Sewing: How to make a kid-sized chef apron
update 8/28: Owen actually wore the apron to make cookies today. I’d definitely suggest two changes: making an extra strap so there are two at the neck for tying, not one looped one, and adding another couple inches width to the bottom part of the apron. It should go farther around to protect the sides of the kids’ pants.
Here’s an idea: a chef’s apron for your toddler. Lord knows he won’t wear a bib anymore, am I right? Here’s a quick way to make one. It takes two pieces of about 12”x20” fabric, plus two pieces that are 7.5”x20”. So, let’s see, you can make it out of about a little more than a yard of 44”-wide fabric. I think.
Math is not my strong suit.
Here is the cutting layout, although it doesn’t include the second apron piece laid out. These measurements are for an apron that fit my Owen, who wears a 2T. The same concept embiggened would fit an older child, or even yourself. Just measure yourself where an apron would be, and remember to halve the measurements for cutting on the fold, and to add enough for a 1/2” seam allowance.
Once your pieces are cut, assemble the apron strings. I usually assemble strings and straps thiswise: fold them in half lengthwise and press, then unfold. Fold from the edge to the center fold line lengthwise for top and bottom. Press. Then fold in half, enclosing the raw edges, and sew along the open side. Turn one short edge under twice and stitch it down.
With the right side of one of the unfolded apron pieces facing up, lay the apron strings in the appropriate places, raw edges matching and strings toward the center. Pin them in place as shown below. Lay the other apron piece on top, right sides facing. Starting about 3” from the center bottom, stitch all the way around the edge, using a 1/2” seam, and going over the straps. Stop a few inches from where you started to leave room to turn (be sure to backstitch).
Be sure to clip the seam allowance nearly to the stitching line on the curves, to make them lie flat, and trim corners at a 45-degree angle to eliminate bulk.
Turn it inside out. Press.
Suckers will hand-slipstitch the opening closed; lazy people like me will edgestitch the whole thing. Then voila! Apron!
Hopefully that made sense. I’m actually quite crap at explaining how I do things. And my skills in Illustrator are shite.
But there you go! And it doesn’t matter if it’s wonky or made from a weird fabric or if it looks like crap because your kid is just going to wipe his slimy paws all over it anyway. Just be sure you make it sturdy enough to throw in the wash and you are g-o-l-d-e-n.
An illustration that includes layout instructions is here.* Good luck!
*and if you can’t read that tiny print, it goes something like this:
Instructions: 1.) For apron: On fold, measure out 4”. This is A.
Measure 20” down, along fold line. From there, measure out 6” from fold. This is C.
Measure back up about 15” (more or less to taste). This is B. Sketch curve from top of B to right end of A.
Cut out this piece and use it as a pattern for cutting the second apron front piece on the fold.
2.) Strings: Mark apron string measurements along the grain line. Each piece is 2.5”x20”. Cut 3 strips, through 2 layers; there should be 6 total.
Credit goes to Sew What Skirts for the ABC approach and Simple Sewing for the basic construction method. Yay!
Now who’s funny looking?
I apologize for the schizo appearance of Supafine today. Half-assed code-tinkering makes for a rather unusable blog, I find. I hope to get things in some sort of working order soon.
Forewarned is forearmed
Be aware: I’m experimenting with Canvas and changing my theme over the next day or two, so things may look a little hinky. Or drop dead gorgeous; I’m hoping for the latter.
Edited to add a note to myself: FINISH suburban misfit’s redesign first! Jeez!
Supafine Design Unit: Not Calm (Dot Com)
Hurray! I finished the redesign for Jenijen’s blog, Not Calm (Dot Com). It’s deliciously citrusy. And! It has a special header-footer situation: the banner contains a top menu of navigation, and the footer contains three columns of bloggity goodness.
The best part of all, though, is Jen’s writing. And photography. And stories. Go! Read! Say hi!
IconBuffet Free Delivery: Any takers?
I’m a member of IconBuffet’s Free Delivery program, which means I have loads of free icons to share. Any Supa Friends-slash-designers interested in my collections? I have, so far
- Manhattan Veggie
- Shanghai Tech
- Shanghai Tech Smilies
- Tower Grove Melee
Drop a comment with your e-mail and I’ll hook-a you uppa. I have five deliveries per icon set left to give away.
Social bookmarking plus shopping equals
Stylehive: Like Mighty Goods, only Web 2.0.
Let’s see: Collaboration? Check. User-supplied content? Check. Tags? Check. A blog? Check. Large print, rounded corners and lots of whitespace? Check check check.
All that and free advertising for the vendors whose products we bookmark?
Sigh. I only wish I’d thought of it first.
More theme changing!
I change them as often as I change my socks, it’s been said.
Was talking with Neil and realized that, cool as the previous theme was, it was difficult for some people to use. So here we are at drunkey love. Note how you can toggle the insanely ass-long lists of archives and other things with the wee buttons to the right. That’s pretty cool.
Things need tweaking but you know what? Now I’m going to bed. For real. I mean it this time.
Addendum: If you’re looking for cool WP themes, Paige has her finger on that pulse, or try Ma.gnolia with the tags ‘wordpress theme’.
Back in black
Crazy delicious new theme, courtesy of the uber-talented Derek Punsalan. I just want to eat it up, or maybe plant it in the backyard.
How I spent my internet vacation:
- Sleeping
- Making myself a dang quesadilla
- Going to the zoo (see the Flickr set)
- Hiring our first baby sitter ever. She only had one facial piercing and was sweet as pie.
- Going on the first date Iain and I have had in over 365 days.
- Watching television and perusing the J.Crew catalogue.
I now have a very close relationship with several members of Verizon tech support as well as a new, functional modem and detailed knowledge of the inner workings of life in a big house full of models and Tyra Banks.
I’ve missed you all, but to be frank, it was kind of nice to have the pressure off.
Anyway, enjoy the whimsical, fancy-pants new environs for Supafine and rest assured I’ll start posting more often than once a fortnight.
Welcome to your new Supafine
I finally just grabbed the bull by the balls or whatever the expression is and switched to WordPress.
My cPanel installation has WordPress as a one-click install. I’d been thinking about switching for a while now, because of that oh-so simple install, but I didn’t get around to it til today. My kick in the pants was Paige’s post about the work she did for a friend’s photoblog.
Here are some other pluses:
- PHP over Perl/CGI= a good thing for me
- bizarrely huge theme/plugin community
- plug-and-play, more so than MT
- it generates valid code
- it’s pretty
- the admin interface is super intuitive and easy to use
- GUI’s for more things than MT
- I was in the mood.
I was definitely in the mood for a redesign, I tell you what. But instead of scraping around and building it by hand [almost as much fun as a swift poke in the eye] I though, Hey fuck it! I’ll switch to Wordpress and use someone else’s theme.
Which is exactly what I did.
The feed’s still bunged up and there a probably a few things what need tweaking, but goddamn. It’s late.
The internet is telling me to remove my head from the brick wall
The best designers and the best programmers arenít the ones with the best skills, or the nimblest fingers, or the ones who can rock and roll with photoshop or vim, they are the ones that can determine what just doesnít matter. Thatís where the real gains are made.
Most of the time you spend is wasted time on things that just donít matter. If you can cut out the work and thinking that just doesnít matter youíll achieve productivity youíve never imagined. Itís there if you just donít pay attention to the things that donít matter.
— From 37 Signals’ blog, Signals vs Noise
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