Ruffle Apron TUTORIAL.....finally!!!!!!

I am SOOOOOO sorry it has taken me so long to get this Tutorial to you. Thank you for being patient with me. Instead of giving you all the reasons why it's taken me so long, I will just get right to it......Here is the finished apron....below are all the details {and pictures}

MATERIALS NEEDED:
Pair of old overalls
18-20"x 19" of bottom weight fabric {width of your overalls x 19"}
1 yard of MAIN fabric (the one you want to use for the ties)
1/2 yard of 2 DIFFERENT fabrics
Follow instruction for flower HERE.  {I serged the edge on mine with a rolled hem stitch to make it more finished.}

First of all you will need a pair of overalls. You can use any kind, in any condition....you mostly just need the bib and the hardware....I have used pants, shorts, a dress, anything that will work. I find most of mine at a thrift store, but you might still have some in the back of your closet! Cut off the bib just below the waist band seam. You will be cutting off the pockets and the legs. You just need enough of an edge to serge the canvas material to the bib.

Serge overall bib to the piece of bottom weight fabric. Don't worry too much about how it looks right now because it will all be covered up when we are finished. Lay out on your table and mark up your piece in the following locations. Horizontally you need to mark 3" down from the surged edge and then 3" down from each marking. You should have 5 marks. Vertically, you need to mark the center (I used the middle stitching on the overall bibs. Then mark 1/2 way between that mark on the right and left. You should have 3 markings this direction.

Now. Cut your fabric into the following strips.
FABRIC #1 - Main COLOR - use for straps and waist tie.
CUT:
2 - 5 1/2" x WOF (Width of Fabric) {ruffles}
2 - 5" x WOF {waist tie}
2 - 4" x 22" {neck ties}


FABRIC #2 - 
CUT
2 - 5 1/2" x WOF (Width of Fabric) {ruffles}



FABRIC #3 - 
CUT
2 - 5 1/2" x WOF (Width of Fabric) {ruffles}

Serge, Zig-Zag or finish the edges of your ruffles. {make sure you use the 5 1/2" width pieces} I used my serger and just surged both edges of the ruffles. The top edge will be zig zagged onto the apron and will be completely covered. You can choose to finish the bottom edges if you desire. I liked the serged edge on these aprons to give it a more "pioneer" feel.

Now divide your fabric in the middle and then in the middle again. I pinned it {shown above} and then matched these pins to the markings on your bottom weight fabric. {shown below}. Use the horizontal lines to make sure your ruffles stay straight across the apron.

I used my ruffler on my serger to make the fabric ruffle on it's own. If you need more help or have questions about ruffles, see this TUTORIAL on MAKE IT AND LOVE IT.

REPEAT for all 6 ruffles. Pin the bottom ruffle first and then move towards the top ruffle. You can sew on each ruffle as you go or you can pin them all and sew them all at the same time...just be careful not to get poked with all those pins.

Zig Zag each ruffle to the bottomweight fabric. You are done with the ruffle part. If you just serged the edges of the ruffles, you will need to zig zag the excess threads onto the ruffles or use fray check on the ends where the serger thread stops.

NEXT: Take the hardware off the straps that go around the neck. You can throw away the fabric, you won't need it.

Take the 4"x22" pieces of fabric and sew them together into a long tube, turn and then topstitch around the entire piece of fabric.

Pull one strap into the hardware. Going around the middle piece and back through about 1".

Sew down and make a box that is about 1/2" on the strap. I tried to get this as close to the hardware as I could on my sewing machine.

Now thread through the clip and back through the hardware. Repeat with other strap, and connect to the overalls. These will just tie behind the neck.

Now take the 2 - 5"xWOF pieces of fabric. Sew them together on the SHORT edge to make it 2xWOF in length. Now sew them the LONG direction into a long tube. turn tube and topstitch entire length of waist tie.

Now you just need to connect your waistband to the apron. Find the center of your waistband {where you sewed it together}. Pin across the apron front making sure to overlap over the top ruffle edge to cover it up. Sew across the top, sides and bottom making a rectangle

......at the sides you will want to angle slightly to stay ON the fabric.

This is the back of the apron.

