Farewell Apron

A school mum at my kids’ school was doing a collection recently for a leaving Mum. I thought that it meant for me to contribute money for a shared gift. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised when she informed me that one of the gifts was an apron with our school elements to it…and she was hoping if I could help sew and embellish it. I was happy to do it!

This was the original apron and part of a girls' uniform. Since the fabric is dependent on the uniform, I needed to improvise as I go along.

She suggested placing a small pocket from an old boys’ shirt with the school logo. She also wanted the uniform sleeves to be the apron “sleeves” and bottom part of the apron to be frills using the gingham fabric from a pre-loved girls uniform. I thought having the leaver's Mum name on the apron would be nice and a few of us thought the best position would be in the left corner pocket. I then wrote her name in pencil.

We met at school on Wednesday, and the farewell dinner was the following night, so we needed to work fast! She managed to get some mums to start signing on the apron, and she pinned the sleeves.

I chose the bottom hemmed part of the uniform for the apron lower frills. I cut the whole length of the uniform all around about 2 inches in width.  I did a running stitch and made the gathers to fit the bottom width of the apron and secured with pins.

I then took the apron home and later that evening machine sew the pocket and the frills to the apron.  I decided to cover the attached part of the gingham to the apron with white bias binding sewn flat with zigzag as shown. It was a quick option to cover the raw edges and made a neater finish to the frills.

I then cut a 1-inch width fabric from the uniform and put another smaller layer of frills for the bottom part of the apron. I placed this on the top part of the larger frills. Since I was rushed for time and my fabric is dependent on the uniform, I just continued adding the fabric until it fitted the length that was required. Machine sew.  Please see below photo.

I then used backstitch with green embroidery thread to trace the name I had written on the left corner pocket as shown.

When that was completed, I still felt that something else was needed.

I started cutting random strips and tied knots in the centre to make one big bow and several small bows. I then placed them randomly on the apron.

The bows will not be so noticeable after everyone has written their farewell messages..but it is nice to have them in between everyone's messages to break the monotony and to make the farewell apron a bit more interesting. It is also nice to write all around the apron but leave the pocket blank.

I then pinned the bows and machine sew in place.

I was so relieved when the apron was completed!

At the farewell dinner, we presented the leaving Mum with her new personalised farewell apron (among many other going away gifts :)).

It was a lovely evening with great friends. I am just happy I was able to contribute.