How to make a garden apron

To be able to comfortably carry my basic tools and materials with me when gardening, I made myself one of those garden aprons. I really love it, because apart form being functional it's really cute!

I made this apron from scraps, but you should be fine with 3 fat quarters.

Cut the following pieces from your main fabric, backing fabric and batting:
 - one 50x28 cm rectangle
 - one 50x22 cm rectangle

Place the backing fabric right side down onto the table, place the batting on top of it and then the fabric right side up on top of both other layers.

Quilt as desired. I quilted simple parallel lines using the guide that comes with my sewing maching.

Prepare both rectangles in this way. The smaller piece will be attached to the larger piece in order to create the pockets. In the picture below I turned the front piece around in order to create some contrast, in the finished apron the pockets will be of the same fabric as the larger piece.

For rounded bottom edges, fold both layers with the small piece placed on top of the large piece as shown above in half so that all 4 bottom corners are lined up.

Place a round template (as you can see I am using a DVD) on the top layer and adjust the corner to the rounded template cutting through all 4 layers.

Lay the two layers flat on the table. Your apron is taking shape.

Now prepare the binding (for details on how to bind a quilt, have a look a this tutorial). Given that we are making round edges, it's better if the binding is cut on the bias. First attach the binding to the upper edges of both pieces only.
When done, place the smaller piece on top of the larger piece aligning all edges and bind the remaing outer edges, joining the two pieces in the process. Pay attention to the rounded corneres to avoid creases.

Now it's time to attach the belt.
Cut two strips measuring 5x50cm each. Fold one short side over for about 1 cm an sew a hem.

Then fold the strip in half lengthwise, wrong side out and close the second short side and the long side with a simple straight stitch stopping just short of the hem as shown below. Turn the strip inside out throught the opening and iron flat. Prepare both strips in the same way.

Now fit the upper edge of the apron into the opening of the belt.

Wrap the sides of the belt over the binding of the apron, make sure the lower seam allowance of the belt is turned inside and join the two pieces sewing along the two outer edges of the belt. You can keep on sewing along the long side of the belt just to the end, as that will help to keep the belt strip flat.

 To finish the apron you only need to divide the pockets. To do that decide how big you want your pockets to be and sew a simple straight seam through the two layers of the apron preferrably right onto one of the quilted lines on the top pocket layer.  Divide the compartment in as many pockets as desired.

Congratulations on your finished garden apron!

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Have you made a project following this tutorial? Let me know what you think. Did you like it? Was it easy to understand and to follow? Do you have any suggestions?
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