Story Lady's Crafts

Sooooooo… I’m going to be selling my aprons at a boutique which is why it was terrible bad luck that my sewing machine quit on me. Mid-stitch.
I HOPE all it needs is a little oiling. *fingers crossed*
In the meantime, I had to turn to my other apron project -the one that doesn’t require sewing.
This apron is my trial apron, so it had little mistakes along the way that I learned from. How’s about you learn along with without having to make the same mistakes?
Sound fun?

For this apron, you’re going to need:

A BBQ-style apron (can be easily purchased at a craft store or at Wal-Mart for pretty cheap)
Craft paint (I’m sure fabric paint would work as well)
Iron-on Transfer Paper (can be found at craft stores)
Painter’s Tape
Foam brush
An iron
Printer
Image of your choice

I bought my aprons at Sam’s Club. I think they were $13 for 3. Not too bad!

I wanted the pockets on the front. Make sure you check the pocket situation before buying your apron! You don’t want to end up buying something you don’t like (like a pocketless apron).
Unfold the apron, lie it on a flat surface, apply a long strip of painter’s tape down the very center of the apron -from bib to bottom. Apply one long strip to the left of the center strip and one long strip to the right of the center strip:

Take your time with this step, making sure the tape doesn’t overlap and there isn’t too much of a gap between strips.

Try to get the tape to lay as flat as possible.
Repeat, repeat!

…until you have 7 strips total.
Then peel away two strips on either side of the center strip:

Tape off the pocket! Very important!

Pull out your craft paint and foam brush and paint the spaces between the tape being extra vigilant about NOT painting the pocket… I almost did!


Let dry for a few hours (overnight is best, but I’m not that patient). Pull all painter’s tape off:

Now, I DID let it sit overnight before putting my iron-on transfer on it. When I bought my iron-on transfer, I bought the paper at Wal-Mart (no craft stores around these parts!) and I ended up not getting what I want! I got this:

I didn’t realize I was buying a fabric iron-on. I thought it was more of an ink-transfer paper. That’s what I get for shopping on my own with two independent kids who want to buy everything in Wal-Mart. Ha! So, while it worked it isn’t exactly what I want. What I want is simply an INK transfer, no extra fabric involved.
I went to picnik.com to create my image. You can use PicMonkey.com, though it doesn’t have nearly as many fonts. Hopefully it will have more soon! I simply uploaded a picture, whited it out using their “doodle” option and put my writing over it.
Another (probably easier) option is to go to dafont and download some free fonts and just type out your image in Word.
If you don’t want any kind of wording, feel free to download images from online. There’s some great vintage ones out there!
This is the image I used for my apron:

Using the instructions on the transfer paper package, I printed my image, trimmed the border off, and ironed it onto the apron pockets.
Now, if you’re using an ink transfer sheet like I wished I could have, you’re going to need to FLIP the image before you print it:

I would still trim the border off.

Iron it on and let it dry!

The paint on my apron is not even at all… there’s still some white showing through. I didn’t do it intentionally. I went over and over and over my paint to make sure it wouldn’t soak in, but it did. And I LOVE the look:

It gives it a sort of worn look and it matched the Farmer’s Market image perfectly. I did make plenty of mistakes:

So I’ll be extra careful next time. In the meantime, how much fun could you have with THIS?! I want to use the painter’s tape closer to the edges of the apron and paint one more smaller strip on each side.
I’ll also be picking up some white flour sack towels and ironing images on them to match.
If you like the look but don’t want to bother painting and ironing, just come to the boutique on Saturday on Main Street at 9 AM. I’ll have a few aprons like this to sell!!
Until I can get my hands on some ink transfer paper, I’m going to be oiling my machine and HOPING it will stitch for me! Pray, people. Pray!