DIY Vintage Tea Towel Aprons

DIY Vintage Tea Towel Aprons

These are fun and easy to make.  My MIL embroidered these tea towels years ago and she had enough to make each one of her girls an apron.  I started by purchasing fabrics to match the colors at Wal-mart's fabrics in their craft section.  You can get about 3 tie bands for the top of the aprons from 1 yard of 44" wide fabric.  Pre-wash the fabric and then fold the fabric in half lengthwise with right sides together.  Press.  Cut 2 of the tie band length with a measurement of 41 1/4 inches long by 4 inches wide.  Or you can just cut to the ends, whichever you prefer.  With right sides together, sew a 1/4 inch seam at one end of the tie band.  Make sure your fabric design runs in the same direction before sewing.  

If you use a fabric that has a wider design like the cupcake fabric I used for the apron on the far right in the top photo, you can cut the width of the fabric 4 1/2 inches instead.  That way you can get the entire design in the tie after it's folded over.  After you have sewn your middle seam of the tie band, find the middle of your tea towel.  As you can see, I made two tea towels with a smaller towel folded in half.  These make a kind of bar maid apron.  The other apron with the cupcake tie band is made out of one of the larger tea towels my MIL had.  I just gathered the top fold of the tea towel on that one.  It works well to fold the towels in half with your design in the lower right hand corner.  This makes for a nice thick apron for spills and splashes.  

Once you've found the middle of the tea towel with the design facing up, place the seam of the tie band at the middle of the tea towel.  With right sides together along the top folded edge of the tea towel, pin in place.  Here's the tricky part.  Make sure when you lay the tie band over the towel at the edges, you have your design upside down with the wrong side showing.  That way when you fold it up and over to the back of the towel, your design will be right side up.  I do hope I'm making sense here.  I quickly put these aprons together.  I'm making more aprons and when I do, I will post photos of each direction below.  Hope that will help.  

Sew a 1/4" seam along the edge of the tea towel and tie band.  Start and stop sewing at the two edges of the tea towel.  Press the seam up on the wrong side toward the top of the tie band.  Continue pressing a 1/4" fold along the bottom and top of the tie band.  At both of the ends of the tie band, press in 1/4" of the fabric.  Fold the tie band over with wrong sides together.  Pin in place.  Finish sewing along the edge of the tie band starting at the ends, pivoting and sewing across the front of the apron to the other end.  Pivot and finish closing the other end of the tie.  And you're done!  Press the apron and tie band and now you're ready to bake!