Ruffles Defined Apron

About five years ago, I set foot in my first Anthropologie.  My mother-in-law and I walked around in circles exclaiming, “This is so much fun!”  The store is such a treat for Alaskans buried in fleece and carharts, we will probably never have a population base for such grandeur.  But, every time I leave the state, I save my money and map out the Anthropologies.  As much as I think I could buy half of the store (at least), I also find the displays so incredibly inspiring and creative.  It just gets my creative juices flowing all the more.

One thing that grabbed my attention the first time I visited was their darling aprons.  I loved them all.  They had ruffles and buttons and bows all endowed with a vintage flair.  But I looked at every single one of them and could not bring myself to spend that kind of money, because I knew I could make them for less.  Not to mention, I love the creating process.  The other thing I love about aprons is that I can feel like I am feminine and wearing a dress, even with a pair of jeans on.  I love dresses, but being as I live in the northern most state, it’s just too cold all but about 5 days out of the year.  My solution: wear an apron over the jeans.

The thing I do not like about most aprons are trending at many stores lately is that they are made out of light weight cotton.  I like my aprons to actually shield me against disaster in the kitchen, so most of the time I choose home décor weight100%  cotton fabrics.  A lot of these say “dry clean” only, so note they will probably fade, however, the thickness is helpful.

The fabric I used in this case was a drop cloth from Lowes.  I laundered and bleached it first.  The blue toile was a heavier weight fabric I found at a local thrift store.  I had been eyeing the 5 yards for several weeks, but it was $20.  Then several weeks later they were clearing out their fabrics.  I got the entire 5 yards for 50 cents!  That’s 10 cents a yard folks!

Stay tuned for more aprons, there are many more to come, including tutorials and hopefully some upcoming patterns!