Easy Square Aprons (No Sew Option!)

As you can probably guess, I wear aprons pretty often. I highly recommend them. Honestly I don’t think home cooks wear them enough. I cannot tell you how many shirts I have saved because of my love of aprons. No really, I don’t know how many because I don’t keep track, but it’s a lot. Aprons, man, they are awesome. Plus they can be totally cute.

Anyway, as I mentioned in this post where I shared my first homemade dress, I’m getting into sewing this year. I really want to make a quilt this year, or at least start one. Maybe something like this, which was SO inspiring. But my latest project is two square aprons, one of which I didn’t even sew.

What’s a square apron? You can probably guess, but here you go anyway:

A square apron is made from a square piece of fabric. Which makes it SUPER simple to make, but you can change the size of the square depending on your height and desired fit.

Supplies:
-23 inch square piece of fabric*
-scissors
-sewing machine and thread (or none if you do the no sew version)
-1 1/2 yards ribbon, canvas trim or rope for the straps
-4 small grommets (for the no sew version)
-fray check (for the no sew version)

For the sewn apron (black and white stripes), my supplies, not including sewing machine, came to $7.50. For the no sew version (red plaid), my supplies, not including fray check because I already had it, came to $12.

*The 23 inches I recommend is what works for me. I’m 5’4″, so you may want to adjust this some for yourself if you choose to recreate this. Also if you are making this as a gift, try to keep your recipient in mind. 🙂

First I snipped off a small triangle on the “top” of the apron, to give it that straight line across.

For the sewn version I just folded and pinned all around my edges with a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Then I stitched the edges in place. Then I pressed my edges.

Next I pinned my canvas trim in place. As you can see, it’s just one long piece that I can pull over my head. Once I pinned this, I tried it on, careful not to prick myself, and adjusted it a few times so it looked right and was easy to take on and off. Then I stitched it into place and I was done! This was probably a 20 minute project from start to finish for me, which made me feel like a much more experienced seamstress than I am. 🙂

Please note my little sewing helper in the bottom right of this photo. He follows me from room to room and I have to use my dining room table as a cutting board because there isn’t space in my sewing room (we use that room for multiple purposes). So my pug got really worn out and needed a nap at this point. 🙂

But what if you don’t want to sew? Well, then the project gets even easier. You simply cut out your square (This can be an inch smaller than the sewn version since we won’t lose any length from sewing the edges). Fray check along all the edges. Attach the grommets to the top and sides. Add rope or ribbon that you can remove later when you need to wash the apron. That’s it—way, way easy.

Thanks for letting me share my latest sewing project with you guys!

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman, Photography: Janae Hardy and Emma Chapman. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions.