Little Ruffled Apron

Years ago I made a little apron for one of my nieces. I made sure to take pictures so I could one day document it. This was a fun, easy project, and I added a few decorative touches that I thought my niece might like such as ruffles and a little embroidered monogram. Read on to see the details!

The Pattern

So the pattern for this child’s apron is free, online. The pattern is called Montessori Child’s Apron, by Meg McElwee, and it’s sized for children ages 3-6. I chose this pattern because it looked like children could put this on and fasten it all by themselves, and it also looked functional and not like just a dress-up item. Another feature that I liked is that it had a lining, which would cover up the seams for the straps and also make the apron more durable than a single layer of fabric.

A Monogram

Before I attached the lining to the apron, though, I added a few personalized details. The first personalized addition I made was a little monogrammed patch. I used the lining fabric to make the background for the monogram. The letter came from my sewing and embroidery machine’s built-in lettering, but the flower frame came from a now-retired collection of designs that I downloaded from OESD, my favorite embroidery design company.

I used several layers of stabilizer to prevent puckering and other thread problems, and left them in place to maintain the stability of the stitching. I just manually went around the cut edge with a dense satin stitch, and used my edgestitch presser foot to topstitch the badge down. If I were to do this again, I would probably attach the badge to the apron with a wide zig zag stitch instead of the straight stitching I used here.

Ruffles!

The next customized detail I added was three rows of ruffles. I decided to use both the front fabric and the lining fabric to make the ruffles across the bottom of this little apron.

I used a special ruffler presser foot for an initial set of built-in tucks, and then I also gathered the ruffles up using the method of going across with a basting stitch and pulling on the bobbin thread, while keeping the gathers as evenly spaced as I could. I used my edgestitch presser foot with the needle moved over to sew the ruffles on to the apron front.

A Decorative Stitch

The final custom detail I added was a little decorative stitch to fasten the hook and loop tape pieces onto the strap and the apron.

This little decorative stitch is one of the ones included on my sewing machine, and I used a standard presser foot on this, pivoting at the corners with the needle sunk down into the fabric so that I didn’t have to cut thread for each edge. I made sure to choose a stitch that spanned both side of the center line so that the attachment was secure on this high-use area of the apron.

Epilogue

I would gladly make this little apron again, and in fact I did make one for one of my little nephews, minus the ruffles and decorative stitching. I did make him a monogram as well, but I used his whole name, so I won’t include any pictures of his little apron. I recommend this pattern to anyone who is looking for a pattern for a child’s apron. It was easy to make and functional, and just so sweet.