Dish Towel Apron

I'm not an apron wearer. I should be--I am not the world's neatest chef (my MIL can attest to that!). When I'm cooking, I can usually be spotted with a dish towel draped over my shoulder. I had picked up a bunch of new towels at Target, and one night while cooking I wrapped one around my waist (no it did not reach all the way around!), and thought, "Now, wouldn't this make a cute waist apron."

Tonight, after cleaning out my fabric and yarn drawer (doing some sewing and knitting can prompt a thorough cleaning-out and reorganizing), I came across the dish towel I had set aside for the apron. No time like the present to give this a whirl. Here's a step-by-step so you can make one, too. Ready?

You will need: one tea cloth dish towel (the prettier the better, like maybe these)

4 ft coordinating ribbon cut into two-2 ft lengths
pins
sewing machine

Step One:
Prewash the towel and iron it.

Step Two:
Lay the towel good side up. Fold down the top (on the long edge) enough to cover the width of ribbon. Sandwich the ribbon at about 1" into the towel and pin. Repeat on other side.
Step Three:

Pin the rest of the hem you just created.

Step Four:
Sew the ribbon into the towel with a "box-X" stitch. I'm sure there's a name for this, but I'm sewing impaired so I call it the box-x. Repeat on the other side.

Step Five:

Sew along the length of the towel, backstitching at both ends to complete the hem. I stitched mine twice just to make it look nice.

Step Six:

Lay the towel backside up, and fold up the bottom portion about 5". This will become the pockets. Pin at both sides, and at the middle.

Step Seven:
Sew along each end to close the sides, and down the middle to create two pockets (or design as many pockets as you would like).

Voila! Your apron is complete. How easy was that?! Wouldn't these be cute craft aprons or tool belts for kids. Mine were in bed when I made this, but I will try it on them tomorrow to see if it fits. And as I was pinning and sewing, I couldn't help but think of these crayon rolls. I wonder if this just might work for that project as well. Hmmm. . .