Rapunzel DIY Apron for kids, toddlers and dolls

Rapunzel inspired Play Aprons for Kids and Dolls

I'm so excited my daughter picked out some fabric from Hancock Fabric awhile back that she just loved and said was Rapunzel fabric.  So since she behaved while we were in the store I picked it up.  At first she wanted me to make her a skirt, but I was looking around and found a picture somewhere on Pinterest of play aprons.  These were super cute, but it was just a link for someone selling them.  I was bummed and did a search for how to make a kids apron, but didn't find any tutorials that made something similar to what I wanted really. So since I already had an apron in the right size to use as template I just decided to get to work and make my own up along the way.  Figured that someone else may want to make one for their little's and maybe their matching dolls :)

This is the "Rapunzel" fabric that my little one picked out!

Child and Toddler Sized Dress-up Apron Tutorial

Doll Sized measurements are included, directions are the same!

 

Please note that I ended up making 2 toddler sized aprons, 1 older child  and 2 doll aprons from materials I'm listing. I used what I had on hand for everything but the Rapunzel purple fabric, so if you plan to make only one you may have enough materials on hand or not need to purchase as much as I list. A lot of fabric stores have scrap areas for ends of bolts and you can check there for the satin if your only making one.

 Materials Needed for child/toddler sized:

• 1 yard of Rapunzel fabric or any fabric you choose as skirt and accent fabric.  (If you are only making one and the fabric doesn't have to go in one direction because of a pattern you could buy only 1/2 yard)

• 1/4 yard Pink Satin-or scrap satin-toddler sized you need an 8 1/2" square-bigger kids 9 1/2" square

• 1 Roll of Pink Satin Ribbon

• 1 Package or roll of white shimmery rick rack

 Cutting Instructions:

Toddler sized: (made this to fit my almost 3 year old)

• Purple skirt fabric-14" by 36" or wide of fabric-since I bought a yard I just cut 14" off the bottom, so if you buy 1/2 yard you may want to cut to 36" length as it will get bulky if you don't 

• Purple skirt fabric- 2" by 8 1/2"- you need two this size

• Pink Satin-8 1/2" square

• Pink Ribbon-2 at 16" and 2 at 22" 

• Rick Rack I didn't measure as I cut, just laid it how I want on satin then cut after I got the affect I wanted

 Child Sized: (my daughter is 7 and this fit her great and should last awhile as it hit below her knees)

• Purple skirt fabric-16" by 36" 

• Purple skirt fabric-3" by 9 1/2"-two needed

• Pink Satin-8 1/2" by 9 1/2" you could do 9 1/2" square just would be wider across chest and I only wanted to add length to satin.

• Pink Ribbon-2 at 16" and 2 at 22" 

• Rick Rack I didn't measure as I cut, just laid it how I want on satin then cut after I got the affect I wanted

Doll sized:

(instructions are all the same as below with exception of the neck ties.  Instead of ties I used a piece of cute elastic to make neck hole so the kids just slip the apron over the dolls heads and I don't get asked a million times to tie the ribbon necks. Oh and I didn't bother with rick rack on the dolls version either and so far no child has noticed this fact!!!)

• skirt-7 1/2" by 19"-this will fit an 18" type doll (one pictured above was made 5" by 19" for smaller dolls) 

• purple fabric for sides-1 1/2" wide by 5"

• satin-3" by 5"

• ribbon for waist-11"

• small piece of elastic cut to 8" for neck maybe a little bigger as some dolls it was a tight fit mainly because my daughter was nervous to stretch the elastic-if you want to use ties instead I would cut 11" ribbon again for waist.  

Assembly Instructions: 

 Instructions are the same for both kids sized aprons, so once you've cut your fabric to the size you need just follow along should be pretty easy!

First thing is you need to cut the pink satin fabric to make it into a trapezoid type shape. I lined it up on my cutting mat and use a ruler to cut an inch off the top and angled it so it didn't cut any off the bottom, see pic on left of how I laid ruler. I forgot this step when I made the child sized and didn't do at all for the doll ones!

 Next lay out your rick rack, I used two pieces to make this. I started in the top left corner and zig zagged to the bottom right and then did same thing with another piece from right to left. Pin and sew down onto satin in the middle of the rick rack

Take the 2" or 3" piece you cut and this makes up the side of the top. I used a long strip as I made these and just cut it after sewing down, so if you are reading this before cutting feel free to do that too. Sew the strip to the pink satin right sides together so you can press open.

• Now set the top part aside and we will make the skirt bottom. For this I sewed a running stitch on my machine to act as my gathering stitch. 

• Choose what part you want to be at the waist, my fabric had a 2" section without flowers by the salvage so I chose that to go at waist.

• Then if you set your machine to the highest tension and the longest stitch length it will gather the fabric for you!!! The picture above is how it came out of my machine and that was almost gathered enough that I only had to pull the bobbin thread a little to get it to same size as my top piece!  Super easy and love to gather items this way :)

Once the skirt fabric is gathered to same size as the top piece we assembled you will pin the two together and sew them with right sides together. Picture above is it flipped over for you to see how it looks pinned.  I pinned with the top laying on my table and the skirt over it so I could adjust the gathers as needed. (after sewing the top and bottom together I ran it through the Serger to seal the ends in and make the middle sturdier. if you don't have a serger you may want to sew another line down in either zigzag or straight closer to the edge of the two)

After I serged my waist line, the next thing I did was run the whole apron through my serger to seal in the ends. If you don't have a serger you could do a double fold over hem all the way around, but make sure to put your ribbon into the folds before you sew.

• Once serged I folded over the serged edge onto the wrong side of the apron and sewed it down, this is where you would need the double fold if you don't have a serger! (the black thread is where I sewed down the serging to my back of the apron.)

