Holiday Baking & The Christmas Apron Re-Do

Hello everyone! How is your Holiday season coming along? Christmas is my favorite time of the year, and I can’t believe how fast this year just sped by! 2021 is almost over! Where has the time gone?! Eeeshk!

Anyway, this time around is always super busy, and I haven’t been able to blog about sewing much until now. I’ve been feeling withdrawals from being away from my sewing machine so I racked my brain and searched my Pinterest for inspiration on some quick, easy, no stress sewing projects to do.

After seeing some really cute aprons on my feed, I thought it would be fun to sew another one (even though I have so many in my stash already!) And, since baking is practically a MUST during the holiday season, what better to make than a fun, Christmas themed apron to wear for all my Holiday baking sessions?

If you don’t know already, I really love aprons. I have a pretty good collection of homemade ones that I’ve sewn over the years (I posted about my little obsession here) This one in particular is one that I made for a Christmas play a long time ago and was the first apron I ever made myself:

Isn’t it cute? I’ve always been meaning to use it regularly, but in all honesty, I refrain from doing so because it’s so fragile. Being that this apron is one of the first things I’ve ever sewn from scratch, my skills with finishing seams weren’t as finessed then as they are today. And it’s a sure bet that frequent use of this apron will quickly lead to inevitable fraying and deterioration, so for preservation sake, and so I can get my much needed sewing fix, I decided to re-do my Christmas Baking apron (with clean, tight finished seams this time!)

So for my new apron, I knew I wanted to use the same print again. This Gingerbread baking print from Spoonflower is too cute for words!

I also used the same fabric as before for contrast pieces.

As for the pattern, I wanted to try a different look. I love retro 50s circle skirt aprons, as well as the mini French maid apron style, so I decided to mix the two together. Luckily, this pattern from WhatTheCraft Patterns has PDF patterns and tutorials available, so it was the obvious choice to pick.

*My half-circle ruffle skirt (say that 5x fast!) for the main apron skirt piece*

*My mini apron add-on.* *I found some sparkly* *rick rack at Joann*’*s and added it* *as a cute detail on the apron skirts and top bib*

*The apron bib with halter straps. The pattern directs you to cinch the middle of the bib to form a sweetheart neckline*. I thought it was cute, but I chose to leave it on the straight and simple at the last minute

This apron was easy-peasy to make! All tutorials have picture guides to accompany the directions, which are very clear and very easy to follow. I followed all steps to a T except for when I made the mini apron. For that part, I wanted an even smaller version, so I took off 2 inches all around the perimeter. The apron took about 24 hrs. total from start to finish, which is considered very fast in my sewing world, and now she is ready for me to wear and bake my Christmas filled heart out!