An Apron for one Please!

I love a little "Anna Time" - as much as we can (usually once a month or so) I have the privilege of hanging out with my niece Anna - she has four brothers so we always love our time together and I really try and make a point of planning something.

And here she is in all her glory!

Last week was Anna's birthday and  . . .  I forgot . . . I had to be reminded by her mom when she called to ask how my recovery was going . . . I felt bad but we got together the next day for burgers and fries and were going to take a visit to Ardene's or Claires for the 2/$10 or 3/$15 but ended up in the fabric store for another project I am working on for a "Crafternoon in Radium"!  While we were there we spotted an apron and we kind of both went . . . hey . . . what about making an apron . . . YA - Good Idea . . . so off to the coloured cotton we went.

After much contemplation we found three co-ordinating fabrics and I "guessed" at how much fabric we needed based on another pattern we were looking at and ended up with the following:

.7 M of the red/yellow floral
.2 M of the ruffled pink/yellow
.3 M of the green polka dot

We also used scissors, measuring tape, pins and the Ever Faithful Bertha!

We measured the following pieces:
1.  12" X 6 1/2 (for the bib) (floral)
2.  6 1/2 X 6 1/2" for the ruffled insert
3.  2" X 25" for the neck strap (green polka dot)
4.  3" X 45" for the side ties (Cut 2)
5.  3" X 9 1/2" for the lower part of the bib (green polka dot) (Cut 2)
6.  7" X 5 1/2 " for the pocket  (Cut 2) (we rounded out the bottom with a plate) and trimmed it with a pink ruffle
7.  45" X 17 1/2 for the skirt

It was a bit of a challenge without a pattern to get the bottom of the bib and the ties to be right but after three tries we got it - I'll try and explain

1.  Take pattern piece 1 and 2 and sew on the 6 1/2 " sides;
2.  Take the 2" X 25" piece and sew on the 25" side then open to the centre and close up one end
3.  Take the sewn neck piece and place in one corner of the top of the bib
4.  Sew the top of the neck shut
     PRESS everything down
5.  Sew pattern pieces 5 to the BOTTOM of the bib and press open
6.  Sew pattern pieces 4 (separately) and close up one end leaving the other end open about 5 inches
7.  Now take the open piece of the tie and sew it down to each side of the side parts of the bib
     PRESS DOWN
8.  Take pattern piece 7 and hemming the sides by folding in 1/2" then 1/2" again and stitching down on both sides
9.  Hem the bottom of the skirt by folding in 1/2" and then 1" and stitch down
     PRESS DOWN
10. Take a gathering stitch across the top and gather to approximately 18" to fit on the open side of the under part of the bib and ties
11. Stitch down and close up
12. PRESS DOWN
13.  Sew both parts of the pocket together with a piece of the ruffled fabric in the top (very much like placing piping on a pillow) and then sew on the skirt part of the apron anywhere you feel is appropriate (Anna wanted hers on an angle)
    PRESS DOWN

And yes she sewed MOST of it . . . I did the hard parts . . . but she's well on her way to following in her Auntie's footsteps and we had an awesome time!

TOTAL COST:  $12.00
TOTAL TIME:  Cutting:  30 minutes; Sewing:  1.5 hours