Fancy Schmancy Aprons

          Alrighty, so for those of you who don't know, I am getting married in December... I know, it's a long ways away. Luckily, though, thanks to it being a long ways away, I have plenty of time to get all of the preparations made. My fiance and I are getting married at Timpanogos temple, woohoo! And then having a reception at our stake center.
          Somehow our colors just kind of fell into place and I love them. We are doing a peacock "themed" wedding. Well, it's not really themed, but our colors are the turquoise and teal green of peacock feathers plus there will be some peacock feathers. Holy cow, I did not know how pretty these feathers were until I saw them in real life.
          For the reception, we are going to have our neices be little bus girls and clear the tables as people leave. To make it more fun, we are making them each cute aprons in our colors... on an adult it might look like a french maid haha, but for little girls they are super cute!

LACEY APRONS:
FOR EACH APRON YOU WILL NEED:
        - 1 Apron Skirt (25 X 13 1/2 inches)
        - 1 Belt (4 X 15 inches)
        - 2 Ties (2 3/4 X 22 inches)

 #1: The first step is to make your own patterns. On a roll of newsprint, cut out your desired sized aprons. The apron size we used was 25 X 13 1/2 inches at the center. When you cut it, round the edges and make it like 1/2 an inch larger than you want it to look so that you can hem it later. About 1/3 of the way in from both sides on the top, gradually dip the pattern down about 1 1/2- 2 inches. This makes a spot for the belt which we will make later.

You also will need to make patterns for the belt and the ties using the measurements above.

#2: Once you have made your pattern, pin it onto your fabric and then cut around the pattern.

They should look like this when they're done.







 

#3: Next, you will want to hem the edges of all of your pieces of fabric so that they don't fray. Some sewing machines have an automatic pressure foot that can do this and it makes it way easier, or you can just do it normally with a sewing machine. Pull the hem in a few centimeters to hem, it doesn't need to be big. After all of your pieces are hemmed, pin the lace onto the skirt. Start at the top right, just after the dip where the belt goes. Pin it right along with the hem, making sure that there are no gaps to where it is pinned.

#4: Go ahead and sew all of the lace on.

#5: The Belt and ties need to be ironed before you sew them on, just to make sure that they are straight and crisp.

         The belt, you will want to iron out flat, fold in half and then iron it again so that it stays folded in the "hotdog" form. Each tie you will want to iron out flat and then fold the tips in to make a point and iron those flat so that they stay. (In the final picture, you can see what the ties and belt look like).
        You will want to sew the outside edge of the tie down first so that it doesn't poke out away from the belt (It's weird, but ironing just isn't enough to hold it down ;))
        Sew the belt on first, having pinned it to the skirt. The lace edges should poke inside of the belt. DO NOT SEW THOSE EDGES CLOSED! Make sure that when the bottom edge of the belt is pinned on, the back side of it has been caught in the pin too.
       After the belt has been sewed on, scrunch the end of the tie that does not have the point on it and sew it so that it is more narrow. These will then be slid inside of the belt on the two ends that you left open. (Aren't you glad you left them open now? haha). After you have slid the tie in, you will sew back and forth vertically across the belt, the tie is inside. Voila! You have a cute fancy schmancy apron!