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In the previous apron making blog post I mentioned the Gardening Apron was the other apron pattern I wanted to try from TOTOshopUA and this week I stitched one up!
Here is how it went...
About the Apron
This is a half apron with a roomy, gathered pouch so you can collect flowers or veggies, or use it to carry nippers, twine, and a few other tools. This style is also called a harvest apron or gathering apron.
Beside gathering up bounty, it could also be used as a vendor apron, or wear it the next time you take a sewing class to keep some of your notions and tools literally on you. I'm taking a class for knits and keeping track of all my stuff is one of the more challenging parts of the class!
Difficulty and Time
This apron is easy to make. It took about 4 hours to sew. If I make it again, and do it soon (before forgetting the process!), I could probably make this in 2.5 hours. So it's an afternoon sewing project and quite easy if you have some sewing experience.
Fabric Choices
The apron body is one piece so use double faced (fabric with no RS/WS), or double sided fabric. If you'd like to made this from quilting cotton you could place two fabrics WST and baste the edges together.
Mine is made from this Essex canvas fabric and this black and pink floral quilting cotton. I also have Essex canvas in blue, as well as a number of regular weight Essex yarn dyed cotton/linen blend fabrics, and a moss green twill that would work well for this apron. The twill does have a RS/WS, but the color is the same on both sides and the RS is only obvious up close.
Whatever fabric you use, remember there are gathers at the waistline so don't use anything too thick/heavy.
If you use a looser weave fabric like the Essex cotton/linen, use a larger allowance and finish the edges or your apron isn't going to last. Just like the previous pattern, this pattern is also very forgiving and it isn't going to make a significant difference in the finished apron if you change the allowance.
Print or Measure & Cut
The pattern document includes pattern pieces you can print and tape together, but there's also a chart with the measurements. I used the measurements since it takes paper, ink, tape, and time to prep these pieces so I'd rather just measure & cut.
If you are doing measure & cut, you can also play around with the size of the pieces. Both metric and Imperial measurements are included and since she's converting from metric the measurements in inches are sometimes fractions of an inch. For the fractional amounts, I just rounded them up to the next inch.
Reinforcements
This apron is well designed and the spots that could use reinforcement are addressed. The ends of the drawstrings are tacked down well and if you look just above the stitching reinforcing them, you can see there is a triangle of fabric. The triangular pieces are going to help hold the apron body up once there is stuff inside.
Any Extra Step
The one thing I did that wasn't in the pattern is topstitching along the side seams. You can see this best in the photo below.
These edges are finished in the instructions, but this fabric does fray and despite finishing that seam, I wanted it enclosed to help protect it more. So I stitched outside the raw edges and now that seam is safely encased on the inside of the apron.
Check it Out
There is a little something special at the bottom of the previous apron post. So check it out before you head on over to TOTOshopUA.
