Aprons from Tea Towels/Dishcloth Tutorial - needle and thREAD

Oh what a crazy summer! Crazy and wonderful and while I did lots of sewing I did little blogging about it! So maybe its time to catch up? After a long reprise, I'm joining Elizabeth again, with

Today I'm featuring a tutorial to make an incredibly easy self-adjusting apron from a cotton tea towel! If you have little girls, you will LOVE this not only for baking, but slipping on over their princess costumes which they refuse to take off when they eat.  Kind of a grown-up bib. You won't really mind if they wipe their dirty fingers on it, because, it is a tea towel at heart!

I made several aprons from tea towels as treats for the girls at Alexa's "sweet shop birthday party." I was inspired by this post over at Life is a Party;  tweaked the instructions a bit to make it even easier to sew, and here it is just for you :).

In addition to your regular sewing supplies, you will need:
- any rectangular tea towel. I couldn't resist these floral ones from IKEA.

They are a good size, nice and thick, and inexpensive. Give it a good press and a shot of spray starch :).  Don't worry if it isn't a perfect rectangle.
- ribbon, 1" width works best but you can experiment; you need about a meter
- optional embellishments, such as ric-rac or decorative ruffled ribbon, etc

Step 1: Fold to Make a Casing

Fold the two top corners over to the wrong side (to make a triangle) and press. I've shown a 90 degree angle, but you can make the triangles even more angled to practice your Living math.

I've got about 5" across the top.

It should look like this from the right side:

2. Sew each triangle down, about 1" from each diagonal outer edge. This will form a casing for the ribbon.  If you use ribbon less than 1" wide, make your seam the same width as your ribbon. You don't want to have any extra room, otherwise the ribbon will fall right out due to the weight of the apron.

Sew along this edge. I used a zigzag stitch, that way you don't have to worry about finishing the raw edge. Make sure to backstitch at both ends.

Turn it back over and cut off the excess triangle, close to the stitching. Should look like this:

3. Run the ribbon through the casing.  

Beginning on the lower right side, and using a safety pin attached to the ribbon, pull the ribbon up one side casing then down the other side.

Go up one side ...

And down the other.  This part of the ribbon will go around the neck.

The ribbon becomes the way to adjust the apron. Remember, your casing can't be wider than the ribbon, or the apron will just drop right out. It works best if the casing is a little tight.

4. Embellish, if you wish. Or shorten if needed.

I didn't do any embellishment on my aprons. But I did shorten Maria's by adding some pleats. The aprons are long enough for even me to slip on, and I love that. I also like that these tea towels have a little hook on the top.

And voila! (Sorry about the blurry pic)

Cinderella is protected!

And on to reading. READING!!

 I have been completely captivated by the novels of Immaculee Ilibagiza. She was recently a guest on my favorite radio show, The Catholics Next Door - do check out the link to her interview and other resources.  Immaculee is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide - almost all of her family were brutally murdered - but she was Left to Tell. This story will revive your faith and touch your heart. Neither my husband or I could put it down and it made for some very late night reading! Download it to your handy dandy kindle.

Many blessings and have a wonderful weekend!