Placemat Apron

Last month, I picked up a couple of placemats out of the clearance shelves at Target. I thought that they would make really great placemats for messy art projects. They are made of a material that would be easy to wipe up. I figured I could roll them up and stow them away with the art supplies and get them out for messy projects. Later that week, I ran across this post over at Flip Flops and Applesauce. Imagine my surprise when I realized that she had used the very same placemats that I had just bought! She had used them to make aprons for her girls. What a great idea!

Well, today I tried my hand at the project. I didn't follow her project exactly, I only used hers for inspiration. I had left over bias tape from my recent curtain project. I used my sewing machine to attach the bias tape to the folded area and left enough at the top to tie the apron around the neck. Then, I took more bias tape and attached it to the hip to tie the apron around the back. I liked that in the original idea she had used buttons so I decided to add a few funky ones that I had on hand. This was by far the hardest part of the craft. It was so-o-o hard to push the needle through two layers of the thick material plus the bias tape. I wanted to put two more buttons at the top but my fingers hurt to much so I stopped. Maybe later.

Anyways, I am very happy with how it turned out. I'm glad I bought two of the placemats because now I want to make another so both kiddos have one.

My hubby looked at it on our littlest and said, "Now we've got his Halloween costume...Can you make a chef's hat?" Not a bad idea. Now, I've just got to find a pattern for making one of those.