Pocket Apron Tutorial

You all know how much I love to sew for my girls. I love seeing them in something I made and when they discover special little things about the garment, it makes it even better. Amy from Friends Stitched Together nailed that in this Pocket Apron tutorial today. Not only does it have a cute little apron, but she’ll show you how to add pockets as well. I know my girls would love discovering the pockets in this dress!

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Hi there! I’m Amy, half of Friends Stitched Together where I blog with my bestie. I usually sew for my two boys, but after seeing all the cute apron dresses that have come out lately, I knew I wanted to make one for my niece! I am a huge fan of pockets, so I figured out a way to incorporate them in to the apron and am sharing it with you today.

For this tutorial, I used the Tie Dye Diva Perfect Party Dress (affiliate link), but you can use any dress pattern that has a separate, gathered skirt. You’ll need about 1/2 yard of apron fabric and a package of piping. All my measurements are for a size six – you may need to adjust up or down for other sizes. The stitching is done with a zipper foot and there is a downloadable pattern piece for the pockets here.

Start with your apron fabric – basically you want two pieces that are 12″ high by 20″ wide. Here’s how I do it: fold your fabric selvedge to selvedge, and then in half the same way. If you start with 44″ wide fabric, you should have a length that’s about 11″ wide by 1/2 yard long. Trim it to 12″ long. Open it up once and trim about an inch off each side to end up with two separate 12″ x 20″ pieces.

Take a plate or bowl and use it to trim the two bottom corners into curves. I layered all four pieces and cut them at once so they ended up the same shape.

Use your zipper foot to baste the piping onto one of apron pieces. I’m not usually a fan of basting, but with piping, it’s really worth it – especially around the curved corners! If you haven’t worked with piping before, there is a good tutorial here.

Lay your other piece on top, right sides together, pin and stitch in place. I used my pinking shears to trim the seam allowance the whole way around. You could cut notches in the curved corners instead. This will help everything lay flat when it’s topstitched.

Turn the apron right sides out and press. Set the needle to the left position for the zipper foot and topstitch around the sides and bottom.

Find the center of both the apron and the front skirt panel of the dress. Match them up and pin the apron in place.

You can use the pocket pattern pieces or make your own – I used the highly technical method of laying her hand down and drawing a pocket shape around it. After you cut them out, you’ll need to flip one so they both lay the right way.

Set them against the piping, about two inches from the top edge and pin in place.

Switch the zipper foot to the right position and topstitch again. Start at the top edge. When your needle gets to the top of the pocket, set it in the fabric, lift the foot, turn, and continue stitching around the edge of the pattern piece. Topstitch across the bottom, around the other pocket and back up to the top edge.

The topstitching secures the apron to the dress, and gives you pockets. Switching the needle position will give you two neatly spaced lines of stitching.