Fat Quarter Make; Gardening Apron
As soon as I set eyes on this month’s fat quarters, the perfect project sprang to mind! Now, I’m not very green-fingered myself, but a gardening apron will definitely help me to feel a little bit more organised when I do venture outside to do a few jobs. This would also be super useful around the house, or perhaps even at work. Anywhere that you need to keep a few important tools to hand!
You will need:
- Three fabric fat quarters – iron these to get any creases/folds out
- Sewing machine with a universal needle
- Thread
- Rotary cutter & cutting mat / Fabric scissors
- Pins / Clips
- Light or medium weight interfacing
Remember to back stitch at the start and end each time you sew – this is essential to secure your stitches.
I’ll be using a ½” seam allowance throughout, unless specified.
- Choose two fat quarters, one as the lining and one as the outer. Check they are the same size. If there’s a discrepancy, trim one down so that they match. Interface your entire lining piece by fusing the interfacing on to the wrong side of the fabric.
- Place fabrics right sides together, then clip or pin around three edges (leaving one long edge open). Be aware if you are using a directional print here. I’m using a directional print for both my lining and my outer. I placed my lining fabric right side up with the print running ‘correctly’ as I looked at it. I then placed my outer fabric down, so the right side of the fabric was facing the lining, but the print was upside down.
- Stitch around three sides, leaving the top long edge open. Clip across the corners. Turn through so it is right side out and poke out the corners. Press well with an iron.
- Baste along the open edge, 2/8” from the raw edges. Top stitch along the opposite long edge, 2/8” from the folded edge. Make this as neat as you can – it will be visible on your finished apron.
- Fold the top stitched edge up, so the lining fabric is meeting on the inside, by approximately 6”. Press, then clip or pin down the two short sides.
- Top stitch neatly all the way down the right hand side, along the bottom long edge and up the left hand side, 2/8” from the edge. I also added a few extra stitches on each side at the point where the pocket opening is. This will just add extra reinforcement to this area.
- Now is the time to decide on your pockets – how many you want and how wide you want them to be. This will depend on what you intend on using your apron for. Mark lines where you want your pockets to be, then stitch down these lines, remembering to back tack at the start and the end. Again, I sewed a few extra reinforcement stitches at the pocket opening points.
- Now to make the waistband binding. Take a fat quarter and place it so the long edges (around 21”-22”) run horizontally. Now mark and cut three 3” width strips (So you’ll have three strips measuring approximately 21.5” x 3”). If you want a longer waistband, you could cut four strips. Sew these together to create one long strip, pressing the seam allowances open.
- Fold short edges under by about ½” (wrong sides together) and press.
- Fold the long strip in half lengthwise (wrong sides together) and press, then open out flat.
- Fold long edges in to meet the fold line in the middle and press.
- Now fold the whole thing in half lengthwise and press again. You’ve created your binding!
- Find the halfway point of both your binding and the top of your apron. Mark these with a pin.
- Starting at the midpoint and then working outwards, clip or pin your binding onto the top of the apron, enclosing the raw edges of the apron within the binding.
- Topstitch (2/8” from the open edge) from one end of the binding all the way along to the other end.
- You’ve finished your apron! If you want to add an extra personal touch, you could stitch on a label (either at this point, or earlier on in the making process, depending on where you wanted the label to be).
If you get stuck on any aspects of the tutorial, please feel free to send me a message and I’ll help.
I hope you enjoy making your gardening apron. Share your finished makes on instagram, using the hashtag #SewHayleyJaneFQ and tag me @sewn_on_the_tyne
See you next month,
Tamlyn xx