Sew a Simple Egg Apron

A couple of days ago my son came gleefully into my sewing room where I was working announcing "I have a surprise for you!"

I turned just in time to watch 4 eggs roll out of his gathered tshirt and hit the floor.... his smile collapsed and big tears sprang into his eyes as he realized they had ALL broken. The entire day's harvest. I couldn't even be upset at the mess as he was just so heartbroken to have dropped them. 

So this morning I woke up with the thought of making an egg apron for him (and my daughter) when they go to collect eggs from our chickens. 

Here is a quick and simple tutorial should you want to make one yourself. 

Pick a cute fabric (as you can see from the photo both of my kiddos have been obsessing about Batman). You are going to need a 6" strip by approximately 40-60". (I made mine 60" so I'd have lots of room to tie a bow, though I believe 40" would work on a small child.) in order to get 60" I cut two strips across the length of my fabric and then joined them in the middle with a seam. 

Now you have a long 6" strip of fabric - fold it in half wrong sides together and press.

Then fold up each raw edge 1/2 " and press (you are basically making a very wide binding which will also be your apron tie.)

When you are done pressing fold your binding in half lengthwise and pin the center point for future reference. 

Now we'll cut the apron body. I used fleece because it's soft, stretchy, and doesn't require edge finishing.

You'll cut one rectangle at 12" x 16" and another at 12" x 4.

Now lay the smaller rectangle so that the long edge is 9.5" up from the bottom of your apron body. If your fleece has a right side you will want right sides together. Pin in place. 

So a 1/4" stitch along the edge at 9.5". Now flip that small rectangle up, and then fold the bottom edge of the apron body up 4". You are making 2 long pockets. Sew a 3/8" seam along either edge (you don't have to finish this edge if you've used fleece) to hold the pockets in place. 

 Now you are going to mark 4" in from either edge to sew the pocket dividers (can't have those eggs banging around together in a big pocket). 

Stitch along your marked lines being sure to backstotch at the top of every pocket for strength. 

Now you are nearly done! You are going to mark the center top of your apron body. Then use that mark to line up your apron body in the center of the binding, opening up the binding strip where you marked the center. 

Enclose the top of the apron body in the binding and then pop a few pins along the binding to hold everything together nicely. 

At my sewing machine I opened up the ends of my binding and folded them to the inside so that the raw edges would be enclosed in the binding. Now starting at one end sew a 3/8" line all along the binding, going right over the apron when you get to it to enclose the whole thing. 

When I got to the end I turned the work with my needle down and sewed all the way back with a 1/4" allowance just to insure durability. 

All done! Now go collect some eggs, or rocks, or whatever your heart desires. :)