Patchwork Scrappy Apron

After we moved into our house, I noticed something a little odd. Lots of my shirts started to get little holes in the front of them, in a particular spot around about where the button of my jeans sat.

For ages, this was a mystery to me.

Was I catching my shirts on my jeans somehow? Was the seatbelt in my car rubbing in that particular spot? Was my handbag somehow catching there? What activity was I doing regularly that could be causing these holes in so many shirts?

Eventually, I worked out that the holes were being caused by the edge of my kitchen bench. Every day, usually more than once, I would lean against the bench as I did the washing up at the sink. Although I hadn’t noticed it until I went looking closely, the edges of my bench were rough, like fine sandpaper. The edge was rubbing my shirt against the hard surface of the button of my jeans or shorts as I worked and eventually becoming holes.

How annoying!

My answer to stop ruining more shirts? 

Aprons. Yep. Old-fashioned aprons.

If you happen to drop by while I’m washing up or cooking, you will almost always find me wearing a half apron so that I don’t get more holes in my clothes.

When I was creating my quilt in a day last week, I had some short strips of fabric left from my fat eighth bundle. Such pretty fabric that I had to make something with it. So I created a new apron that will make me smile in the kitchen.

The fabric is Dixie by Cluck Cluck Sew for Windham Fabrics. I just love the mix of modern pretty flowers and patterns with red, aqua and royal blue together.

I actually used my overlocker (‘serger’ to my U.S. friends) to create this project – something I haven’t tried before. The overlocker was perfect for joining the pieces and trimming the edges as it went along.  Once I had joined my pieces into a panel, I hemmed the edges with my sewing machine. I used two jelly roll strips for the waistband, joining the two with the overlocker, then overlocking all around the edges. I hemmed the top edge and the ends before joining the strip to the apron panel with the overlocker. Finally, I hemmed the rest of the lower edge of the waistband strip where it wasn’t attached to the panel.

How to Make a Scrappy Apron

• Join your scraps into a panel large enough for your apron front
• Overlock and hem the raw edges to prevent fraying
• Use a couple of strips for your waistband – overlock and hem these too
• Join the waistband to the apron panel
• All done!

All up, this project probably took less than half an hour. The overlocker makes it super quick! I really must use my overlocker more.