The No Mess Apron: Tutorial and Free Printable Pattern

I'm calling this the No Mess Apron because it covers your chest and won't slide to the side (as many aprons do with generous chest sizes), therefore leaving you with no mess on your clothes. This apron is quick to make (if you have a moment to yourself without toddlers and infants); all you need is two coordinating fabrics and optionally some bias tape (I'll show you how to make matching bias tape in this tutorial). This apron features: two deep pockets to hold utensils or baby toys, a small ring pocket so you don't have to go looking for your rings after making bread, a dish towel loop so you always have a place to dry your hands, and extra long ties so you can wrap it around your waist and tie the knot in front if you like.

For this apron you will need:

• 1 yard of main fabric for the body (cotton is best for getting dirty and washing over and over)

• 1/2 yard for the pockets and bias tape

• coordinating thread

• No Mess Apron pattern

• sewing machine

• scissors

• iron

Start by gathering your materials and printing out the pattern, which is a PDF (Acrobat) file. After you have all the pages of the pattern printed out, cut on the black line to remove the border of each page.

As shown above, tape the pages together using the adjacent numbers, placing increasing numbers next to each other (one near two, etc).

When you have all the pages matched and taped you can then cut out the pattern pieces.

Now you are ready to cut fabric. Take your pre-washed and dried fabric (I don't iron unless there are horrible wrinkles, I'm a bit lazy) lay it on a flat surface and fold it over so that the selvage edges are together as shown.  Then place the body piece on the fold of the fabric lining it up with the grainline. Pin and cut.


 How to make bias tape----------------------------------------

For the bias tape you can choose to buy biased tape or make your own. I made my own, that way the border color matches the pockets exactly, which is cuter. It's not hard, just somewhat time consuming.

Start with the 1/2 yard of fabric and fold it into a trapezium shape like this. Cut off the triangle at the fold. Use this triangle to cut out the pockets.

Using a long ruler or card board draw lines 2 1/2 inches apart that run parallel to the edge as shown.

Draw lines until you run out of room. Now cut out the strips of fabric.

When you have them all cut out, pin them together at an angle like this.

Then sew at a diagonal.

Cut off the excess fabric and press. Continue until you have connected all the pieces. Now you can either use a bias tape maker to fold and press your bias tape or just use an iron. I'll show you how to use the iron.

First fold the strip in half then press with the iron. Do this for the whole length of the bias tape.

Then open it up and fold one half over and press doing the same to the other side as well.

Finally fold it all over again like this and press. Bias tape, check.

Apron Body-------------------------------------
Before pinning on the bias tape you will want to sew the bust darts. Mark on your fabric with a very light pencil mark or fabric chalk the marking from the pattern.

Line up point A an B as shown. Then pin.

Hold up the apron to your body to make sure the darts fit your chest well. Place a pin where the fold should stop. You can adjust how far you sew down according to your chest size.

Sew from the overlapped points A and B to the point you marked with a pin when you tried on the apron before, back stitching the beginning and end.
With the bust darts sewn you can now pin and sew your bias tape.

Sandwich the bias tape over the raw edge of your apron body piece like this.

Sew along the edge of the bias tape, making sure not to go too close to the edge or you may sew off the tape and have to go back to make sure the bias tape is secure. You should have a good amount of bias taped left over for the neck strap and towel loop. Pin one edge of the remaining bias tape to one top corner of your apron, then place the apron on you and measure and appropriate length that's comfortable for you. Cut that length off. Now pin both ends of the bias tape to the apron. Sew using a re-enforcing cross pattern (a square with an x inside).

Sew on the pockets -------------------------------

Now you can attach the pockets.

On the wrong side of your fabric fold and press seam allowance. Make sure to clip the curves so you have a nice curve on the bottom when you press it.

Before sewing on the pocket make sure to top stitch the open end of the pocket. In the picture below I have shown the pockets pressed and ready to be pinned on the apron.

Now turn it over and pin it to the apron body. Put the apron on and test out where the pockets are most comfortable for you and with the right amount of slack to fit your hands and accessories. Re-pin if necessary.

Before sewing on the pockets, take the last length of bias tape and pin it in between the pockets. Top stitch the pocket to the apron body. The ring pocket can be placed anywhere you like. If you would like to put it where I did in the picture above simply sew it on to one of the pockets before you sew the whole pocket onto the apron body.

Another idea is to cut out a figure or letters from what's left of the main fabric, and sew it on top of the other pocket for an extra personal touch.


Apron Ties---------------------------------------------------

Finally for the apron ties. Cut two strips of fabric 6"x 35".

Fold with right sides together, press and pin. Then starting at the folded edge sew in a diagonal line down to the seam allowance. Then following the half inch seem allowance sew all the way to the end of the other open edge.

Cut off the extra from the diagonal end. Then turn the tie inside out and using a knitting needle or a point turner, make sure the points are totally out. Repeat for the other tie, then press.

The final step is to sew on the ties. Fold the raw edge inside the tie by a 1/4 of an inch. Place the folded edge of the tie down on the wrong side of the fabric at the end corner of the slop. See picture above. Then sew a rectangle with an x inside; this is your re-enforcing stitch.

Once you've attached both ties you are done! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best to clarify.

Do you love this apron? If you do that's great, because to celebrate my 500th blog post, I'm going to give it to you in another giveaway! Three giveaways in one month, wow! Check back Monday morning for giveaway details!