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!

Doesn’t it always work like that?  If I had taken pictures step-by-step, it probably wouldn’t have turned out.  I started out by taking 1″ elastic and wrapping it around my daughter under her arms .  I cut it to length and stitched the ends together to make a big circle (I also left a little tail JUST IN CASE my measurements turned out to be off which has been known to happen).

Earlier that week, I had taken my daughter to the fabric store and let her choose 8 different colors of tulle, and then I bought one yard of each.  We also picked out a spool of ribbon.

Once home, I cut the tulle into long strips and tied them around the elastic.  It looked like a REALLY big tu-tu.  Once I had tied all of the strips (it took a few sit-down sessions), I put it on my daughter.

Instead of wearing around her waist, like a regular tu-tu, I put it around her chest (under her arms).  I used the ribbon she had picked out and tied a sash under her chest.

Once I had the sash where I wanted it and where it felt comfortable on her, I carefully put my hot glue gun under the ribbon and lightly glued the ribbon down in a few places, but not all the way around.  I wanted it to stay put but not so firmly that it didn’t have wiggle room.

I then pinned 4 pieces of ribbon (cut equal lengths) to the elastic to serve as tie-straps-sleeves.  I pinned the two front ribbons pretty close together because I like the way they looked. Once I had them pinned where I wanted them, I carefully took the tutu off of my daughter and hot glued the ribbons in place (don’t forget to take out the pins!)  
The back two I glued farther apart:

She loves the dress:

When we went out trick-or-treating, she wore a t-shirt and tights underneath the dress.

Easy, easy! The tulle cost about $1 a yard and the elastic is about the same. I think the ribbon was $2. If your kiddo is smaller than mine (she wears a size 4T or 5), you could use even less tulle.
Except for the small hand stitching on the elastic -this costume was no-sew!

Because I didn’t PLAN on tearing into my bathroom there are no before pictures.

But I will say this: It looks completely different. The dried roses are from a bouquet my husband gave me for Valentine’s Day this year (aw!). Here’s a secret: the rack on the wall is actually one from my fridge that doesn’t fit. And I bought the frame a few years ago from Savers.
I made the topiary from book page rosettes.

In the middle of moving stuff around in my bathroom, I remembered that I had spray painted a picture frame white and left it outside. I went and got it.
I mod modged fabric to the back of it.
Then I put chicken wire where the glass should be. Thanks be to the stranger who happened to buy hay from my Dad behind my house and lent me his metal snippers.

I’m rearry happy with how it turned out ESPECIALLY because now I finally have a place for my vintage post card I’ve had sitting on my dresser for a year.

It needed something above it, so I went outside and started hunting for scrap… anything, really.

I found a beat up piece of wood that was too big.
Then I found a saw, so I cut it. I screwed some picture hanging supplies into it and added wire:

I put a jar in the wire and a picture hanger on the back to hang it on the wall:

The dried bouquet that I put in it is the one my husband gave me after I gave birth to our first baby. I can’t seem to part with it.

I’ve got about a thousand ideas rushing in and not enough energy left to go to it! But it’s turning out great. My husband will be surprised when he comes home.
I imagine after texts all day like “where can I get a pipe clamp?” and “do we have a saw?” and “where’s the wire cutters?” he’s a little concerned.

I’ve been dying to try it since I saw it. Someday I will, but for now I’m going to have to stick with the 20-minute cookbook makeover.