My girls like to help me in the kitchen and they like doing it dressed up in costumes. Our kitchen has already brought down one Frozen dress because SOMEONE refused to take it off for the Christmas baking. And so I though to solve the problem and make both sides happy by making a princess dress apron.
The idea was to make a real kitchen apron that can get dirty, therefore, despite it being also a princess dress the process was supposed to be fairly easy and quick and the materials simple. This apron fits the best kids of about 4 years of age but it is pretty variable and I would say the age range is between 2 and 7 years.
You will need:
- 0,5 m of blue canvas, width at least 1 m
- 0,5 m of yellow canvas, width at least 1 m
- 0,5 m of red canvas, width at least 145 cm
- red, blue and yellow thread
The skirt of the apron will be a half circle. Fold the yellow canvas in half and place a meter or a ruler in one of the two folded corners. Measure and mark 15 cm. Keeping one end of the meter in the same corner mover the other end mo mark 15 cm all the way to the other edge of the folded canvas as you see in the first photo. Connect the dots or other marks you’ve made.
Using the same method measure another curve but this time at the distance of 48 cm from the corner.
Cut out both curves.
Unfold the piece and you should get a half circle. Hem the lower edge folding about 0,5 cm in.
From the blue canvas cut a rectangle 22 x 20 cm – the longer side is the up and down side, the shorter sides are right and left. Hem the upper edge.
Staying with the blue canvas, cut two straps 92 cm long and 7 cm wide.
Fold each short end 0,5 cm and stitch.
Fold the stripe in half lengthwise and iron. Then unfold it and fold the edges lengthwise to the center. Iron again.
Place the left side of the blue rectangle inside the stripe, in its center – align the unhemmed edge of the rectangle with the unhemmed edge of the stripe. Fold the other half of the stripe over the rectangle and pin.
Stitch the whole length of the stripe. Follow the same steps with the other blue stripe on the right side of the rectangle. This is the upper part of the apron.
Attaching the upper part and the skirt. Place both parts right side together and align their unhemmed edges. The skirt should be pleated, so first pin the edges of the skirt to the edges of the upper part. The pin the center of the skirt to the center of the upper part. Now you have split the skirt in two even parts.
Now take one of those parts and pin its center to the center of the blue part underneath. Do the same with the other part of the skirt, now you have 4 sections of the skirt. Fold them outwards to form the pleats and pin each pleat.
Stitch the edges you have pinned and turn the apron right side up. Now it’s time to make this apron “snowwhiteworthy”.
From the red canvas, cut a stripe 9 cm wide and 145 cm long. Repeat the steps you took with the blue stripes – fold both ends in and stitch, the fold stripe lengthwise in half, iron, open, fold the edges to the center and iron again.
Place the wrong side of the red stripe on the right side of the apron there where the upper part and the skirt are stitched together and of course center it. Stitch the upper and lower edge of the whole stripe.
The last thing to make are the sleeves. Make a paper template – straight base and a curve. Mine was 16,5 cm in the widest part and 5,5 cm in the tallest part.
Cut the template in 7 stripes of the following width: 2,7 cm – 2,1 cm – 2,4 cm – 2,1 cm – 2,4 cm – 2,1 cm – 2,7 cm. Now use the stripes as templates to draw and cut these stripes from the red and blue canvas with a 0,5 cm seam allowance from each side.
From blue canvas (counting from either left or right): 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th stripe
From redcanvas (counting from either left or right)): 2nd, 4th and 6th stripe
There are two sleeves so cut all templates twice.
Stitch the stripes together: place 1st and 2nd stripe right side together and stitch the side that connects them. Place 2nd and 3rd stripe right sides together and stitch the side that connects them. Place 3rd and 4th stripe right side together and stitch the side that connects them. Continue until you stitch the last stripe.
Hem the curve of the sleeve folding it about 0,5 cm in.
Fold the blue stripes at the bottom over the red ones so that 1 cm of the red stripes is covered. Pin as in the photos.
Stitch the folds on the wrong side. This is what the right side of the sleeve should look like (I forgot to hem the curve first, that’s why it’s unhemmed in this photo).
Place the right side of the sleeve on the upper side of the blue stripe. The sleeve needs to point towards the center of the apron. The lower tip of the sleeve should be 3 – 4 cm from the blue rectangle. Stitch.
Turn the sleeve right side up and again stitch the edge of the sleeve. This will make the sleeve stay right side up. Follow the same steps to attach the other sleeve and make sure they are both at the same distance from the blue rectangle.
The apron is done!
Now let’s make the headband. From the red canvas cut a stripe 15 cm wide and 145 cm long. Fold it in half, iron and shape the ends.
Stitch the edge of the folded stripe and leave 5 cm unstitched in the middle. Use this opening to turn the stripe right side out.
Stitch the 5 cm by hand with a hidden stitch.
Iron and stitch the edges.
Headband done!
