Dishtowel Ruffled Apron Tutorial

Remember these fun dishtowels that we purchased on our last creative excursion?

Well, my girlies are now wearing them as these fabulous ruffled aprons!

Would you like to make your own? Please bear with me…this is my first sewing tutorial…but here goes!

Supplies Needed for 1 Apron:

1 dishtowel for apron base
1 additional coordinating dishtowel to be used for pocket and ruffles (Since I was making two aprons, I actually used half of two different dishtowels on each apron to get different ruffle layers in coordinating colors.)
1 package Extra Wide Double Fold Bias Tape

I started with i have to say’s Dishtowel Apron Tutorial and used Randi’s instructions found there for the basic design of the apron. I followed her tutorial to make the neck hole and apron ties out of bias tape. However, I did change some of the measurements a bit since I was making the aprons for my 3 and 5 year old and also wanted to add ruffle layers to the bottom. Each of the towels I started with measured 18×28. The triangles that I cut from the top measured 6 inches over from the sides and 7 inches down from the top. For the length of the aprons, I cut 12 1/2 inches off of the bottom for my 3 year old and 9 1/2 inches off the bottom for my 5 year old. I kept the 15-inch bias tape neck hole and 22-inch tie on each side for my 5 year old and the only thing I changed on it for my 3 year old was to make the neck 14 inches instead.

The towels I chose for the embellishments had a fruit design stitched at one end, so I cut that square off for the pocket and saved the side pieces to use for a pocket ruffle.

Then, using the remaining length of fabric, I cut two 6-inch wide ruffle strips and two 3-inch wide ruffle strips for each apron.

With right sides together, stitch the two 6-inch wide strips together to make one long 6-inch wide ruffle.

Then stitch the two 3-inch wide strips together in the same manner to make one long 3-inch wide ruffle. Once stitched, make sure both ruffle strips turned out to be the same length! If so, then go ahead and hem the bottoms and sides of both ruffle strips if needed, leaving only the top of the ruffle strips unfinished. The first apron I made was extremely easy and required no hemming because I used only the edges of the towels where the hems were already in place. Yay!

Once hemmed, you are ready to start gathering! Lay down the 6-inch ruffle (right side up) and then lay the 3-inch ruffle (right side up) directly on top it so that the top unfinished edges of both ruffles line up. (In other words, they should be laying so that both right sides face up and should look exactly how you want the ruffle layers to look on your finished product). Sew through both layers along the unfinished edge, using long machine stitches and allowing approximately 1/4″ seam allowance.

Pull threads to adjust gathers until the ruffles match the width of your apron.

With right sides together, pin the gathered edge of the ruffled layer along the bottom edge of your apron. Hint: once pinned, gently lift the ruffles and peek underneath to double check that all your gathers are lying nicely before stitching. I found that I had to adjust some of mine, which saved me a lot of rework later!

Stitch ruffle to apron at about 5/8″, and your basic apron will be complete!

If you’d like to add a decorative pocket, I might suggest using something lighter than the dish towel (maybe lace) to make the ruffle. My ruffle turned out to be too heavy and made the pocket gap open. But since we were more concerned with the cuteness factor of the pocket rather than the functionality, we just stitched the top closed so that now it’s just a decoration.