Valentine's Day Apron Tutorial from The Petite Sewist!

Valentine's Day Apron Tutorial from The Petite Sewist!

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Have you met Stephanie over at The Petite Sewist?  She creates incredible sewing projects and blogs with super detailed and picture filled tutorials. As a novice sewer, I'm in awe of the things she creates. I'm so excited to have her guest blogging today and sharing another great project with us!

Hello, Days of Chalk and Chocolate readers!  A special thank you to Jenny for allowing me to post today!  I am Stephanie and I blog over at The Petite Sewist where I show off my sewing creations, share pattern reviews, tutorials, petite alterations and style tips.  I would love it if you stopped by and said 'hello'.

Today I am here sharing my Roses are Red Apron Tutorial.

I love the fact that aprons are in style now and I think every lovely lady should have one.  This retro-style apron was inspired by Valentine's Day and would make a great gift for a friend, or you could use it as a reception apron for a bride-to-be.  You will need two coordinating prints. 

For the apron front, get some tracing paper and cut out a pattern that is 11 inches wide on the top and 13.5 inches long on the right side.  Freehand a curve from the left top to the right bottom sides.  Place the 13.5" side of your pattern on the fold of your fabric and cut out.

For the ruffle you will need a strip 70"x2.5".  Most fabric is 44" to 60" wide so don't worry if you can't get an entire strip in one piece.  As you can see, I had to sew two pieces together.

For the side ties, cut a strip 33"x5".  For the top band you will need strips 27"x3", 2 of fabric and 2 of fusible interfacing.  Fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of your top bands.

You will also need 1 1/8 yard of rick-rack trim.

To sew the apron ties, fold them right sides together and stitch a 1/2" seam , as shown with the dotted lines.  When finished, grade the seam allowances and turn the ties right sides out.

Take your ruffle piece and finish one of the long edges with your rolled hem presser foot.  If you're thinking, "Rolled hem presser foot, what the what??" visit my tutorial and your worst fears will subside.  This is one darn cool piece of metal!  If you don't have a rolled hemmer foot, finish the edge with a narrow hem.

Take the unfinished long edge of your ruffle piece and run 2 rows of gathering stitches (stitch length 4-5) at 1/2" and 3/8".  Make your gathers and pin them around the curved edge of the apron front piece, right sides together.

At regular stitch length, sew a 1/2" seam.

When you are done, finish the edge with a serger or zig-zag stitch and press the seam toward the apron front.  

Take your rick-rack trim and sew it to the apron on top of the seam.

Now it's time to attach the top band pieces.   Take the first band piece and pin it right sides together, to the top apron front.  Allow the band to go past the ruffle 1/2" on each side, as shown.  Sew a 1/2" seam.  Press the seam one way, towards the top.  Attach the other band piece above it and press it open.  

Fold the un-sewn top edge towards the wrong side of the fabric at 1/2" and press.

Pin the unfinished edges of the apron tails to the right side of the lower band.  Stitch at 1/2".

Fold the top band to the bottom band and secure the apron tails in place again, this time incorporating all of the layers.

 Grade the top and trim the excess off the corners.

Give your apron tails a good ~YANK~ which will bring everything right sides out.  Iron the seams you just pulled out so everything is nice and crisp.

It's time to secure the back edge of the top band to the apron. Carefully pin from the front because this is the side you will stitch on...

...but pay attention to where the pins catch on the back because you want the stitching to catch.

See...you are catching that fold from the back while you topstitch.

And there you have it...the perfect half-apron!  Stand back and admire your hard work!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!