Here, she was just over 7 months old, but it fitted her for some time after that - till at least a year or 18 months.
The apron is still, in fact, going strong, 4 years on, and Jane's baby sister Ada is now using it mainly as a coverall bib. It still looks fine, but I thought I'd make Ada her own. And while I was at it, I would make I also made one for my husband's great niece for Christmas. We will be seeing his niece's baby twins then, his great-niece and great nephew, for the first time, thousands of miles away from their home and ours. They will be almost 9 months old, but, like one of my grandchildren, were 10 weeks premature, so a little smaller than the average 9 month old babies. An apron and matching frilly knickers (a nappy / diaper cover) for the little girl, and I've yet to decide what to make for her brother. But probably not frilly knickers.
To see the latest versions of the apron, and how to adjust the pattern for a larger size, read on.
For the twin baby, I made her reversible crossover apron using the Smashed Peas and Carrots pattern just as it comes. So I'll tell you about that one first.This is a free PDF, and, having used it before, I was confident in the results.
The first step was to cut out the pattern pieces on folded material, thus:
I did that twice, with the material above, and the fabric which would be the reverse. You'll see that in the picture below. So there are two fronts (here opened out) and four back pieces (here stacked on top of each other).
If you want to decorate the apron, you need to do that before putting it together. I thought the tiny floral pattern, though pretty, might look a little plain on its own. Fine as a lining, but I wanted it to be truly reversible. So I set about making an appliqué. (You can find out more about how to make your own appliqués in this post, and this one. How about a bunch of balloons?
First, I ironed on some interfacing to a scrap of the balloon fabric that was left, that had some complete balloons on it. Then I cut around the balloons I wanted to use for my appliqué, leaving a small border for stitching, and started playing round with layouts.
Then, using virtually the tightest zigzag stitch on my machine, I sewed round each balloon onto a spare piece of the floral fabric. You could sew them directly onto the dress. However, if you make a mistake, you are done for. I found it better to sew them onto the spare material and then use the whole thing together as the appliqué on the dress. It's also good idea to try the zigzag out first on some piece of scrap fabric, until you have the right tightness. I think my zigzags used the 3 width setting and about 0.5 -1 in length - but your machine may call these different things. I't's trial and error really.
When I got all the way round each balloon, I created a little string for each. You can see this partly done below.
I added a little bow to tie the bottom of the strings together, and then cut round all my bunch of balloons, again leaving a small margin for stitching onto the dress. Even the back looks quite neat!
Then I attached the balloon bunch appliqué to the floral fabric of the cut out apron, with the same zigzag stitch, this time in white. (Seen on finished garment in this photo.)
I joined the side seams (right sides together) on both the balloon fabric and the floral one, and pressed the seams, then pinned both pieces right sides together all the way round. I marked with double pins a gap I wanted to leave in the bottom of about 3" or 7.5cm, so I could turn the apron the right way out. I sewed all the way round the whole thing except for that little gap.
Before I turned it the right way round, I did two things. First, I clipped the curves (avoiding clipping the line of stitching):
And secondly, I used the iron to press both the seam allowances to the wrong side of the fabrics along the gap. This makes it easier after turning to match up the edges. Once it was turned the right way out (with the aid of a wooden spoon handle), and pressed, I over-sewed close to the edges, catching in the folded edges of the gap. Nearly done!
All that remained was to sew a button hole on each of the long straps, and four buttons, one each face of each of the two short straps. (So it would be reversible.) You don't have to do this, you could just button the long straps inside when reversing it. But I like to have it so the buttonhole straps are on the outside.It can be tricky to sew two buttons back to back, you need to make a bit of a shank so the buttons aren't wedged so tightly together you can't button them! I had yellow buttons on the balloon face, and white on the floral face.
Here is the floral front of the finished apron (with matching knickers).....
and the back of the balloon side, showing the cross-over.
Given that I was making this, size-wise, by guesswork, I was pretty happy with the fit - comfortable, perhaps a bit on the large size now, but will fit her for a good few weeks!
For Ada's apron, I used the same pattern, from Smashed Peas and Carrots. However, as Ada is that little bit older (15 months) I enlarged the pattern a bit. I added about 3/4" to the length - I would have like to have added more, but as always, I seemed to be a bit short on fabric. Round the bottom curves, I curved round so that the 3/4" went down to nothing by the time I reached partway up the open edge. I also added a tiny amount - no more than 1/4" - to each side seam. So in total, 1" larger around, in principle. (Two side seams each with 2 x 1/4" extra seam allowance.) You can see my adjustments on this photo.
Once I saw the finished apron on Ada, I realised I didn't really need to do that for her at the age of 15 months. The pattern is very forgiving because of the crossover design, so my enlargement at the side seams has if anything made it a little big at this stage - but it will last her longer.
I didn't take any photos as I made this one. The only difference was that I'm afraid Ada didn't get an appliqué. I looked on the internet for Liquorice Allsorts appliqués and failed to find any. I just ran out of time. I could try to make one now with a scrap of the remaining fabric (though there wasn't much!) but I would then have to sew it on the finished apron, and the stitching would show on the other side. So unless Ada (15 months) complains, I think that's it for her apron. Sorry, Ada!
The pictures show, in turn, the back of both faces, and then the fronts. I think on the brown polka dot face pictures especially, you can see the over-sewing round the edges more clearly than on the earlier pictures of the balloons and floral apron.
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