While tidying my workspace last week, I noticed all the shirt pieces I had left over from making the Howard Wabi-Sabi quilt. Since I had used only the backs, the leftovers included sleeves, fronts and collars. It occurred to me that there is a potential fiber object buried inside each one of them.
Naturally, I turned to U-Tube, to see what others have made from discarded men’s shirts. Not surprisingly, there were many, many projects. I wanted to make an apron, but I also spotted a cute little girl’s dress.
That idea I will save for another day. For today I am focusing on this dark navy all cotton shirt front.
I also happened to have a whole spool of 1-inch white twill tape which will work very well for the neck strap and the ties.
First I removed the breast pocket. This will be jazzed up a bit to add some fun color to my apron. Since the shirt fabric featured a little star motif, (okay, it’s really a snowflake, but go with me on this one) I decided to make a sun using yellow fabric and fusible interfacing. In fact, I happened to have saved some suitable yellow fabric that already had fusing attached to its back. I cut this into the shape of a corona and fused it to the pocket.
Next I traced a circle onto white printed fabric, pressed fusing to its back, cut out the circle and pressed it over the yellow corona.
Getting back to the shirt, I trimmed the upper edge into the shape of an apron front and sewed the button opening shut. Next, I sewed a piece of the twill tape to the neck edge and folded it over the raw edge, This made for a sturdy facing. With the rest of the twill tape, I found its center, measured down each leg to reserve a big enough neck loop and marked where to start sewing the side edges. These were sewed down in the same manner as the neck facing.
After zig-zag stitching the apron string ends, I re-attached the pocket, and was done!
The apron fits me just fine, but it will work also on shorter persons.
This fun project cost me a few dollars and only an hour of time. With several more cut-up shirts hanging around, I can easily spend a little more time and a few more dollars to make unique, personalized gifts for the artists and cooks in my life.
What a great idea for an apron. I’ll have to try this out.
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Very cute project!!
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Nice!
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Brilliant use of the shirt. I’m always looking for ideas on how to keep clothing out of the landfill AND, as an oil painter, aprons are a must have. Thanks for sharing.
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I hope to do more sewing with cast-off clothing and yard goods.
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I really love that sun. Love that you were inspired by leftovers. Only one problem: I wouldn’t want to get it dirty!!! Actually, someone made me an apron I saved for 30 years, for that reason–but finally unearthed it and said DIRT, SCHMIRT (dirt on shirt?) and now it’s all splattered but I wear it a lot! Thanks!
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Great use for the leftovers! I find thrifts to be an endless source of materials and inspiration.
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Great idea to make an apron from the leftover shirt! It looks great on you!
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Thank you. I gifted it to my daughter, who liked it too.
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I love this! I am just amazed how your mind works. To make something so cute out a a piece of material. Impossible for me, easy for you!
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Well, I cheat a little by looking at similar projects on Utube!
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What a great job you did on your apron!
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