We are over the moon about the launch of Lightweight Cotton Twill, and we knew just what we wanted to make with it: aprons with jumbo pockets and pretty gathers. Well that, and about a zillion other things! This half apron is sure to help you out with all your 2017 goals from cooking more, crafting more, and sewing all the things. Read along as we walk you through each step of this simple sewing project using Lightweight Cotton Twill. 

woman standing with hands on hips in a half apron with pockets. Wooden spoon sticking out of pocket

woman standing with one hand on hip, wearing a half-apron with pockets and a whisk coming out of one pocket. Mustard yellow background, solid

Materials

  • 1 yard of your main fabric Lightweight Cotton Twill (58″ wide)
  • 1 yard of coordinating pocket fabric
  • ties/waist band fabric (I cut this from the yard of my main fabric)
  • thread
  • pins
  • scissors or rotary blade
  • disappearing ink sewing marker
  • seam guide
  • clear ruler
  • cutting mat
Green cutting board with folded fabric, sewing pins, spools, rulers, and scissors laying on top.
Tomato Pasta, Tomato Pasta Floral, and Tomato Pasta Tomatoes designs by zoe_ingram

Lightweight Cotton Twill is 100% cotton with a light, lovely texture that’s sturdy enough to hold up in the kitchen. We recommend washing fabric first to increase softness and remove any shrinkage.

Stack of fabric with rotary blade and spool of thread on top in front of a window

Close up of fabric with tomatoes, pasta and flowers on it. Yellow, red and blue colors.

Step 1: Cut your fabrics

Begin by trimming the white selvedge edges off all fabrics.

Woman's hand with blue fingernails cutting the white edge of the fabric off. Green cutting mat beneath the fabric.

Cut down each of your fabric pieces. You will end up with 5 separate pieces. For the main apron piece, cut one 19″ x 31″ of fabric, making sure that the design elements are oriented across the width. For the pocket, cut one 10.5″ x 31″ piece. For the waist band and ties, cut two 31″ x 4″ pieces, and one 19″ x 4″ piece.

Blue and yellow floral fabric folded on top of blue and red fabric with tomatoes and pasta, folded on top of a green cutting mat

Step 2: Sewing your apron

Grab your main apron piece, and create a 1/2 inch double hem on the bottom and two short sides. Use your seam guide to measure half an inch, fold. Then fold over another half inch so that the right side of the fabric is facing up and you have a full inch of fabric folded into your hem.

Wrong side of fabric marked with a seam guide

iron sitting on top of gray ironing board

Press the hem then pin in place.

wrong side of the fabric showing the seam folded over twice to create a double hem. woman's hand measuring with a seam gauge

Each hem should measure half an inch.

Blue magnetic pin cushion with pins on it next to fabric with a folded hem and seam guage on top of an ironing board

Step 3: Sew and attach the pocket

Now, grab your pocket fabric and create a 1″ double hem along just the top edge as shown below.

Measuring the hem of the fabric with a seam guide

Pin your hem, then edge stitch in place.

folded hem of apron on sewing machine

Align the bottom of your pocket edge with the bottom of your main fabric edge. Sew together with a 1/2 inch seam allowance, then press open the seam.

folded edge of fabric on apron

Fold the pocket up and over the main apron fabric. Pin and sew up along the sides.
close up of apron on ironing board

Step 4: Create your pocket segments

After you’ve flipped the pocket fabric up and over your main apron fabric and stitched it in place along the sides, draw two vertical lines, nine inches from either edge of your apron using your water erasable marker and a clear ruler.

Orange ruler on top of fabric with blue marking pen

Sew down each line with a straight stitch, using a neat lock stitch at the top and bottom. If your machine does not have a lock stitch feature, a carefully placed backstitch will do the trick. These segments will create handy pockets in your apron.

floral apron being sewn with a sewing machine

Step 5: Gather the top edge of the apron

Create two lines of long basting stitches along the top edge of your main apron fabric for gathering. Make sure the two lines of gathering stitches are within the top half inch of your fabric. Be sure to leave long thread tails at both ends for pulling the gathers.

close up image of hem

Gather the top of your main apron fabric until the width has gone from 31″ down to 18″ precisely.

half apron with a ruler on top of a cutting mat

Step 5: Sewing the waist band and ties

Find the waistband and tie strips. Place one 31″ strip on either end of the 19″ strip, matching the 4″ ends. The strips are right sides together. Pin in place.

fabric pieces on the wrong side with pins in them on top of a green cutting map

fabric scraps on a green cutting map

Stitch together, using a half inch seam allowance. Press the seams open. You now have one continuous strip 4″ x 79″.

Fold this strip in half, right sides together (so it is now 2″ x 79″). Pin in place from each vertical seam out to the end of each tie. The middle 18″ waistband section should be left un-pinned.

Using a 1/2″ seam allowance, stitch each tie. To do this, you will start at the waistband/tie seam, stitch towards the end of the tie, pivot at corner, and stitch across the end to finish. Remember, this leaves the center 18″ waistband section open.

wrong side of fabric, waist ties on top of green cutting mat next to silver pair of scissors

close up image of folded waist ties on top of a green cutting mat

Turn the ties right side out through the open waistband section. Fold under the raw edges of the waistband end 1/4″, press and stitch in place to secure your edge. Warning: I found this to be the most time consuming part, but using tweezers and a chop stick helped tremendously! Press both ties flat.

Step 6: Attach the waist band and ties to the main apron

Match the gathered top edge of the apron panel right sides together with the front layer of the waistband opening. Pin together. The gathered edge should be a perfect fit within the 18″ opening of the waistband. If it isn’t, loosen or tighten the gathers until it fits exactly.

Stitch across the top edge, making sure your seam is below your rows of gathering stitches.

wrong side of fabric being sewn with pleats

Fold over the top of your waist band fabric to conceal the gathering stitches. Pin in place then edge stitch the seam.

wrong side of apron laying on an ironing board

Voila! Tie it in the front like me, or make a big ol’ bow in the back.

woman holding silver bowl in a kitchen in front of a stove, wearing a gray dress and a floral blue and yellow half apron

Time to take on the kitchen (or the craft room–this apron works for both)! Stuff all the things inside those jumbo pockets of yours. I’m mixing up some delicious imaginary brownie batter in that there bowl. Tea towel shown features this design by Pennycandy and was also made with yummy new Lightweight Cotton Twill.

Woman holding a fish sauce recipe wearing an apron
You just saw the top half of my nana’s coveted Christmas Eve fish sauce recipe. Consider yourself very, very lucky.

close up view of blue and yellow floral apron pocket with whisk coming out of pocket

close up view of textured apron. woman wearing blue dress

Happy making!

-Theresa