Side Openings on Bibs and Aprons

 

Have had requests for side openings on Bibs and Aprons. The results are shown on one of my Crumb Catching Adult Bibs up above.

Note: Clicking on the photos will enlarge the photos.

Wasn't hard at all to do at all...

Just made a simple change on my 6 inch circular cut-out. Just squared off just one of the corners. That simple!

For the bibs and aprons:

Started off with two strips of fabric 14 inches wide by about 30 inches long for the bib. When starting out, I pinned the two pieces of fabric together with the right sides inwards and the wrong sides outwards.  I turned up 2 1/2 inches to form the crumb catching pocket on this bib, which I allowed for in the length of 30 inches on  both of the fabric strips.

For the apron:  Change the length to 10 to 15 inches longer. You can turn from 5 to 8 inches to form the pockets on the apron.  Plus optional wrap around- tie in the back- straps, with each one being about 30 to 45 inches long.

On the wrong side of one of the 2 fabric strips that I pinned together I centered my altered cut-out, about 4 inched down from the top and about 4 inches in from the sides. Traced the cardboard cut out onto just one side of the fabric. The tracing line became my cutting line afterwards.

 Note: A cereal box came in handy for making up the altered circular cut-out.

Rounded off the top 2 corners on the pinned fabrics. Cut the altered circle out of both layers of fabric. Then cut an opening in the side, above ones heart.

Continued on as usual with sewing a 1/4 inch around the edges.  Started off near the center of the bottom of the bib. Followed the raw edges all the way around the outer part of the bib and the neck area. Went up one side, around the neck cut-out, across the top, and down the other side and cross the bottom, with leaving about a 3 inch opening for turning the bib...  Should look like the above photo, but, on the wrong side of the fabric and without the Velcro on it.

Note: If you need a larger opening for the neck area increase your 1/4 inch row of sewing to either 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch. If doing that, when done you must trim the top of the bib seam to 1/4 inch in the neck area. That is a very important step, otherwise you will have problems after turning the fabric to the right side and top stitching same.

Turn the bib completely inside out through that 3 inch opening. Iron off the bib. Top stitch the bib... Or pin the outer parts of the edges as I did, which you can tell from the white side because I didn't iron it off before top stitching, with hand pressing the edges as I pinned... Just didn't want to break my iron out and did it the old fashioned way... It should look like the above on both sides of the bib after those steps. You are looking at the back of the bib in the above photo.

Turn up about 2 1/2 to 3 inches to form the crumb catching pocket from the back side of the fabric to the front side. That's why you use contrasting fabric for the back of the bib... Top stitch one side down and continue across the bottom and up the other side. Be sure to back stitch in the beginning and the ending of your stitching. It should look like the above photo after the pocket is formed. This step is optional.

For the apron: On the apron you can form 2 pockets by running a row of stitches upwards from the bottom in the center of the apron long pocket to the top of the pocket. Be sure to back stitch at both ends when doing this step.

For the side closure we choose the Velcro. You can actually also use either snaps or buttons and button holes if you prefer to do so. I used two inch long strips of Velcro... It's your option. When completed, should look like the above photo on both sides.

The front neck area opened.

 

 

The front neck area closed.

 

 

The back neck area opened

 

 

The back neck area closed

 

 

The front of the bib

 

 

The back of the bib.

 

The apron: The apron is pretty much the same, except for the length of it and, optionally,  ties added  to it around the waist area to tie in the back or to wrap around and tie in the front of the apron... Style and location of pockets are optional and may vary.  Individual 6 to 8 inch square pockets can be added instead of using the row of pockets as shown on the bib... All your choice, of course.

You can see 3 more of my Adult Bibs/Crumb Catchers  that have the opening in the back of them  by clicking here 
 

Teddy Bear

Practicing on making teddy bears. This is the first one I made up. Used a McCalls pattern that was dated 1993 that only calls for 2 pattern parts. Patterns also for a rabit and a lamb also included in the pattern envelope. Have another McCalls pattern dated 1996 that looks just about the same and see that they have another similar one out at present.  Might be making more teddy bears up in the near future.  

Used the plastic eyes that have plastic washers in the back of them on the teddy bear. Made up the triangular nose from some black scrap fabric.

Made up a mini full apron for the teddy bear. The pine cones on the fabric are about the size of a penny. The background is a dark green with lighter green pine needles on it.  Outlined the apron with white lace. Used  white 3/8 inch wide ribbon for the overlayed and sewn on waistband along with using same for all 4 of the apron ties. Yep, used my Brother SE350 sewing/embroidery machine when making the bear and the apron.

Promised to make up a "Memory Bear" for one of my neighbors, Marie. She gave me one of her recently deceased hubby's sweat shirts to make one of them up for her from the garment. Will be putting a red heart on the bears chest with her hubby's name on it is the present plan.

