Teacher Aprons

How cute is this? Teachers need to keep up with so many things. These teacher aprons can be a great help with efficiency. ID, keys, pens, highlighters, phone, hand sanitizer, and so many other things can be easily in reach with these aprons.  I know I was always laying the remote to the projector down and having to look around for it. This apron can fix that little problem!

 You can make them to match your classroom theme, holidays, or use seasonal fabrics. 

The photo above is a Spring-inspired teacher apron. My daughter and I make them in the themes and colors that our colleagues ask for. We looked at some patterns and some other aprons on Pinterest, but then we just jumped in and made them with the needs of teachers in mind.

This apron is worn in a Superheroes themed classroom and the prints match the curtains in the classroom.  The students noticed immediately when the teacher first walked in with this apron on. Pow! Blam!

One of the classroom instructional assistants ordered this Frog themed apron. She was always on the go between various classrooms and was forever misplacing things, but this apron kept her organized.

This one was made for a teacher who wanted UK Blue and dark colors that wouldn't show dirt too quickly - elementary schools can really keep you busy with laundry, right?  She also wanted the taller row of pockets big enough for an iPad mini. (not shown in photo, but it works!)

This one is one of my daughter's favorites and matches her new Domestic Cat themed classroom. The print is Choco Cat, Hello Kitty's friend. 

The first thing you need to do is decide what size you want the apron to be. Most of ours are 22 inches wide by 18 inches long. We cut two of these, one for the front and one for the back. (They do not have to be of the same print) 

Next,  we make the taller set of pockets in a contrasting fabric. We cut it the width of the entire apron but double the height we want the pocket to be. It's usually around 8 inches high so we cut this piece 16 inches high with a width of our 22 inches. Then we fold it in half and press the fold. 

We lay this fold-side-at-the-top, over our front piece of the apron, lining things up at the bottom and the sides, and pin.

Then we stitch from the bottom to the top of the pocket, maybe 3 times; this makes 4 separate pockets.

The shorter set of pockets are made and attached the same way as the taller pockets.  If you want a 5 inch pocket, cut the fabric 10 inches tall and 22 inches wide. Press. Stitch onto the taller pockets. You can stitch them in the same place, or in different places.  Stitching close together will give you great "pen pockets."

Next, we put the back piece of the apron on top of the section with the pockets, right-side-together and stitched around the side, bottom, and other side in one continuous line, leaving it open at the top. Then we turned it right-side-out and trimmed the seams. 

Then we pressed it, pushing at the corners to make them look nice.

Then we cut a long piece of fabric to be the waistband of the apron and the ties, maybe 6 feet long, depending on the size of your teacher, and 6 inches wide. (See photo below)  Sometimes we stitch the contrasting fabrics here - as long as it measures around 60+ inches long, this can give your apron a nice effect.     

We press it in half all the way down the long piece, then open that up and press the edges on both sides to touch the middle, as if we are making a custom piece of bias tape.  We ironed 22 inches  by 1  1/2 inches of interfacing into the center of our waist band so that it would be a little stiffer just about the apron.

The last thing we did was place the apron's top (where it is open) into the center of the waistband and pinned it all the way to the ends of the ties.  (look at the photo below, where we are putting the apron up into the waistband so that we can pin it, then sew it)

Once we sewed this, we were done!   They really don't take long at all once you make two or three.  

I like to run the ties around to the front and tie a knot.  Some like to make a bow in the back. Either way, you could make a teacher very happy with a custom apron that matches the classroom theme!

           This owl print made an interesting apron for an owl lover.