Gardeners Bucket Apron Tutorial

Alright folks. Here it is... my first tutorial! I was trying to come up with a clever Mothers Day gift and I thought I'd share with all of you how to do it. If you know a special lady who loves to garden, this would make a great gift.

Here is what I'll be showing you how to make:

This tutorial is VERY picture heavy. I wanted to be as thorough as possible so you could end up with a finished project without frustration =) You will basically be making two separate aprons for this project.

The supplies you'll need to get started are as follows:

-A 5 gallon bucket (I picked up one at  my local hardware store for about $5)
-1 yard each of a main focus fabric and a contrasting fabric
-thread
-pins
-sewing machine (if you have a walking foot for your machine I highly recommend you use it for this project. If not, pin like crazy.)
-chalk pencil or something to mark on fabric that will wash out
-ruler

1. From your main focus fabric, you need to cut:

-2 pieces measuring 17.5" x 13.5"
-1 piece 22" x 17.5" (pocket #1)
-1 piece 15" x 17.5" (pocket #2)
-1 piece 11" x 17.5" (pocket #3)

2. From your contrasting fabric, you need to cut:

-2 pieces measuring 17.5" x 13.5"
-3 2.5" x 13.5" strips
-3 2.5" x WOF (width of fabric. Fold fabric in half from selvedge to selvedge) strips
-2 3" x WOF strips

This is my main focus fabric. Pictured are the two pieces 17.5" x 13.5" that I cut.

3. For the 3 pocket pieces you cut, you need to fold each of them in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press along the fold. After you've done that your pockets should look like this:

4. We now need to add a contrasting binding to the top (folded edge) of all 3 of your pockets. For these, you will use the 3 2.5" x 17.5" strips you cut from the contrasting fabric.

To make the binding, take one strip and fold (wrong sides together) in half lengthwise, and press:

After you've pressed it, open it up again. You see the line inside?

Now take the top edge and fold it down to that line. Press again.

Repeat this step with the bottom edge.

Now, fold in half and press yet AGAIN =)

5. You are ready to stitch this strip to the folded edge of your pocket. Slip the edge of your pocket inside the fold of the binding and pin.

 Stitch carefully along the edge of the binding.

Repeat this process 3 times, until all of your pocket pieces have the edges bound.

5. When step 4 is complete, you need to layer the pocket pieces on top of the large 17.5" x 13.5" pieces of your main fabric.

You will notice one has two layers of pockets. You can have as many or as few pockets as you want. This is just how I chose to configure them. Play around with the design to see what works best for you. As you can see, I also have pictured above, the large 17.5" x 13.5" pieces of contrasting fabric. These will be the backside of the bucket apron. Turn the contrasting fabric so the wrong side is facing up (toward you) and set your main fabric with pockets on top. Like this:

6. Pin the layers together to avoid having them shift around while you are marking your stitch lines.

To mark my stitch lines for the pockets I used a chalk pencil and a large acrylic ruler.

 You'll want to measure how far apart you want your pockets to be. They do not all need to be the same size. Above, you can see I measured in 6 inches. I made a small mark, and moved my ruler up a few inches more. Then I measured in another 6 inches and made another mark.

 Now, here I am turning my ruler vertically to "connect the dots" I made. This will ensure you get a straight stitching line. I repeated this until I had my desired amount of pockets.

Now, this is where the walking foot on your sewing machine will come in very handy. It helps to feed the top and bottom layers evenly through your machine to prevent bunching.

7. In this picture you can see my chalk line. I just follow the line as I'm stitching along.

Once you have stitched over all of your lines, your piece should look like this:

You also need to stitch a line JUST ABOVE the top of the lower pockets. Otherwise, your top layer of pockets will be way too deep.

Repeat steps 5 through 7 for your second pocket apron.

8. Now we need to make the binding that will go all around the 3 outside edges of each pocket apron. If you are a quilter like me, you may not need to follow along for this step, but I took pictures of this process for my non-quilty friends too.

