Half Apron Tutorial

Today's tutorial: An Apron! Bear with me, as this was my first attempt at sewing an apron (or anything that people wear) and I did it without a pattern...so you just kind of have to use your imagination. It's really pretty straight-forward, but if you get lost through any of this, feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to answer your questions (to the best of my ability.)
First thing's first: I drew a pattern on some tissue paper (like the kind you wrap presents with). Then I cut the pattern out.

Next, lay the pattern on top of the material you are using.
Then pin it down all around it, and cut as close to the edge of the pattern as you can.
Okay, so you may have seen people do tutorials on craft blogs where they try to teach you how to gather material, but I hear horror stories about people who try this method (like the thread breaking, etc), so I opted for making more of a pleat-like look by just pinning gathers.
I took a lot of pictures of the gathers in hopes you could figure out from at least one of the pictures what I did....I'm not sure how to explain it, other than I just folded a piece over, pinned it, folded another piece over, pinned it, and did that as evenly-spaced as I could. *NOTE: In order to do gathers on your apron you will need to make sure your fabric is about twice the width of what you are actually hoping the finished product will be. Obviously, this is because when you fold it over, it uses up a lot of the material.
From the back.
Next, I chose the material I wanted to use for the waistband and apron strings. (If you are buying your fabric at the store specifically for this project, obviously you will make this decision at the store...but if you are like me, you have fabric that you've already bought all stashed away and waiting to be matched up for a project like this. :))

To make your apron strings, you need to fold the fabric so the underneath-side is facing outward. Then fold the excess fabric in to make a nice clean edge. If that doesn't make sense now, trust me, when you start doing it, you'll see the need to flip it inside out and pin the outsides on the inside.
Now sew a nice clean edge on your tie.
And cut the end of your material at an angle and sew it up to give it a cute, triangular edge.
Next, you will need to turn the apron-string inside out. (Like inside-outing a sock.)

I used the handle of a long, wooden spoon to help inside-out it.

Once it's inside-outed, it should look like this. Make sure you stick the wooden spoon clear down into the corners so they poke out all nice and smooth and aren't still tucked up inside.
Do this for each of your apron strings, then iron them so they are nice and flat.
Top strip: Before
Bottom strip: After
Now create a waistband (the waistband is the top strip of fabric in this photo. The bottom two are the apron strings all ironed.)

I apologize now, because I got a little ahead of myself and sort of forgot to take pictures. So let me just explain what I did next....

1. I connected the apron strings to the waistband. You can sew them on a multitude of ways. I chose to stick the apron strings inside of the waistband, then sew a line of stitching to reinforce them. I should mention here that if you aren't comfortable sewing the apron strings, you could find some really nice, sturdy, thick ribbon and have that be your ties. :)

2. Next, you need to attach the waistband to the apron. Simply pin it on nice and even, and sew a nice straight line.

3. On my apron, I felt like it needed a little more of the brown fabric incorporated, so I also sewed a strip down each side of the apron hem. (Notice in the pictures below.)

Like I said, I know that might be complicated, and you should definitely message me with questions and I'll try to explain. Since I just made it up in my head, you should feel free to do the same and do whatever method works best for you. (If you feel more comfortable, you could also just go buy an apron pattern and no one (especially me) will look down on you. :))
Voila! It's done. Not perfect, but not bad for my first attempt. One thing I think I will for sure do next time is use coordinating thread instead of just white thread....since my lines aren't too straight.



Good luck! And please leave questions and comments if you have them.

Also, I will be doing my first give-away pretty soon on my blog, so stay tuned and let your friends know too!

Happy Sewing!