I hope it's not clear as mud. I realized I am assuming you have some sewing experience. If you have any other questions, please leave me a comment with your email and I would be happy to help. Enjoy!

In full bloom...still...

I've seen these flowers and flower headbands EVERYWHERE in blogland...find a tutorial HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. {and a million more if you want them}. I've been wanting to make me some, but I have had so much to catch up on....Saturday night I finally took a few hours and spent some time making some for me. {it was really fun, and super easy}. Most of them don't require ANY sewing {for those of you that keep telling me you can't sew}...so grab your hot glue gun, some cute fabric and make some for yourself. {and when you do, post them to our flickr group, we would love to see what you are making}.

I decided to combine the above tutorials and use velcro, so I only made 3 headbands...and LOTS of flowers that can be interchanged!



Here is my 365 picture from yesterday, so you can see how they look in my hair. {not quite as much like a 12 year old....maybe?}

Monogrammed Tote Bags

For Christmas this year I was really ambitious and made my nieces and nephews what we call church bags.  Something they can haul all their stuff to church and I don't have to (in my kids case.)  I found on the sight Crafting Chicks the idea of Monogrammed Tote bags.  They linked to another sight where they had a Tote bag Tutorial  One thing I find with tutorials is that they don't give the materials list up front.  So I thought since I wasn't going to give you the whole tutorial I might just tell you what I used to make my cute bags.

For the Girls totes you can use 2 or 3 different fabrics to make it coordinate together.

For the J tote:

• Brown dot for the bag
• Solid Pink for Pocket and Lining
• Pink print for Letter, Ruffle and Handles

For the A tote:

• Solid Black for bag
• Hot pink for lining of bag and pocket
• Black and white dot forLetter, Ruffle and Handles

For the Boys tote:

• Cars print for top half of the fabric
• 
  
  Blue denim like fabric for handles, pocket and lower portion of fabric
  
  
• 
  
  Red for Letter
  
  
• 
  
  Solid Blue for inner lining
  
  

The measurements for each of the bags are as follows.  I make them out of regular cotton fabric and to make the bags feel more substantial I always use flannel inbetween the inner and out bags.  So I will include how much of those I used also.  If you use a more substantial fabric like a home dec it may not require the extra layer. 

I attach the letters with wonder under or heat-n-bond to hold them to the fabric and then I sew the pocket pieces together before I do a decorative stitch around it so it goes through all layers.  Then I attach the pocket to the front fabric before I start putting the bag together.

MATERIALS LIST:

BAG:

Outer Fabric: cut 2 - 12 (width) inch by 13 (Height) inch

Lining Fabric: cut 2 - 12" x13"

Pocket: cut 2 - 8" x 9"

Handle: cut 2 - 4" x 22"

Ruffle: cut 1 - 2" x wof (width of fabric ~44 inches)

Letter: out of remaining scraps of material - I just used a font on my computer and printed it so it was about 6 inches tall.

FLANNEL LINING FABRIC:

Bag - cut 2 -12" x 13"

Pocket - Cut 1 - 8" x 9"

Handle - Cut 2 - 2" x 22"

FLOWERS (on Girls Tote): Tutorial here (I only made one layer with alternating fabrics)

I made my circles only 3 inches.  I made one circle for each color which makes two petals {6 total petals}.

About 2 inch strip of tulle gathered on the back .

Covered button or button of your choice.

BOYS TOTE:

For the outer bag I used about 10 inches of the CARS material and then 3 inches of the blue. 

You may have to make the pocket 8" x 8" to fit on without over lapping.

RUFFLE:

I finished the edges with my serger's hem stitch. Sewed the piece together to make a large circle. Then ran a couple of long stitches down the middle and gathered to fit the finished bag.  Then I sewed it on with a straight stitch.

I love that these totes are the perfect size for a coloring book and crayons or a notebook and pencils or 10 to 15 matchbox cars plus the froggy stuff animal or any variation of all of the above.  My kids love them and use them where ever they go.  I love that they don't take me too long to make and so I can make them for my kid's friends for birthday parties and throw in some new crayons and/or a coloring book.  I made a special coloring book for my nieces and nephews that was made from pictures.  I will include the HOW TO in the next couple of days.  It is the perfect gift for those little kiddos on my list.