Place Mat Cafe Apron

One day I was at Target, one of my favorite stores and found this place mat at the clearance section. Ooh! I love the color. I see potential!

So I decided to take it home.

First I picked out three different fat quarters from my stash. All strips include a 1/4" seam allowance and are cut 1/2" wider than the place mat. The red fabric at the bottom was cut 2" wide, the flower print fabric was cut 6.5", and the teal fabric was cut 1" wide. I decided to include red trim which I cut 1/2" longer than length of the place mat.

Sew the red print strip and the flower print strip together. Fold the seam towards the darker color fabric and press with an iron. I got creative and used a zigzag stitch between those two fabrics.

Lay the trim and the teal fabric (right side down) on top of the flower print fabric at the edge. Pin them in place and sew them together.

Remove the pins and fold the teal fabric twice (like using bias tape) and pin it to the other side and sew.Finish the side and bottom edges with your favorite method. (Zig zag, serger, etc...) Fold the edges 1/4" and sew onto the placemat.

On the pocket, draw a line to divide the pocket. You can be creative and do whatever you want. My side pockets are each 6" wide. Sew on the line.

To make the apron strings, cut two 2" wide strips from borth the red and flower print fabric. Piece a flower print strip and red strip together. Now you should have two long strips. Fold both edges together and iron. Then fold in half length wise and sew.

Attach one string to each side of the apron and sew.

I sometime enjoy putting things together and going with the flow. The great thing about this apron is that you can do pretty much anything you want. Be creative and be an artist, you will end up with a one of a kind apron that you will love!

I'm still learning how to write tutorial, so if you don't understand something just drop me a line and I'll try to help you out. Have a great weekend!