1950s Apron

This is the apron I have made this week. I love wearing it and feel like a 1950s housewife everytime I put it on!

I made up the pattern as I went along and so I hope it all makes sense to you. This project is a good one for left over strips of fabric and in total it took me just under 90 minutes.

I began with a template of card that I traced around onto the back of 8 different strips of fabric. If you have a large waist you may want to add more strips. The template was just shorter than the distance between my waste and knee. At the bottom it was 12cms wide and at the top 5cms. This allows for a seem around so don't make it any smaller.

I laid my fabric onto the floor to get a sense of what fabrics worked well together, and once I was pleased with the layout I began sewing them together. With the pen marks it was easy to put the patterns of two strips together, pin along the line and then sew it together. I suggest you start on one side of your apron and add on a strip at a time. To go from the middle might mean you get lost in the order. Once you have finished this part it is a good idea to see if you need to add any extra sections.

Once I was satisfied that the waist would measure half my waist I was keen to add some weight to the apron. I decided to back my apron onto some other fabric which has the benefit of meaning it will be reversible.

The easiest way to do this is to press your apron and then lay it on the backing fabric that you want to use. Make sure the fabrics are facing one another.

Pin the apron carefully, cut out and sew around the apron leaving a small gap in the top so you can turn the whole thing inside out.

Here is the turned out skirt. It has the strips of fabric on one side and the stripy reversible side behind.

At this stage the apron felt much more sturdy and I was pleased I had gone the extra mile to back it.

The apron section is now finished and so we move onto the waist band.

I used some contrasting fabric and cut three long strips 1 meter by 20 cms. I sewed them together to make one three meter strip that would act as my waist band (I have not got a 3m waist- in case you were wondering!!!).

Then I cut a strip of card 8cms wide that I used to fold and iron the fabric into the belt.

First I ironed the bottom 2 cms up over the card to create crease, then folded the middle over (see next picture) and finally tucked the edge under. I ironed it down firmly before moving the card along so that the entire three meters was ironed into shape.

In taking your time to press the belt at this stage will mean you can speed through the next section!

I found the middle of the band and opened it up and put the middle of the apron 2 cms into the band and pinned it in place.

Because the apron is curved and the band is straight it is really important that you do this carefully. Where the strips of fabric on the apron end insert 2cms of the apron into the belt at a right angle and pin firmly through all layers.  I repeated this along the apron from the middle to the outside meaning that the middle and end of the apron only have 2 cms inserted into the belt.

Once you have done this you can sew the length of the belt on both top and bottom to ensure it sits firmly.

I cut each end of my belt into a diagonal shape and turned the edges into each other before sewing them down.

Finally, excuse the dodgy photo my 9 year old son took of me modelling my new reversible apron, but as you can see I am delighted with the finished product!