EASY Recycled Flannel Shirt Aprons

Recycled Flannel Shirt Aprons

Many of you know I am no sewing master.  Ok, I'm not even an master's apprentice, but I can sew a straight line, so when my church group decided to make flannel shirt aprons with little sewing involved I signed up. True to their word this was such a simple project and I was actually able to complete it at Super Saturday (now c'mon ladies, how often does that really happen!)  With my meager sewing skills I'd say this project took well under 1 hour.  I'm using this apron as a cleaning apron, but you could use it for cooking or crafts as well.  I have also asked my mother and my sister-in-law's mom for flannel shirts from dads to make one for each of them for Christmas.  I think this apron will be a great memory for many years to come!

Recycled Flannel Shirt Aprons:

Step #1:  Steal an old flannel shirt from your hubby (And don't let him catch you!  My husband walked in to the church right as I cut the sleeve off his shirt - LOL!!)  The bigger the better - XL works best.  If you don't have one this size head over to your local thrift store and pick one up for $2.  The shirt does not have to be flannel. In fact, I'm making one out of a hawaiian shirt right now.

Step #2: Cut off the shirt sleeves cutting on the outside seam. The more seams you avoid cutting away the less sewing involved!

Step #3:  Cut away back of shirt (save material) leaving the side seams in tact!

Step #4:  Draw a chalk line from the collar to the bottom corner of the sleeve hole and cut excess fabric.  Roll raw edge over and stitch to finish.  (Use a medium straight stitch.)

Waist tie before and after

Step #5:  Cut a (2) 2-3" strips of fabric from the scrap material as long as possible.  Fold each edge to the center and iron.  Fold one more time to create waist ties.  Stitch ties down all sides for added strength.

Step #6:  Attach strips to waist just under arm holes with a straight seam and voila - a really cool apron!

OPTIONAL Pocket: I cut one of the arms in half and then cut the back off, sewed the edges and the button front shut and attached it to my apron.  It fits a bottle of Windex perfectly!