Make An Apron Out of a Tea Towel - CRAZY!

If you need an idea for a simple gift to make for a friend or if you just need an apron yourself, here is a super simple step-by-step tutorial on how to make a darling tea towel apron.  Just choose a tea towel that you like, pick some coordinating fabric for the pockets and straps and you are ready to go!

Here is what you need to do:

Take your tea towel over to your ironing board and iron it in 1/2 lengthwise so that the pressed edge goes right down the middle of the towel as pictured above.

Open up the towel so that the tag of the towel is facing up and is furthest away from you at the top.

From the center crease you made by ironing, take your quilters ruler and measure out from the crease 4" and mark with a pin.

Then measure out 4" on the other side of the crease to the 4" mark and place a pin there.  

Now take your ruler and measure 10" down on one side of the towel from the top and mark that with a pin. Move your ruler to the other side of the tea towel and do the same. 

At your ironing board, take one of the corners at the top and pull it down so that there is now a crease from the pin at the 4" marking spot to the 10" marked spot on one side of the middle crease.

Now press the crease in so that when you take the pins out, you can see where the edge should be.  Do this on the other side as well and press.  You can now take all 4 pins out.

Open up the towel and measure 1 1/4" from the crease and cut that corner off.  Do this on the other side as well.

Sorry this is so blurry.

Now fold the edge over 1/4" and press.  

Then fold the material again at the crease you ironed in before at the 1 1/4" marking and press again.

Sew a seam running right along the edge of the enclosure.  Remember to back stitch here because this is an area where your apron will need to be strong!  This is now your casing for your straps.  Do this on the other side as well.

Take your coordinating fabric that you want to use for you pockets and straps and first cut three 3" strips.  

Now cut a piece of the coordinating fabric 8" X 16".  With your rotary cutter, cut the 8" X 16" piece in half at the crease.  This is going to be your pocket section for the front of your apron.  You want there to be about 2"-3" of your apron fabric on either side of your pocket that are exposed after you attach the pocket. Just make sure it's even on both sides!

Lay your 2 pieces of fabric for your pocket rights sides together and sew 1/4" seam all the way around the squares leaving a 6" opening so that you can turn it when you are done.  At the corners, stop sewing at the 1/4" mark, put your needle down, lift your presser foot, turn the material, lower your presser foot and continue sewing.  Again, make sure to back stitch when you are at the end as the pockets make take some abuse!  

Clip each of the 4 corners before you turn the fabric so that you don't have bulges in your pockets - you should have nice sharp corners.  

Turn the fabric and make sure to pay special attention to the corners either using a needle to gently pull them out or use a pencil top to push the corners out from the inside.  You want your corners to look nice!

Iron your pocket flat making sure to pay special attention to ironing in your 6" opening so that you can sew that shut AND your corners.

Sew all the way across the top of the pocket right along the edge at about 1/8" in. until you get to the opposite side.  Put your needle down, lift your presser foot, turn the material, put your presser foot down and sew about 4 stitches.  Put your needle down again, lift your presser foot, turn the material and put your presser foot down and sew back across the top of the pocket running parallel to your first row of stitching.   

Take your pocket and lay it out on your apron, centering it as you go and pin it in place where you want it to be.  For a taller person, you might want to place it a little lower or for a shorter person you may place the apron a little higher.  Sew a 1/8"seam along the 3 sides of the pocket leaving the top open and when you get to the other side, put your needle down, lift your presser foot, turn your material, put your presser foot down, sew about 4 stitches, put your needle down, lift your presser foot, turn the material, put your presser foot down and sew all the way back around the 3 sides running parallel with the first line you stitched.

Move your apron so that the needle is right above the middle of the top pocket edge and sew, back stitching at the beginning and running all the way to the bottom of the pocket and back stitching again at the end.  This will give you a secure pocket which actually has 2 sections!

Take your 3" strips and sew them together end to end.  Trim off the salvage edges and press them open. Fold in the 2 short edges about 1/4" on both sides of the strap and press.

Press the whole strap in half creating a crease all the way along the strap.

Go back and open the strap, take one side and fold the material in meeting the edge with the center crease you have just created and press.  Do the same to the other side.

Then fold it all together making a fold on your original crease and iron again making it a nice, flat and perfect strap.  Do this for the whole length of the strap.

Sew a seam starting on the short edge and turning at the corner and then sew all along the long edge of the strap going to the end and sewing the other short edge.  Make sure you back stitch on the straps as these will take a lot of stress!

Attach a safety pin to one of the short ends of the strap and run the safety pin through the first side casing of your apron pulling all the way through but leaving some strap hanging out.

Grabbing the safety pin again, thread it through the other side running it downward toward your pocket and pull until it comes through and you have an even amount of strap on both sides of the apron.

YOUR DONE!  Isn't this so cute and so easy to make?  You can also make this for little children by cutting your tea towel in half before beginning and you can make two aprons out of 1 towel.  So fun!