kyndale of earthy crunchy is also having a give-away this week...for a set of beeswax ornaments.
and garden mama is hosting an imagination childhood give-away this week.
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okay...anyone got a better name for this?
when my brother and i were growing up, our parents had little money, but lots of desire to travel. this lead to more car trips than i can remember. what i do remember, though, is one particular car trip when we loaded into the car and waiting in the car for my brother and me were road trip goodies (books, car bingo, mad libs, gum, crayons, etc.) stuffed into the pockets of aprons (one for each of us) and the aprons were strapped around the back of the driver and front passenger seats.
my mom (who sewed) opted for painter's aprons, which at that time were canvas and were inexpensive, with no advertising on them. i have fond memories of the goodies and those aprons, so i wanted to make one each for our kids. here is how i did it....
tools:
let me start by saying that i started this project with the goal of using only materials i had on hand. if i were buying materials, i might have coordinated fabrics a little differently or made pockets slightly different sizes, for example. please read through the whole tutorial, to get a sense of the steps, before cutting fabrics, because you may want to alter your sizes a little bit to meet your own needs!
- sewing machine
- heavy duty machine needle
- coordinating thread
- webbing or strong, wide ribbon - 106 inches
- 1 packet of D rings (2 rings per packet)
- 2 pieces main fabric (upholstery, denim, canvas, or similar heavy weight), coordinating or identical. measure your car seat before cutting. my pieces were 19 x 21 inches
- fabrics for 3+ pockets, to fit on your finished apron. i opted for 3 pockets with finished sizes of 13 x 8 in, 9 x 5.5 in, and 7.5 x 5.5 inches. (you want pockets to be double sided, so for each pocket, you will need double the fabric of whatever your finished size will be.)
- interfacing for one of your main pieces and all three of your pockets
- start with your two main pieces. (from now on, i will refer to the piece touching the car seat as the inside piece and the piece with pockets, facing your child, as the outside piece.) place them one on top of the other, fold down the middle, and mark and trim off at an angle, so that the finished pieces now match the shape of your car's seat back. my car seat back is 15 inches wide at the top and 17 inches wide at the bottom and 19 inches tall, so i wanted my finished apron to approximate this trapezoidal shape.
- cut one piece of interfacing to match this. iron the interfacing onto the piece you want to be the outside.
- apply interfacing to the wrong side of all the fabric you will be using for pockets.
- create the pockets. for each pocket, face the right sides of the fabric together and stitch on three sides, leaving one side open. turn right side out and turn and press the raw edge under. stitch this closed. this edge will be the top/open end of your pocket. do this for all 3 pockets.
- place, pin, and sew the 3 pockets onto the right side of the main, outside piece of fabric. i centered the pockets with the center of the apron, then stacked them biggest to smallest from bottom to top.
- cut straps. for the top "neck" of the apron, you will want one piece of strapping 4 inches long and one piece 6 inches long. fold and stitch one end of each of these pieces, to finish it and keep it from fraying. to the shorter 4 inch piece, stitch on your pair of D rings onto this finished end. for the bottom of the apron you will want two 24 inch straps on each side (or 48 inches, folded in half, on each side).
- pin the straps in place. to do this, lay our outside main piece flat, right side up. at the neck, place your D ring piece on the left and your flat strap on the right, lining each up with the edge of the upper most pocket. for the bottom straps, place between the bottom pocket and the outside bottom edge of the main body. all of the straps should be facing in towards the middle of the apron (not up as they will look when done).
- stitch the straps down really well, so they are secure.
- lay the inside body panel on top of the outside body panel, right sides together. make sure all those straps are sandwiched between the two panels. pin and sew all the way around, but leave a 5 inch gap on one side, unstitched, for turning.
- turn right sides out, fold and press under the open, raw edge.
- top stitch the entire apron. you are done!