Take the 3 pieces of contrasting fabric you cut that measure 2.5" x WOF. To make the binding, you need to sew all three of these pieces together, end to end like this:

 Place 2 strips, right sides together, on top of each other like you see in the picture above. It should look like a giant, upside down "L".

Stitch the 2 pieces together at a 45 degree angle. YOU MUST do it exactly as pictured above or you will have to take your stitches out and start over. After they are stitched together, your strip should look like this:

 You then want to trim the excess fabric and press the seam open:

Repeat this step again to add the 3rd strip. When you are done, you should end up with a very long strip of fabric. We now take that very long strip of fabric and fold it in half, wrong sides together, lengthwise, and press all the way down. You should now have this:

9. Time to attach the binding around the outer 3 edges of the pocket aprons (we are leaving the top open for now).

Working on the backside of your pocket apron, line up the RAW edge of your binding strip with the RAW edge of pocket apron #1. See where my thumb is there? That should be the folded edge of the binding.

Using 1/4 inch seam allowance, begin at the top and begin stitching down the edge. When you get about 1/4" from your first corner STOP. This is where it feels a bit like making origami...

 Lift your sewing machine needle and presser foot. Pull the fabric out just enough so that you can maneuver and fold the binding a bit. First, you want to lift the binding up and make a 45 degree angle fold as shown above. Then, you fold the binding back down on top of the 45 degree fold... Clear as mud, eh?

Starting at the corner, put your fabric back under the needle and sew in a few stitches at a 45 degree angle. Then turn, and continue stitching straight down until you get to the next corner. Should look something like this:

Trim any excess fabric you may have (like I clearly did in the above photo). Your seam should be 1/4" all the way around. After you've got the binding attached to the back of pocket apron 1, you will have a long tail of binding left on the end. Trim it off. You will use this to bind pocket apron #2. Now repeat this step with pocket apron #2 and we're almost done, I swear.

10. It's now time to fold the binding over to the front and stitch it down. Turn your work over so you are looking at the main focus fabric (the side with the pockets). Fold the binding up and over that edge:

 Press it down with your iron and pin in place. When you get to the corners, fold them over like this:

Now that you have it all pinned down on the front side, take it back to your machine and carefully stitch along the edge of the binding.

 When you are finished, you should have 2 pocket apron pieces that look like this:

11. For the straps that tie these pocket aprons onto the bucket, we are going to use our last two pieces of fabric you cut, which are the 3" x WOF strips from the contrasting fabric. 

Remember back in step 4, when we made the pocket binding? We are basically doing the same exact thing here. The only difference is that you will need to fold in both ends of each strip about 1/2" like this:

After you have folded and pressed and made, what looks like two really long pocket bindings... slip the unfinished top of pocket apron #1 into the first tie. You want it to be centered so the tie hangs off both sides.

Then, starting at one end, stitch down the entire length of the tie to the other end.

Stitch those little ends shut too like I did in the photo just above. Repeat for pocket apron #2.

12. THE LAST STEP! YAY!

All of your sewing, cutting, measuring, folding... that's all done. Now we just need to tie a couple knots.

Grab your 2 pocket aprons and your bucket. Wrap the aprons around the bucket (one on one side, another on the other side). Use the ties to make a knot - tie it tightly or it won't stay up once you pile all your garden tools in - on either side. I needed an extra pair of hands for this part so I enlisted one of my kids to assist.

Voila! Here is your finished gardeners bucket! You can give it as is, or fill the pockets with gardening tools. I'll also be putting a beautiful flowering plant in the bucket itself before I give it.

All of the pictures and steps can seem intimidating, but I made this project start to finish in just a few hours time. And that includes the time it took taking all the photos, writing steps down as I went along, and leaving for a bit to pick up my kids from school =)

Please let me know if you have any questions or if any steps aren't as clear as they should be. As this is my first tutorial I wouldn't be surprised if I skipped a necessary photo or two. Also, if you make this project, I would love to hear from you to see how it turned out!