The Brownie Bakin' Apron

When I posted about Ali's apron a few days ago, I asked if anyone would be interested in a tute, in fact I was all "ANYONE? ANYONE? Was that a YES? Oh. You were just coughing? Well that's good enough for me!". (Thanks heaps Kuka! x)
So here it is.
The Brownie Bakin' Apron.
So called because I got brownie batter on it before I could get a picture of it clean. 'Cause I'm classy like that.


It's a bit... silly. But it was super simple and gratifying to make. Especially as I used a bodged version of Creative Little Daisy's bias maker to make the waistband.
Which is... dun dun duhhhhhn...

Step ONE - making the waistband.
First take your measurements at the spot where you like to wear your apron. If you're going for a double-wrap, tie-at-the-front waistband then double your measurement and add at least 2 and a half feet for a BIG bow. If you're tieing your apron in back then just add your bow allowance to your waist measurement.
And that's all the maths you need to do. The rest you can wing.

So my waistband measurement for this apron was about 2 and a half yards. (Anybody found to be extrapolating my waist measurement from this will be issued a sound beating and sent home.)
The next step is to decide how thick you want your waistband to be. Anything over about two and a half inches gets bunched in the back if you're doing a cross-over-tie-in-front waistband. The Brownie Baking Apron has a band of 1.5".

Now, I I happened to have some long strips of white cotton leftover from the stinking rotten blasted duvet project so I didn't have to piece together the length of the waistband. I just cut out the width I needed which was roughly 5" (3" for the band 2-ish" for the seam allowances)
Then I made an oversized, NON bias, binding. With a cocktail stirrer. And the iron.
See...

I pinned the cocktail stirrer to our ironing board. The pins are 'sactly 3 inches apart.

Then I fed one end of my 2 and a half yard x 4 inch strip through the contraption. Right to left.


And ironed...
The I folded in half again and ironed some more...

And BWALA! Acres of waistband in no time at all.Which leads us to ...

Step TWO - the skirt.
This skirt used to be pants. Jammie pants. GIANT jammie pants (they fit 47 lbs ago). If you're using a regular, rectangular width of fabric the you can ignore the next little bit. Perhaps have a nice cup of tea?
But if you happen to have some jammie pants that have expressed an interest in apronhood then this is what I did:
Cut the leggies off,
opened them out,

Sew them together to form an skirt/rectangle shape,


Next thing to do is hem the sides and the bottom. I used some store bought bias binding on the bottom hem. Then I folded over the sides twice, ironed and pinned them.


Then it was time for pleats (you could do gathers if you're feeling ruffly)


I figured my pleats by eye and they're a bit squiffy on account of trying to hide the seam that is dead center of the skirt.
Once you've got your pleats arranged, ironed and pinned you can whip around all three (or four if you've skipped the binding on the bottom hem) edges of you skirt.
It might look a bit like this.


Which leads us to...
Step THREE - jam it all together.
You'll need to find the center of your waist band. Fold it in half and mark it with chalk or a pin or something. Then the center of your skirt, same deal. Then line up the center marks and jam the skirt between the waist band. Like this:


Pin it in place then...
Top stitch the whole way along your waist band. Maybe going back and forth a few times where the skirt meets the waistband for extra small child/monkey swinging from your apron proofiness.
And you're DONE!

I added the leftover pink binding to the waistband 'cause I thought it looked a little plain without. Then made brownies with my bear and got the apron filthy.
x