There's a group called "Care Alternatives" that makes up "Memory Bears" for their Hospice patients. One of their reps will be coming to our ASG Neighborhood Group meeting on September 10th to talk to us about possibly having a workshop for making them up next month, October. They seem to have a McCall pattern that they use. Don't know if its the same one I used. Will find out on the 10th.

March 2010's recently completed sewing projects.

Click on the photos for larger views of them.

1. Made up 2 of these table runners. Gave both of them to Marie. They match her chair pads, table mats, and her kitchen curtains.  

2. Made 2 of these wristlet purses. Gave one to Marie. She was planning on putting her "Crumb Catcher" in the mini purse inside her larger everyday purse. The grape fabric was an eBay.com purchase. My YKK zippers also came from eBay. I buy them in bulk batches. Same with they keychain rings, which were another bulk eBay purchase.

3. Made 2 of these Traveling Kleenex covers. Gave one to Marie.

4. Made up 4 of these brown table runners. Center fabric from Walmart's. Edging fabric from eBay.com.

5. Made up 4 of the Santa cat table runners.

6. Made up 4 of these plain cat table runners.

This is the reverse side of the cat table runners. The front Cat fabrics from Walmart's. The back cat & fish fabric from JoAnn's on the internet.

7. Made up 2 of these Craft Aprons, Style "A." 

8. Made up two of these Craft aprons, Style "B."

The difference between Styles A & B? 

Style B (top photo) has two strips of fabric going across it for pockets.

Style A (bottom photo) only has one strip of fabric going across it for pockets.

Style B has 4 pen pockets.

Style A has only 2 pen pockets.

Both are about 12" long. Used the same fabric on both of their waist bands. Each of the waist bands were made out of 3 strips of fabric. Check fabric widths and lengths below for all.  The smiley fabric has been setting in my fabric stash for years. Believe I bought it from Walmart's because that's where most of my fabric came from before going on line and finding all of the other places on line that sell fabric.  The black and white fabrics also were in my fabric stash. The red fabric  came from Fabric.com on the internet. Waistband fabric from Walmart's.

 

You can see where the waistband strips were joined together on each side of the apron in this photo because I used the white thread on the black fabric as a decoration.  You can also see the wood grain pattern on the black fabric in this photo, too.

The pen pockets on on both aprons are about one inch wide and will hold both a pen and a pencil in each of the slots. This is shown in the above photo.  The pocket below is holding 4" X 6" Post-It Matt photo paper. That's the print, peel and stick  kind that comes in a pack of 25 of them.  

I loaded the pockets up to the gills. Besides the 4 pen pockets, craft apron Style B has 9 other pockets. That's 5 of them across the bottom row with 4 of them in the row up above. Style A only has the 4 pockets with the 2 pen pockets on it. Yes, that's a Fabric.com yellow coupon in the top end pocket. That's where some of my fabrics come from, such as the red swirled fabric used on this apron.

Another feature that Style B has are two pockets that have Velcro on them for closurers on the bottom row.  I bent the fabric down so you can see both the front and the back sections of the 2" strips of Velcro.

Making up these 2 Aprons you will need:

A= Waist band - 3 strips of fabric 5" long X 20" wide (regular), 22 " (XL), 24" (XXL) -  folded in half lengthwise for each apron.

30" (regular) 32" (XL)  or 34" (XXL) wide fabric strips in the following sizes in length:

(all the same width)

B & F= Body - 24" folded in half lengthwise.

C= Top Pocket - 16" long folded in half lengthwise.

D & E= Bottom Pockets - 12" long folded in half lengthwise.

After assembling the lower body parts before joining to the waist band, pleat the lower body part to about 18, 20, 22 inches. I space the 1/4 inch pleats about 2 inches from each other, with using 4 of them on each side, thus a total of 8 mini pleats on the apron.  You will need about an inch on each side for joining the 2 apron back tabs to the main center tab and for sewing up the tie ends.  

RECAP:

I'll do up tutorials with photos the next time I make these aprons up.  The flat Waitresses Aprons are similar. They use fabric strips about half of the width of the strips that these Craft Aprons use for the lower body and the pockets without the pleats.

BROTHER SE350 USED

Used my Brother SE350 Sewing/Embroidery machine for making all of these up. Had no problem with sewing through the 6 to 12 layers of the cotton with the machine when making up the apron with the two rows of pockets on it. The 12 layers of fabric came into play when doing the edging on the apron. I used the foot that was on the machine when I bought it and didn't need a walking foot to do same. I also cheat and leave the same foot on when sewing in zippers. I just change the needle position to do same. Just love the machine's feature for self-threading the needle. It also has the capability of cutting the threads too. This machine seems to do just about everything you want and need a machine to do.  The more I use it, the more I seem to be falling in love with it and really completely satisfied with this purchase.....  Would probably be a breeze for doing up the Lazy Girl Design Wonder Wallets on it because that pattern calls for multiple thicknesses of fabric, and, after doing same with making up Apron B, this machine should be capable of handling the LGD WW's too.