Kids' Craft Apron - Tutorial

We were at the Children's Museum a few weeks ago. The kids went immediately for the huge tubs of questionably-washable paint so I lunged for the smocks hanging nearby. And fell in love. These smocks were the most perfect, adjustable, cute smocks I'd ever seen. They put my dollar-store t-shirt split up the back to shame. As we left I checked the gift shop and was delighted to see that they were for sale. Except they were for sale for $25. So I went home and spiffed up my sewing "room." Altogether this project took about an hour and used materials that I had in my stash already. I'd say you could make it for $5 or less.

Squee! It makes me so happy :)

This was a practice run so I just used what I had in my stash. This fabric was leftover from my ironing board project. Next time I want to use something with a light coating (like a light oilcloth) but this canvas worked fine. I started with a rectangle roughly 2 feet long and 1.5 feet wide. Then I cut fairly shallow arm-holes On the bottom of the picture you can see that I hemmed all the straight edges but NOT the arm hole. This is important. 

When it's time to pin and hem the arm-hole section, you want to create a channel. I'm not a big "iron and pin the hem" person, generally just forging ahead and hoping for the best, but I highly recommend it for this project. The curve can be kind of a bitch. 

Sew around the curve but make sure to leave the ends open

I didn't have any good ribbon, but I did have some cording in the scrap bag. Next time I'd use something wider, but this works. I took a long length (again, maybe 2-3 feet), stuck a pin in one end, and ran it through the first arm channel. 

 

And this is where it gets brilliant. Come back around and thread your tie/cord/ribbon down through the other arm channel. 

Voila! Now you have a totally adjustable craft/cooking apron that can work for all sizes of your kids without having the front droop down to the point that it's useless. Bribe your children with stashed Easter candy and admire your handywork. 

 

I just noticed that there's no pictures of it, but the apron ties in the back, at the waist. FYI.