Utility Apron Tutorial

We were going to get money boxes for the craft booth - - but then thought about utility aprons - so much cuter!  You can use a utility apron (shorter and flatter than a regular apron) for lots of things - sewing, craft booth, while working (someone stopped us to say it'd be perfect for a hairdresser), while at home  - - basically anytime you wish you had an extra pocket.

I searched out several utility aprons, starred at them a while, then combined my favorite features from all of them and whipped up my own.  Here's a quick tutorial on how to make a utility apron.

You will need 3 different fabrics, and some lining fabric (I used an old sheet), and some fusible interfacing.

Cut the following rectangles:
12 inches by 19inches (the main piece - mine is gray) - cut 1 of fabric and 1 of lining
8.5 inches by 19inches (the big pockets - mine is yellowish floral) - cut 1 of fabric and 1 of lining
6 inches by 19 inches (the small pockets - mine is turquoise) - cut 1 of fabric and 1 of lining.

Cut a long strip of fabric 4 inches wide and however long to wrap around you and back around to tie in the front.  I pieced mine together because I was low on fabric.

Alright, I forgot to take pictures in the beginning, but I'm here to talk you through it.  Iron fusible interfacing to the back of each rectangle fabric piece - it just makes it not so floppy.

Then take one of the smaller rectangles with its fabric and lining and put those on top of each other, right sides together.  Sew along the top edge (the long edge).  Then flip it and iron that seam.  You can topstitch it if you want (I did - I think it makes it look extra nice).  Repeat for the other smaller rectangle.  So now you should have 2 rectangles, with lining sewn on, with a finished top edge.  NOTE that the lining is NOT sewn on to the largest (gray) rectangle.

Take the small pocket piece and put it on top of the big pocket piece.  Mark off 4 pockets - so that's 3 seams.  Sew the 2 seams that aren't the middle seam.  I'm hoping you can see my seams in the picture - you only sew on the turquoise - the one on the left is pretty close to the edge because it's a pencil pocket.

Next take that and layer it on top of the main piece.  Then sew up the middle seam.  I tried to mark the picture - the dots are the ones you sew with only the first two pieces together, then the dash is the one you sew when all three pieces are together:

Sewing as I showed above will give you two big pockets in the floral fabric and 4 smaller pockets in the turquoise fabric.

Now, take the large piece of lining that and lay it on top of your apron piece.  Right sides are together.  Then sew the side and bottom edges, as indicated by the dashes.  Then flip it right side out and iron the seam.

Now you're noticing that the top edge is still raw.  I made bias tape out of my 4 inch wide, very long strip of fabric.  Just iron it in half, then iron each side in touch the middle line.  Then I just slid the apron into the bias tape (in the middle of the of the long strip) and then sewed the whole strip along that open edge.

That's it - you're done!!  You can easily crank one of these out in an evening.  And while you make yourself one, you might as well make some for friends.....

You can do this!!