How-To: Repurposed Carpenter’s Apron

Posted on May 9, 2008
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Craft Apron

My husband occasionally comes home with a freebie from the lumberyard or hardware store. He recently brought me this carpenter’s apron, which I thought might be useful for crafting, but of course I had to dress it up a bit.

This apron began as a simple 2-pocket apron with a bright yellow logo on it. My first embellishment idea was to use strips left over from a quilting project, as pictured in the “before” photo below, but then I decided to speed up the project a little bit with some Wonder-Under.

craft apron before embellishment

First, I used a seam ripper to remove the stitching that created the 2 pockets. I almost always have fabric with Wonder-Under already applied, so I then simply cut a few irregular shapes and fused them to the front of the apron. Next, I took the apron to my sewing machine and zigzagged around all the fabric edges. I then stitched a vertical seam to once again divide the apron into 2 pockets, but I made one larger than the other so I wouldn’t have to stitch through the middle of my embellishment.

I don’t mind sharing my mistakes, so you don’t have to repeat them when you try the project on your own. In this case, I fused my fabric too close to the bottom corners of the apron. This made it hard to zigzag in those areas, and it’s not as neat as I would like. So be sure to give yourself plenty of room for stitching.

I haven’t tested the washability of this project, but since it’s a craft apron, I know it probably won’t remain nice for very long, and I’m OK with that, since it was fast, easy, and inexpensive.