deep thoughts by cynthia: Embroidered Hostess Apron

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Embroidered Hostess Apron

I love wearing aprons in the kitchen—especially half aprons, or hostess aprons as I like to call them. This apron took me about 45 minutes to sew and about that long to embroider as well. I did use large embroidery motifs in my Bernina “Mega” hoop, so that’s why it took so long to embroider.

Start with a piece of already-washed-and-pressed natural linen. I used 4C22 from fabrics-store.com in the color “natural”. Cut it 26”x17” inches. (I would cut the linen 26”x20" instead if this apron were for me as I am 5’10”.)

Embroider as desired. Or not, up to you! I used designs from my shop—Cross Stitch Alphabet Regular (1” for the ABC sampler and 3” for cake/pie), plus the Cross Stitch Lemoyne star.

After embroidering, cut rounded bottom corners with something fancy like a cereal bowl as a template:

Make some 2” bias tape (It must be cut on the bias to go around the curves!) Sandwich the apron between the bias tape, and stitch a zig zag stitch all around the two sides and the bottom of the apron. (If you don’t know how to make bias tape there are about a thousand tutorials out there. Just google it, I promise.)

I like to make extra bias tape when I do make it because it’s always nice to have on hand for a quick project, like this. Smile

Stretch the bias ever-so-slightly as you go around the rounded corners. (As seen below.) When I say stretch, I mean tug just enough to make a smooth rounded turn. If you actually pull and stretch it too much you’ll have a wavy apron—not good.

For the waist ties: Cut two strips of fabric (selvedge to selvedge) 5” wide each. (For teens and skinny ladies this will be enough length to wrap around your back and tie in front. For fuller figures, cut 3 strips. However, to tie in the back you only need two strips no matter your size.) Attach them together on the bias, as seen below. To do this, start by drawing a 45 degree diagonal line on one of the strips. Pin the strips together and sew through diagonal line.

Cut off excess:

Fold in raw edges 1/2” and iron with steam or better yet, spray starch.

Then fold in raw ends, make a point, and iron into place as seen below:

Sandwich your apron between the ties and pin in place. Make sure you center the apron between the full length of the ties.

Sew the full length of the ties from pointy end to pointy end. I went back and stitched again just on the apron part—this is good to do if you didn’t “catch” all of the ties fabric on the backside.

You’re all done!! But if you want to add a rounded pocket, cut a rectangle 7x9” of fabric and super thin fusible interfacing. Round the bottom corners. Put the right side of the fabric facing the non-gluey side of the interfacing. Stitch around the side and bottom and notch at rounded corners.

Turn right side out, push out interfacing tight especially at corners, and iron/fuse into place. Important: make sure you can’t see the interfacing from the right side of the pocket! Serge off the top or zig zag. Fold down an inch at the top and topstitch.