For People without Pockets!

It's that time of year again - when we up sticks and take half our shop and half our staff up to the NEC, Birmingham for the first major show of the season "Festival Of Quilts".With the show running from 11th -14th August, preparations are in full swing, and as a treat to ourselves we thought we all needed new money belts, partly to keep our pennies safe but mainly because we are always looking for excuses to make up things in the lovely "Melody Miller" and "Echino" ranges!

Now with all you wheeler dealers out there (and you gardeners /crafters /painters /decorators/people-without-pockets, out there) we often get asked how to make up our mini aprons...... So with our brilliant work experience girl Emily on hand to do all the stitching we've decided to do a quick "how-to" for you all....

All you'll need is half a metre of fabric (112cm/44" wide), enough tape to tie around you, a sewing machine, thread and a couple of pins.

Step 1

Cut the half metre of fabric into two pieces of approximately 50cm x 55cm each. (If your fabric was originally folded on a bolt when you bought it just cut down that centre crease.) Trim off the selvedge edges.

Step 2

You now need to re-join the two pieces of fabric along the 55cm side. Place the two fabric pieces with the right sides facing each other and stitch along one of the 55cm sides. You need to make sure that when they are joined together the direction of the pattern will go the same way on both portions of your apron.

Step 3

Keeping the right sides of the fabrics facing for the moment - sew along both 50cm edges joining the fabric to make a pocket with one of the 55cm side left open. Clip the excess fabric from the corners of your stitching and turn the pocket right side out.

Step 4

Give the pocket of fabric a quick iron. Now it's time to think about the pocket front - fold the stitched bottom edge of your pocket of fabric up to create what will become the pocketed section of your apron.

If you want to add a secret pocket to the reverse of your apron, mark the bottom fold and the top edge of this folded fabric with a couple of pins and unfold and then follow step 5. (If you don't want a secret pocket skip to step 6)

Step 5 (secret pocket)

Use a scrap of fabric and cut it to the size you want your pocket to be. Iron around all the edges of your secret pocket folding in the raw edges as you go. Stitch along the top edge of your secret pocket to make a hem (this is the top of your secret pocket). Now pin your secret pocket in place on the reverse side of your apron and stitch around the other three sides (left, bottom and right side edges) to form your pocket. (Remember to check your positioning - You don't want it to be positioned above the top edge of your front pocket compartments as you will see your stitching on the front, and you don't want it positioned below the fold line (marked with pins) of your main pocket compartments or else it will show on the front of your apron.)

Step 6

Now stitch up the sides of the folded pocket section to join them to the back of the apron. To divide your pocket into different compartments stitch a couple of lines of stitching that run vertically up the pocket section dividing the compartments.

Step 7

Now it's time to attach your tape. Fold it in half to find the centre and mark this with a pin. Take your apron front and lay it on a table with the main pocket compartments facing down onto the table. You will have some raw edge of your fabric at the top of your apron. Fold the raw edges over towards the back side of the apron (The side with the secret pocket if you have made one) make this fold slightly less wide than the tape you are going to use - and then iron the fold in place.

Step 8

Your tape is then sewn onto the back of the apron (use your pin marker to centre the tape) - stitch along both edges of the tape enclosing the raw edges of the apron under the tape.

Fold in and sew along the two ends of your tape to stop the ends fraying and you're all finished!

Time to get gardening, crafting, or wheeler dealering!