We had our second Toddler Art Group today and it was awesome! Some of you may remember last time when Kate had a massive meltdown when I tried to make her paint in only a diaper. She was indignant at the thought of appearing in public in only a diaper. An apron seemed to be the answer to our problems with the added bonus of being adorable.
As usual, I had no pattern to work off of, but I figured how hard could an apron be, really? Famous last words. I loosely based it on this pattern, by which I mean I looked at it and thought hmm… I can do that. Of course I didn’t print off the pattern or read any of the instructions because patterns have a tendency to frustrate and confuse me.
I thought about making the apron single sided, but then I realized that I didn’t quite know how to hem on a curve. In the end, I decided that it would be easier to just make it double sided. I stitched the front and the back together and looked at my apron pleased as punch. Then I realized that I hadn’t added the straps yet. Grr.. Off to find the seam ripper which of course has been sucked into the black hole that is our office. I ripped out the neck with some scissors and then had the brilliant idea to add a pocket. Kate loves pockets.
Of course, I was much too lazy to rip out the whole apron by hand so I decided to try and stich on the pocket through the hole in the neck. Let’s just say epic fail. I threw the apron against the wall and had a temper tantrum fit to rival Kate at her worst. A few days later, I went over to my Mimi’s house and she gifted me with a seam ripper. Bless her, she even ripped out the pocket for me. There was much more ripping involved later, but in the end I was successful.
I made it big on purpose so Kate could wear it for a while.
Here it is laid out flat so you can see the shape in case you want to make one for your own little one. Note: I recommend remembering to stitch the pocket and straps on before sewing the front to the back. You know, unless you *love* seam ripping as much as I clearly do.
Here’s the pocket. As predicted Kate is a huge fan.
I used some of my leftover velcro for the neck strap and the waist strap. The original pattern had the neck strap as one piece (I think?) that the kids could slip over their heads. Michael really wanted it to have velcro though so that if the strap got caught it wouldn’t choke Kate. Made sense to me. The kid’s middle name most certainly isn’t Grace. Or Cautious.
In the end, I must say that sewing for kids is fun! Plus, if you screw up, you haven’t wasted 2 yards of fabric. I made Kate’s apron from scraps I had laying around.