How make… a No Sew Apron (from a Tea Towel)

I have been looking for an apron for Red Ted to colour in himself for ages now. All the plain aprons cost a small fortune (£6+ postage), which for a child to colour in and then cook with seemed a little much! So, I decided to take me lovely “No Sew” technique and give it a whirl. I used the remains of some old white fabric I have (I think it used to be a thick sheet?) and some amazingly lovely ginham bias binding, that I found on ebay! And my old friend “WonderWeb” – wonderweb traditionally is used for hemming skirts or trousers with an iron, but give it to me and we can make much lovelier things!

The technique is the same as for the No Sew Bunting and No Sew Bib. So please do check the No Sew Bunting tutorial for “gritty” detail, I have almost assumed that you know “the basics” of WonderWeb and no sew. Follow the No Sew Bunting instructions to do a couple of test strips until you feel comfortable to tackle the apron!

The number one key thing, is to iron your wonderweb really hot and several times so that it fuses really well. Once I had finished my apron, I realised, that it was the same size as a tea towel – which means a) you can make it even easier and simpler (as you can use the already hemmed edges) and b) you can recycle and old tea towel or buy a cheap set of tea towels to use!

1) Materials: Cotton Tea towel or fabric (it must NOT be toweling of any sort, as the wonderweb won’t grip), approx 1.25m of wonderweb and 1.25m of bias binding – double that if you want to “hem” all sides. Iron, ironing board, two tea towels to “iron between” and protect iron and ironing board from sticky wonderweb!

2) Fold teatowel in half and mark out a section for the top of the apron. Cut. Keep these pieces as you can use them for a little pocket.

3) Cut two pieces of binding – these should be the length of the tie round the neck, the “arm hole” and the tie round the waist (see photo)

4) It is useful to “pre iron the binding” as it is less fiddly, so fold it in half and iron a nice crease, this will make it easier next.

5) Fuse the “Neck tie” of the bias binding

6) Aline bias binding with some wonderweb “in it” to the  Tea towel. Bias binding is wonderfully flexible and you should be able to get a nice curve.

7) Iron in place. Check you have it right and then give it another hot iron.

8) Add wonderweb for the waist tie and fuse with iron.

9) Repeat for other side.

10) To make a pocket: cut a pocket shape, add bias binding if you wish. Then place in position (just below the waistline, I did it a little too low on the Red & White one) and place some folded in hald WonderWeb all around the edge. Iron in place.

11) Turn apron round and iron all over again. N ice and hot! 

12) Finish! Enjoy!!

I am going to get Red Ted to decorate his one day soon!

I invited some friends round to have a go at the apron and this is the too cute result!  you find your little ones are too little for a full length teatowl. just trim the bottom off and add a line of bias binding/ Wonderweb, it will look just as pretty! We had two contrasting tea towels (bought for £1 each!) and made two aprons – using the cut offs as contrasting pockets.

Plenty of roomto grow into!

Previous How Tos:

– Easy & effective Fish Pinata

– Simple but effective paper frames (vlog) 

– How to make a Flower Pom Pom (guest post) – simply gorgeous – use as wedding decor! 

– How to make a Paper Envelope  

– How to make a No Sew Bib (out of an old shirt)  

– How to make a Fabric Mâché Bowl (from old scraps of fabric!)  

– How to make a Paper Flower (from newspapers)  (guest post)  

– How to make a Paper Boat (vlog)  

– How to make a Paper Cup (vlog)  

– How to make Swedish Hearts (Paper Baskets) (vlog)  

– How to make No Sew Bunting   

– How to make a Balloon Poodle (vlog)  

– How to make Seedling Pots (out of newspapers) (vlog)  

– Funky comic party bags  

 I love it when you combine recycling with craft.