Oh man, I just love coming out to Hamilton to film. I mean the whole Doan family is such
a big family. Look at this. It’s great. And they said I could come over for lunch.
What I didn’t realize is I was in charge of preparing the lunch. So I’m really glad
I have my brand new apron going, including my extra cool towel holder through my grommet.
So as soon as we finish filling our bellies I’m heading back to the studio to show you
how to do this tutorial today at Man Sewing.
Hey everybody, how fun was that, right? Getting to have lunch with THE Jenny Doan from MSQC
and some of the family. Although that was a very small portion I must tell you. They
are a fantastic and very large family and I love hanging out. I didn’t realize I had
to cook the whole time I was over there. So, yeah, you saw my cool apron and you want to
see how I put it all together? I bet you do.
So I am using a really cool blue canvas from James Thompson and Co. I think it’s about
an eight ounce duck, it might be a little lighter. I apologize, I don’t remember.
But it’s a really easy to stitch through denim yet I feel real comfortable in it, ok?
Now, if you were to purchase a yard and a quarter, because it’s 60 inches wide, you
can get two of these. Mostly because of the way we’re going to cut our straps. If you
have just a yard, you’ll have plenty to do one apron but you’ll probably need straps
for the second half of the apron. That’s going to make a little bit more sense as I
start to walk you through it.
So this was my yard. And it was folded in half over here. So this is 30 because it’s
60 inches wide. And I’ve pre-trimmed this down for you. These are going to be the straps
we’re going to use. So I have two cuts that I’ve made at three inches wide by the 60.
Right? So these are what’s going to be stitched together to form the strapping. And let’s
just go ahead and do that right now. So the easiest way to do that is to take both of
these, fold them on top of each other because we are still going to need to remove those
selvedges. Really never like to sew with the selvedges. So let’s trim those off real
quick. Just kind of lining my ruler up along that edge. Now the way I measured this in
the long run is figure your waist circumference, you know what your belt size is and then add
about 30 inches so you can tie it in a big bow in the back or loop it around the front.
So we’re going to have plenty. I’ve got 120 inches and I will tell you, that’s going
to be a little bit more than I need, ok? Now I’m just going to stitch right across here
to form the first seam. And once that is done, I’m not worried about the selvedges on the
other ends, those are going to be trimmed off probably. But I do want my center point
with that seam we just made right here, ok? Once that is done, we’re going to fold this
wrong sides out or right sides together. So I’m looking at my seam. So you can see that.
So just kind of keep that in one hand and work your way down so you don’t lose track
of where you’re at, ok? And now I’m going to go over here and prepare to sew my tube.
Now I’m really excited to show you the rest of this so just catch my other tube turning
tutorial I’ve got where I run a cord up and down to make it real easy. But you’re
just going to sew this through, turn it right sides out and when you’re all done, you’re
going to end up with something that looks just like this down here.
Ok, now I’ve already even turned this and I’ve pressed this open, right? Or I pressed
it so that my seam will be on the back side there. And like I said, I’ve got roughly
120 inches worth. And we’re going to set this aside for just a second because now I
want to talk about how to build the body of the apron.
Ok, so now we’re onto the body of the apron. And the other cut I made, remember this was
the 60 this way. I cut the fold out of my fabric so I’m going to remove one of these
and I’m going to set it aside as well. That will be for the other apron. You can do his
and hers, I think. Next step, but keeping track of where you are, so this is about 28”
by 30” so on my shorter sides, I’m going to do a fold and another fold here. Come down
to this end. And that I’m going to stitch to get rid of my raw edges. So this is going
to go under the machine. And I’m going to do the same thing to the other side, and because
I’m in kitchen prep mode, I’ve also done that for you, ok? So let’s now set that
one aside for a moment.
And you can see here that I’ve actually done the seam allowance on both sides. And
that seam allowance here is the seam allowance you’re seeing right along here. So it’s
going to be kind of an exposed seam allowance. If you want to use some cool decorative threads,
it’s going to show up. That’s kind of, that’s kind of clever, don’t you think?
Now, the next step, we’re going to do the bottom and top kind of different. So we’re
starting at the top. And that was that cut edge where the fold was. So the raw edge,
the other edge is the selvedge and we’re going to use that to our advantage. So for
this, I’m going to fold it over just one time. That’s going to have raw edge but
we’re going to cover that in a second with the waistband. So I’m turning it under,
I’m going to call that about ¾ of an inch. And now I’m going to go to the machine and
I’m going to sew to hold that in place so that I can then set the waistband on. Oop.
Now of course, you didn’t have to actually do that step. You could have wrestled with
all of the next step. But I like to do that. It just makes like a bit easier on me.
So now what we want to do is grab that finished waistband again. And I’m looking for the
correct side, so not the side that has the seam allowance in it. And then I’m finding
the center where I joined the two skinny edges. And I’m going to literally drop that right
down. I’m leaving about a quarter inch reveal along the top. And that’s just kind of for
that visual texture. I just want it to look cool when I’m done. So I’m going to start
sewing right on this edge. And I’m going to definitely backstitch right there because
I want to secure this. Now I happen to be using cotton thread because that’s what
I had handy. I would really recommend you’re using your polyester threads for this because
it’s going to last much longer. But technically either will work on this project. That way
if you have some cool decorative threads you want to use, you can. Ok, a couple good backstitches
like I said there. Now you’ve done the top edge but we’re still going to need to go
ahead and do this bottom edge down here. So let’s go ahead and do that all over again.
Alright, so just as a reminder, I’ve just secured the waistband at the top and at the
bottom with that center seam of the waistband in the center of my apron. So that’s not
going anywhere, right? Now the next thing we want to do is actually try on our apron
because I want some of my extra waistband to create my cool little tool loops, right?
