DIY Easy One hour Apron |Beginner Sewing Project

Learn how to sew a super simple 1 hour apron in this tutorial. You don’t need any special skills and it should be a quick project.

Whether you need an apron for a last minute costume or you just want to look good while you’re cookin’, this is the post for you!

Watch the video Here:

When it comes to crafts, patience is not my thing. If it takes more than a couple of days, it’s too complicated to be fun.

What I really like is when I can whip something together in the time it takes my 1 year old to take a nap. That’s where my 1-hour-apron comes in.

I Love Aprons

Aprons make you feel capable, cozy, put together and give off an air of “it’s time to work!” And I don’t have enough of them. Is there a number that is too many aprons? Let’s be honest here.

Maybe.

But I’m definitely not even close to it yet so let’s press on!

The nice thing about aprons is they can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make them. You’re essentially just adding rectangles to rectangles. We’re goin’ real basic today.

What do you need for a 1-Hour Apron?

You don’t need a dress form or any fancy sewing supplies. I barely used scissors for this project. Here’s what you need:

• Sewing machine
• thread
• 1 yard cotton fabric will be plenty
• scissors
• pins
• safety pin
• iron

Directions for 1-hour-Apron

To start out, you need a piece of cotton fabric that looks big enough to be an apron. I know. Duh.

But really, you just need it to be big enough that when you hold it up to your waist it reaches from one side of you to the other and has enough length to be as long as you want it.

Plus about 12-16 extra inches above that to make the tie. (This kind of depends on how long you want the tie to be)

I know this sounds like a child trying to describe something they had a dream about but just stay with me. It really is simple.

Rip It!

Determine how wide you want the apron. Add about an inch. Then with scissors, make a small snip and rip the fabric to the right width.

Ripping works with cotton but I know it doesn’t work with all fabrics. If your fabric doesn’t rip easily, I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to cut it instead.

As someone who often can’t find my fabric scissors and has to use a round-tipped pair of kid scissors I found in the backyard, I feel your pain. Let’s be friends.

But you’re gonna miss out on the most satisfying thing there is though. Here’s a chance for your inner child to come out for a few minutes and gleefully “destroy” something. Get yourself some cotton. Even if you have to rip up a bed sheet. It’s worth it.

When you’ve got the width, now you measure against yourself for your desired length.

Make a small snip where you need it again and…that’s right kids…

RIP IT!!! Awesome.

For reference my apron piece ended up being about 23″x18″.

1-Hour Apron Tie

Take the pieces you cast off and rip them into long strips that are 4 inches wide each. Their lengths don’t have to match, just the widths. My finished length was about 70 inches.

Time to Sew

Now that you’ve got all the pieces, let’s get sewing!

Fold over the edge of the main apron twice. This will tuck the raw edge in. Now sew that bad boy down! Do this on all four sides.

I cleverly left a black thread bobbin in the machine so you can see all my wonky sewing lines and mistakes. It’s clever if I say it is, right?

Put your two strips together with right sides facing in.

Sew across the short side. Great job! You just made a longer strip. Add as many strips together like this until it’s as long as you want it to be.

Wrap it around you to determine how much you want for a bow. Do you want it to wrap around the back and tie in the front?

Once it’s long enough, fold it in half, right sides together, and sew it down the length. Don’t sew the ends closed yet.

Take a safety pin and attach it to one end. Push it into the tube you just made, all the way to the other end and pull it out. I promise it works. You can watch me in the video struggling to remember how to do this.

It’s the small things in life that make you question. “Do I know how to do things?”

Now that you have the tube right side out, you can iron that sucker flat or connect with that inner kid again and skip the ironing.

Well, send me to time out because that’s what I did.

Tuck the ends in and sew along all the edges, close to the side. This will help it lay flat.

Attach the Tie

Find the middle of your main apron piece by folding it in half and placing a pin at the top, middle. Do the same for the tie.

Lay the tie on the top/front of the apron, matching the middle pins. Pin the tie down. Sew along the top edge, down across the tie, along the bottom edge of the tie and the up the other tie edge where it meets the edge of the apron. You’re just sewing a long, skinny rectangle on the tie where it overlaps the apron, essentially.

Pockets

Take some scraps and cut out two squares for each pocket you want. A double layer will make it nice and sturdy. You can eyeball the size; do you like big pockets, small pockets, one long one that goes across the whole front or a trapezoidal one that says “I tried”?

The sky’s the limit and full of pocket potential.

For the pocket, sew the scrap squares right sides together all along the edge, leaving a small gap at the top. Trim off the corners. Turn right side out, through that gap. Tuck in the gap until it matches the sewn portion. Sew along the whole edge again, all the way around.

Lay your apron out, pin the pocket where you want it to be. Sew it on, making sure to sew back and forth a few times at the corners. Don’t get carried away and sew the top closed. Sewing is fun but seam-ripping is not. That’s gotta be a bumper sticker somewhere.

My pockets turned out a little wonky because I refused to use pins while I was sewing squares together. I ended up sewing them together into one big pocket. And miracle of miracles, it fits my phone perfectly!

Cut off all the strings and you’re done!!

Even kids can do it!

This 1 hour apron is so quick and fun to make. My 11 year old daughter, Anna, was able to whip one up faster than I did with only a little help here and there.

Final Thoughts for 1 hour Apron

This is great for beginners who are looking for a fast, easy, and useful project.

If it comes out with wiggly sewing lines or a little asymmetrical (as my projects often do), remember that you’re about to wipe your hands on it or someone else is about to wipe their chocolate mustache on it, so it’s fine.

Remember your kids will be impressed and it only took an hour! Let it be good enough 🙂

Let me know if you try it! This is a great jumping off point for more complicated aprons. I’d love to see what you came up with!

Don’t forget to pin it!

Check out some of my recipes:

Beautyberry jam

Almond Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

Thanks for stopping by!