it with the center of the towel's folded edge. I know, I know – this doesn’t seem right that you are pinning the ribbon on the wrong side of the tea towel but trust me, that is what you have to do.  Pin ribbon along folded edge, through both layers of the towel.  Sew along the top and bottom of the ribbon, through  all layers.
Mark the center of your ribbon and the center of the towel's folded edge with pins.
Sew through all thicknesses.
Fold the top layer of the tea towel up to meet the ribbon. Pin just the folded top layer, along the edges.  Now sew through the edges only.  Bar tack at the top if possible.  There is quite a thickness there so be careful – don’t break a needle as I did.
Pin just the folded top layer, along the edges.
Sew along the edges only.
Find the center of this flap and mark.  My apron had a line that I followed while sewing so it was pretty simple.  Now you have two healthy size pockets on your apron.  Again, bar tack at the top for security.  Finish the ends of your ribbon.  Since I am giving this as a gift, I added a label to the inside, bottom edge.  I’ve had these labels forever, I don’t even know where they came from.
Find the center of this flap and mark.
Finish the ends of your ribbon.
I added a label to the inside, bottom edge.
Wrap the ties back around to the front and tie them under the pocket.  That way, the apron will not move around while you are wearing it.  If I sew another apron, I might just use enough ribbon so that it ties at the back only – about 2 meters.  It takes a lot of ribbon to go around a guy twice!

Please leave me a comment if you enjoyed this.

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