After I made my Garden Apron the other day the girls started requesting new aprons for their play kitchen. Instead of making a new apron I decided to refashion one of their old dresses that no longer fit them into an apron. This is such a quick and easy project. It turns a much beloved outgrown dress into a much beloved apron that can be used for years. I love these kinds of projects. I am still wearing my apron that I refashioned from a toddler dress. It is one of my favorites!

Toddler Dress Refashioned to Toddler Apron {tutorial}

Start by finding a dress that is too small, but a favorite. I chose to use one that had lots of ruffles, layers and is a bit twirly. This particular dress was a long sleeved dress but you can choose one that is short sleeved as well. Really any dress will work, you just might have to tackle each one differently.
1.Start by cutting off the arms. Cut near the seams but make sure you cut a good 3/4″ away from where the sleeves attach to the dress. Now cut down the front or back of the dress. I ended up cutting all the way down the front of the dress instead of the back because of a stain, but you can cut down either side. Just keep in mind the type of closure that was used for the dress that also may help you decide which side to use. If there is a zipper or lots of buttons you may want to cut those out or use them as an embellishment. Just think about the ending apron before you get cutting!

2. Cut off the front (or back) bodices pieces. Those were the top pieces that I cut in half when cutting down the length of the dress. Again, leave 3/4″ near the shoulder and skirt part for turning edges over. Below is what the apron looks like right now.

3. Fold over all of the edges twice and iron flat. You want to make sure that you do this so that you don’t have any exposed raw edges. I started where the arm holes would have been then folded the sides where the bodice pieces were. Then I folded the shoulder part and lastly folded over the skirt parts near the waist and continued all the way down the length of the skirt.

4. Sew around all the folded edges.

5. Make three ties. You can use ribbon, lace or fabric to make the ties. As you can see I used some wide lace that I had on hand. Just simply cut the ties to the length you desire. I prefer to make them a little longer so that i can make pretty little bows when tying them. The choice is yours here. You will need to make three ties. Two shorter ties for around the neck and one long piece for around the waist.

6. Attach ties to the apron. Sew the 2  shorter ties onto the apron at the shoulders and the one longer piece around the front of the dress and onto the skirt part of the apron. I just sewed them right onto the back of the dress. No super fancy sewing there.

And that is it! Tie it on and let your little girls enjoy!

Posted by Christina & filed under sewing, Tutorials. This post has 5 comments.