• I also attached the ribbons at this point too. I tucked the ribbon into the folded part and then folded back over the serging so it's visible on the front. Sorry didn't take a picture of this I can if needed of the finished ones.

• The ribbons I attached the 16" at the top for neck ties somewhere close to where the purple and pink are sewn together, I didn't do anything special for this just sort of eyeballed where I wanted them. Then the 22" is for the waist ties and put those by where the top and skirt come together.

 That's It!!!! Your done and now your little one has a super cute apron to pretend to be Rapunzel in! I tie the neck straps in a bow for my girls so they can slide it on and off themselves too.

 

Fits our Dolly great!

Loving how this turned out!!!

I'm super happy with how these turned out and the girls are already trying to get me to make some more in different fabrics! Pattern would work great for a regular apron as well, if you don't want to have side panels on the top just cut the top piece 1 1/2 to 2 inches wider.

Would love to see any projects you make with these patterns, feel free to share pics in the comments section!

Don't be quick to judge another mom!!!

I'll start off with saying since I had my first child over 7 years ago I stopped doing things like getting manicures and pedicures on a regular basis.  I would splurge on the occasional pedi because I just can't go without my toes painted and my poor feet needed some TLC (especially during pregnancy number 2 and I couldn't reach them anymore). That was reserved for the start of summer time though and to get ready for sandal season. 

As far as getting my fingernails done and any sort of prettiness to them, yeah that was saved for super special occasions!!! I used to love getting longer fake nails with the gel stuff they use at the nail places so that they are super strong too. That all changed when I had my first kiddo because I just didn't feel it was as important and I stayed home a lot with her so what was the point.  Besides the items needed for our little one were more important then having fake nails done and having to up-keep them every 2-3 weeks.

Well, my sweet, darling hubby told me just before Easter this year to go take a few hours to myself and get my hair done and my nails all fancied up.  Take a spa day if you will while our oldest was in school and he watched the youngest.  So I did!!!!  He told me to splurge even and get those fake nails I loved so much :) This was one happy momma!!!!  I got my hair trimmed, colored, styled and then went over to the nail salon and let them give me some super strong gel nails (which is great because mine are not so strong anymore.) Nice relaxing treat for me just before the crazy weekend that was coming up.

Fast forward to this week......I kept the nails and got them filled while I put the little one in daycare because my older daughter had her First Communion and she wanted me to keep my "pretty nails" for her big day.  Hubby agreed it was fine to splurge again, so I did, but thankfully not spending as much since a fill isn't as big a process! Well, the nails were fun but had to go and I couldn't take that the edges were all messed up and looked a bit crazy and my hair kept getting tangled in them. (you know what I mean if you've had them before, but it's like the edges start to pull off from your nail and it's just enough space to get hair trapped in it and pull, ouch!)

This lead me to an absolutely necessary trip to the nail salon!!!! Oh and it's not a day care day for my little one, but I truly didn't want to wait until it was. My youngest is 2 and a half (have to add the half) right now and she's usually pretty well behaved, so I figured we will go first thing in the morning and knock out this "errand."  Mornings are also her best time for behavior too!

I walk into the salon and tell the guy what I needed done, I had to get the nails off and wanted a gel polish put on since usually the take off process leaves my nails extra fragile. Well, while I'm signing into their book I overhear these ladies getting pedicures.  What they were saying is what sparked me to write about all the other stuff in this post!  They said "I would never bring a kid into a nail salon like this," the other lady said "I agree it's just no place to have little ones running around."

You know what they were right on one part, it's not a place to let kids run around, but that wasn't my plan at all.  I had an ipod packed and charged and snacks if absolutely needed and no plan at all for my little one to be running around the place. They continued to talk about how it wasn't right and that they'd never even think about bringing their kids, well, correction only one of them had kids! The other person said if she had them she wouldn't think it smart though.

What isn't smart is talking crap about someone bringing their kid and them being able to hear you! Even the nail people just took to my little girl and chatted with us both! This salon was attached to a very small shopping center with a hair salon and a few other small places, but the ones in the mall you see people with kids in them ALL the time! I was shocked that they even felt the need to mention it, let alone talk about it for so long. I kept my mouth shut though and just went about getting my nails done. (I didn't know if my kid would even behave for long enough so why comment if she turned out to be bad then they'd be right again I shouldn't have brought her.)

Thankfully, my sweety of a daughter did great! She sat in a chair the whole time and only got down once to get in our bag, but no running around the salon for her. When she got bored she started peeking over the arm of the chair at these woman getting their pedicures done. They commented to me how cute she was and how well behaved and I said thank you and smiled, but nothing more. I really didn't know if she'd make it the whole time behaving, but she did great! To me that was the biggest statement we could make back to these ladies who were obviously judging me for toting her into the salon to begin with.

The thing that bugged me is they didn't know me or my situation. For all they knew I was coming in during my only free time to get my nails done. Maybe, I couldn't afford day care and had a gift certificate, they don't know! I could be new to the area too and not know anyone to watch her either, or work full time and had to do this during day off. The possibilities are endless and if my kid was a nut case and running all around the salon disturbing their time, by all means judge away because that's not right I agree! Just don't judge me when I walk in the door with my kid in my arms thinking that your pedicure is now ruined because I had to bring along my child.

To all the mommas out there who feel trapped in your homes and just want a quick pedicure or your hair done or anything really, I say go for it! To those ladies who can go it alone please don't judge the rest of us!!!! Would I rather go to the salon or the coffee shop alone?!? Well, yes I would, but I don't always get that luxury and I'm not going to stay in my house the whole time I raise my children either!

Don't Judge a person or their actions to early, you never know what's going to happen or their story when you do!