So you can just position your apron on, try it on. And what I think is a good idea is
wrap it all the way around, tie yourself a little extra if you need. You’re only going
to need like five inches worth of these. So now you can just grab your scissors, even
while you’re wearing it, right? Cut that off. Oh, you know what, let’s make it even.
Let’s do it this way. I’ve cut one side. I’ll need that in a second. Now we can do
this. We’re going to just lengthen that out, just like that. Now once those cuts have
been made, we have raw edges again so one of the easiest way to finish this is to tuck
in, I don’t know, it’s going to be an inch, maybe a half of an inch. You just want
it to lay flat when you’re done wrestling with it a little bit. And then you’re going
to stitch across that edge as well, on both sides of the tab. So you’ll do that to both
sides. And now we are ready to install and make some loops if we want.
Now my loop I did was about five inches because I was thinking BBQ tongs in there or those
big fun BBQ spatulas. So let’s do about a five inch cut here. Wow, that was pretty
lucky, wasn’t it? And then I realize it’s a six inch ruler so not as lucky as I thought.
Here we go. Ok, now with that, we’re going to stitch our tool loop on first so take a
moment and make sure you know what side of your apron you’re on. The next step we are
going to do is we are literally going to fold this under and then stitch up here about 12
inches. So somewhere in this area is where I’m going to want my tool loop. Let’s
say about like that, ok? So now what I’m going to do is I’m going to pinch that under,
get that stitched on to hold it in place. Lots of backstitching at the beginning and
the end to secure this, ok? Ok, and roll through it. And just go ahead and do the same thing
to the other side now.
Ok, so I have finished the side, that other side of the loop. Both sides were turned under,
right? So you can see, you can put just about anything in there. And then I also just took
a moment and with that selvedge edge, I folded just a single fold, unlike the sides, but
like the bottom, or where the waistband went in. I just did a single fold and a single
stitch line across there. Now the reason I use the selvedge for that is I don’t want
a ton of bulk because that’s going to be the top of the pocket and so I don’t want
a double fold there if at all possible. The selvedge was an advantage. Now once I’ve
done that, I’m going to basically just come up off of my board roughly 12 inches like
yay. And now what we’re going to do is we’re just going to stitch the fabric up on top
of itself creating a big pocket and then we’re going to divide that pocket into small pockets.
So let’s stitch this real quick. Ok, now the closer you sew to the edge on this, the
nicer it’s going to stay. The more crisp it’s going to stay.
Ok, now we get into the cool decorative part, ok? The first thing I’m going to do is I’m
going to just sew a row of stitching straight down to divide kind of the center pockets.
Now on mine, I did one row down the center and then I moved over like a quarter inch,
just for the decoration. I think for today’s sample, I’m just going to do one row of
stitching down that center. And oh, here’s a cool trick, though. Let’s say you couldn’t
find center or you didn’t want to mark it. Watch this. Just take it, fold it, and iron
it. And that’s going to give you a cool creased little sewing line, that works nice.
Now I can totally see where I want to stitch. Wow it’s dreamy out here, just two layers
of the canvas, I’ll tell you what. Ok, and as I get near the top, again, I’m preparing
to backstitch a couple times because that’s where my hand is going to be getting in that
pocket a lot. Let’s get that out of the way, ok?
Like I said, you want a couple more layers of stitching there for yourselves, but I want
to show you how we’re going to get ready to do that cool grommet pocket, the part you
can put your towel or some other kind of tool through if you want. So the first thing you
going to really want to do is grab your grommet and its template. Also have a cool quick tip
on Man Sewing about how to do the grommets. So you can check that out if you need a little
more info. But I’m going to kind of layout where I want my grommet first. I like that
look. If you weren’t sure where you wanted your grommet, you would put your apron on,
and kind of, you’re shooting for the hip, ha, ha. Shoot for that hip right there. Ok,
so now I’m coming back in here and I’m just going to mark it. But we’re also going
to sew a few more pockets in so that nothing ever escapes out the hole where the grommet
was. And I’m not going to cut yet, this is just for my eyeballs, ok? So there we are
all marked. Now what we’re going to do is we’re going to divide this. And what we
can probably do to see real nice, is let’s use our ruler and some chalk. So first of
all, I’m going to do a pocket. And I’m looking at my line up the side of my apron
so it looks really sharp. So we’re going to do a line like this. But I’m also going
to do a sewing line like this. And of course you’re going to do that if you did three
lines of stitching in the middle, do three lines of stitching on those. So they look
really cool. It doesn’t matter which side you start from.
Ok, now we’ve got that area where the grommet is going to go in secured, now we can cut
it out. And yes, we’re going to be cutting through the front and the back of the apron,
so that the hole itself goes all the way through, ok? So with that, I want to cut as close on
the line as I possibly can. So here we go. I like to use my little 18 millimeter rotary
cutter. Pressing pretty hard at the moment because I’m going through two layers. And
always better to cut a little short than a little long. And of course if you were feeling
that that was uncomfortable, you could always use your small little scissors of course.
Once that’s there. Now the grommet comes with like kind of a thicker side, a larger
rim. I like to slide that under from the bottom. And then the top is going to come, but this
also has a little groove you can pop a screwdriver in if you needed to release that. So I’m
going to hide that from you so you can’t see that, that’s going to go down there
below. Get it lined up, make it nice and square, a little pressure. Ok, and so that my friends
at home is complete. You’ve got an awesome apron you can be wearing at the Q, wearing
in the shop and having a wonderful rest of your summer. Now make sure, while you’re
having all that fun you don’t miss any of our episodes we’ve got here for you at Man
Sewing.