I wear an apron all the time in the kitchen, and from the grease and stains that eventually covers it, it's evident that I like to wipe my hands on it! What better apron for wiping hands on than a dishtowel, more absorbent then fabric? So I created this easy retro apron from some vintage fabric and a checked dishtowel. 

 

You'll need:

1 dishtowel

small amount of contrasting fabric

scissors

pins

iron

ruler

white washable pencil color (optional)

sewing machine

 

I chose a vibrant colorful flowered vintage fabric to contrast with the purple checked dishtowel.

 

1. Measure your waist. Add 12 in. plus seam allowance. For instance, if your waist is 30 in., you'll need a piece of fabric 43 in. long or 30 in. + 12 in. + 1/2 in. seam allowance + 1/2 in. seam allowance. 

 

You can make your waistband as wide as desired. I wanted mine wide, so I doubled the fabric over and cut it at 4 in. wide, which with seam allowance take out leaves 3 in. for the finished width. Laid out flat that would be 8 in. wide.

 

The band cut out:

 

2. To prepare the waistband, fold up the seam allowance on the long sides and iron it.

 

Then fold the ends in and iron them.

 

Fold it in half lengthwise and press.

 

The pressed waistband, ready for sewing:

 

3. Next is to prepare the dishtowel. I like to put a bit of waist shaping in mine so it doesn't look like a rectangle wrapped around my waist. The easiest way to do this is to put a single wide box pleat in the center, like this:

 

However, I think a pleat looks too bulky at the waist on me, so I chose to do 2 darts instead. To do this, I measured from the center to where I wanted the dart on each side of the center.

 

I marked that spot with the pencil, then measured over 1 1/2 in. and put another pencil mark.

 

To find the tip of the dart, place the ruler against each dot slanted toward the middle and mark that spot.

 

To sew each dart, I held the top 2 spots together and angled the seam to end at the single dot in the center.

 

Now this is how it looks:

 

4. To add the waistband, center the side of the dishtowel with the darts in the center of the waistband and pin it. The dishtowel will be between 2 layers of waistband with the raw edges folded up.

 

5. Top stitch the ends…

 

…and across the open edge, which also stitches the dishtowel in place.

 

6. Now try it on and decide how far you want the ends of the waistband to overlap.

 

7. Choose your buttons and where to place them. I put mine too close together, as I realized later. But you learn by doing!

 

8. Make your buttonholes.

 

…and sew the buttons to correspond.

 

Now it looks like this:

Of course if you don't want pockets, you can let it as is, or add rickrack, lace, or other trim or appliques or embellishments. Since the dishtowel is hemmed, that's all there is to it. I want to do another one with several rows of baby rickrack at the hem and some vintage buttons for glam.

 

9. For this one, I chose to add a pocket. Instead of the usual square or rectangle pocket, I cut out a square and then rounded the corners to make a U shaped pocket.

 

10. I hemmed the top of the pocket and turned in the other edge and basted it.

 

11. Then I cut a 2 in. piece of narrow elastic and on the wrong side of the pocket, about 1 in. from the top hem, I stitched one end of the elastic in place:

 

Then I stretched out the elastic as I stitched, which created a nice gathered look.

 

Here's how it looks on the inside:

 

12. The last step is to choose where to put it on the apron – slanted or straight, low or high. Pin it in place.

 

13. Top stitch it on the curved edge, and pick out the basting stitches.

 

Give the apron a good press, and you're done!

 

Of course there are many varieties that could be made just by using different prints of dishtowels and contrasting fabric, other styles of pockets and trims. This one I kept simple, but it's fun to wear and more fun to think up how to create varieties!

 

Practical yet pin-up Retro – just how I like it!

Till next month,

~Kristen – Verity Vintage Studio