When my husband went through his old denim work shirts a few years ago to throw away the ones that were the most worn out, I grabbed the ones he was going to toss into the trash and stuffed them into a bag for safekeeping.
"They might be worn out to you, but there is a lot of good fabric there," I said.
He just rolled his eyes, but he didn't object. 😂
Ever since that day, I have been planning to use these old shirts to sew an apron for myself.
However ... it took me a lot of years to finally get around to making it. Obviously. Ha!!
 |
| The Dawn Apron, pattern by Lydia Naomi |
After we were able to spend time last year getting my craft room mostly set up, this year seemed like the right time for me to start diving into doing some projects that I had been putting off, like this apron.
I already had the fabric on hand, so the next step was to find a pattern to follow.
I've had a snap-front cobbler's-style apron for a long time that I like and would probably be an easy design to replicate. My mother-in-law was a big fan of this style of apron.
 |
| Examples of snap-front, cobbler-style aprons |
But I also like the look of the Japanese-style cross-back aprons, so I decided that that was the type of pattern I wanted to make.
I spent a lot of time digging around online for Japanese cross-back apron patterns. There's a surprising amount of variety to be found among patterns based on this basic shape. Then I came across this video by Canadian fashion designer Lydia Naomi for how to sew her Dawn Apron pattern.
Lydia's pattern had all the features I wanted in my Japanese cross-back apron: full length coverage in front, at least two pockets, and good coverage in the rear. Links to purchase her pattern are listed below the video on its YouTube page, or you can find them on her website, lydianaomi.com.
This was my first venture into the brave new world of 21st-century patterns being delivered electronically by PDF. Mind. Blown. (!!!) I did read some comments online where people were having trouble figuring out how to assemble all the pattern pieces after printing them out, but I didn't have any trouble. If you need some extra help, Lydia also has a video tutorial for how to work with the PDFs. Lydia's pattern pieces are numbered, and if you trim off all the page corners (as directed) and tape them together in numerical order, everything comes together very well.
 |
| Lots of trimmed-off corners and pattern pieces taped together in order |
 |
| Pattern pieces all taped together and separated into cohesive parts |
My next challenge was to deconstruct the old shirts to start piecing together the scraps to make new pieces large enough to cut out. I started by using one of the shirt fronts, with its button placket and chest pocket, as the top-front part of my apron.
 |
| Starting to reclaim denim from the old shirts, including one old shirtfront |
This project gave me my first opportunity to use the overlocking stitch function of my Bernette B38, which is a standard sewing machine, not a serger. Because this apron is made out of denim, I wanted to avoid the heaviness of double-folded hems. Using the overlocking function, I could finish the raw edges of the fabric in a way that made folding it under unnecessary, similar to the way a serger does.
Every time I needed to patch two pieces together, I would seam them using the overlocking stitch, then press the seam allowance to one side, and then topstitch the seam allowance to secure it to the panel. I think the extra, random topstitching looks cute with the denim material.
But then, as I was patching pieces together, suddenly I realized that I had accidentally sewed two pieces together with one right-side up and the other wrong-side up. Ooops!! Making a mistake like that means I'm tired, and it's time to close up shop for the day to go rest.
 |
| Right-side up on the left; wrong-side up on the right |
The next time I got back to working on the apron, I ripped out the seam where the pieces were facing different ways, sewed them together the correct way, and then carried on.
 |
| Front panel pieces assembled and ready to cut out |
 |
| Front panel folded and cut out, shown wrong-side up |
 |
| Pockets cut out and edges overlocked |
After that one mistake where I sewed the pieces together facing the wrong way, the rest of the project proceeded pretty smoothly.
I used parts of a total of three old shirts to patch together the pieces I needed for the apron. I even ended up with some "novelty" pockets on the back by using those parts of two other shirt fronts. 😊 I'm really pleased with how the apron turned out.
 |
| A little wrinkly after going through the laundry |
 |
| A little wrinkly after going through the laundry |
