12 Days of Christmas Creating- Day 4- Four Pockets

Traditionally, I am not an apron gal, but there are a few times a year (namely holidays) when I am dressed up and cooking and don't want to make a mess of my clothes because company is coming. Chances are that most hostesses are this way and that is where today's gift comes. This is a hostess gift.

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If you are attending someone else's house this year for one of your holiday meals, then this idea is for you. It's an apron... I know that you are sitting there thinking "yuck", but if made up with some really cute fabrics and the right presentation, this can be an awesome gift.

To make the apron into a nice presentation piece to give, I tied it up around a nice bottle of wine and added a handmade gift tag. Done up this way and you have yourself a great hostess gift...

I tried to find a fun pattern online, but couldn't find exactly what I wanted so I made up my own. I am going to share these directions with you. They are pretty basic, but I am a fast-get-it-done kind of gal so the assembly of this may seem a bit out of the normal order. I did it that way to save steps and so that your finished product would have all finished seams without the hassle of hand-sewing or sewing things twice. I like short-cuts like that.

I used 3 coordinating fabrics for my apron and a muslin for the liner. The main apron and patch pocket are fabric 1, the pocket piece is fabric 2, and the ties are fabric 3.

Cutting Details:

*Fabric 1- 18x22 piece for main apron, 4x5 piece for patch pocket

*Fabric 2- 10x22 piece for the pocket

*Fabric 3- three strips 5" wide the full width (45") of the fabric

*muslin- cut the same as fabrics 1 & 2

*you will also need matching bias tape

Directions:

1. Sew 4x5 patch pocket piece and muslin right sides together, leaving one corner open to turn. Press.

2. Attach patch pocket to the front apron pocket piece by topstitching the sides and bottom.

3. Stitch front apron piece to muslin by stitching top edge only right sides together. Turn and press.

4. Pin front pocket piece to muslin wrong sides together. Stitch bias tape across the top only.

5. Pin this piece to the main apron piece and stitch your two pocket lines.

6. Stitch bias tape around the 3 raw edges (bottom and sides.)

7. Stitch the tie strips end to end. Fold this piece in half lengthwise and stitch. Turn and press.

8. Top stitch this strip onto the apron front.

This is a really fun and easy project to make and if you are like me and love pretty fabrics as much as paper, then you need to make this one. If you can sew a straight line, it will only take you a couple of hours to make.

Supplies used for gift tag:

*Unity Stamp Co. Trinity Trio single

*Unity Sentiments O' Simple kit

*Daisy D's paper

*Kraft Bazzill

*watercolor pencils

*copper brads

*brown inkpad

*glitter

*glue pen

*Martha Stewart border punch