Fast and Easy Apron

 Recently I was thinking about birthday gifts for a couple of my friends who were turning three, and I really wanted to give them an apron and kiddie cooking stuff.  I wasn't sure that I would be able to find a child-sized apron, so I began googling how to make one from a tea towel.  I thought I had seen that in a magazine or something  a long time ago.   I found, and read, several sites with different ways to accomplish converting a tea towel to an apron.  I came up with my method by picking pieces of others and putting it together.   Since a friend asked to me, I am doing a blog.  I hope that I explain it well; I don't do much with a sewing machine on a regular basis.

So first I had to find some tea towels that would have pictures and colors that a 3-year-old would approve of.   I found mine at Target.   Next I had to purchase matching binding and thread.  I determined through experimentation that extra wide double fold bias tape worked best for me with my skill level.

 

Next, I folded the towel in half lengthwise, and then in half again, and marked the center.  Then I used a ruler, and marked a line at an angle to the long side.

 

I then cut along the line with it folded.  Next I opened it up and started attaching the bias tape with pins.  All you do is fold it over the edge that you just cut and pin it.

I didn't measure, but I left somewhere between 12-15 inches for the belt tie on either side, and probably about the same for the neck loop.   Since I was making this to be adjustable, I didn't worry about it being too much.  After I stitched it around, it looked like this:

 

Now this is a bit too long for a child.  So I folded the bottom of the apron and folded the belt ties up a bit and secured them with two safety pins.   This now gives the child a big pocket and a more suitably sized apron.  As the child grows, the pocket can be made smaller and the apron longer by adjusting the safety pins.

Bandit just had to check out the ribbons.

And here is the other one I did with strawberries.  Note the neck loop is tied in this one to make it smaller.

 

I also googled how to color my own safety pins with nail polish to match. How cool is that?

 

Seriously, I was able to knock each of these out in less than 30 minutes.  It is that easy.