Apron for Olive Oil Bottle

So remember this mini apron I made my mom for her dish detergent? She decided it would be better for her oil bottle -- the kind with the pour top you use to store olive oil. I was watching her cook the other day and noticed that the fabric slips against the olive oil bottle, and that she had to grip the bottle and the fabric so the mini apron wouldn't slip. Well, I will not allow this, so I revised my mini apron design with an anti-slip backing. Since several readers requested it, I decided to write up a tutorial.

 I love this French inspired fabric from a local quilt shop. 

This reminds me of my honeymoon in Paris.

:: Mini Apron for Dish Detergent or Any Bottles! ::

MATERIALS:

- Scrap piece of regular quilting fabric for the front of the apron

- Scrap piece of anti-slip fabric (see image below) for the back of the apron. I got mine from Jo-Ann Fabric. This non-slip fabric works like magic!

- One 25" x 2" strip of fabrics for the ruffle

- Two 10" x 1" strips of fabric for the two ties

- One 4" x 1" strip of fabric for the neck strap

- Pattern for the mini apron. 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Try to prewash all fabrics. Download and print the apron pattern.

2.  Trace the mini apron pattern onto your front and backing fabrics. Cut them out.

3. It's time to make the ruffle (aka pleats); I think this is the trickiest part of the entire project! Fold the 25" x 2" strip of fabric in half length wise right-side together. Stitch the two sides as show below. 

Then turn it inside out so you will have two nice corners. Iron it well.

4. Time to create the pleats. Take this nicely ironed strip to your sewing machine and simply create as many pleats as you need to go around the curve of the apron. Just eye ball it! I used my quarter seam footer to help guide me.

Here is how your pleats should look. The length should be about 13".

5. Now let's prepare the straps used for this apron. Take your three straps of 1" fabrics and fold them like you would with binding.

 Stitch them up!

6. Okay. We are going to sew this whole thing up. You are about done! I find it easier to sew the top first: two fabrics right-side facing each other with the neck strap inside these two fabrics. Open it up, as shown below. And sew your ruffle first onto your main fabric. Then sew the two straps on top of the ruffle. Are you following me?!

 7. Now close this up, and you are going to sew around the entire apron with all straps and the ruffle in between these two fabrics. Leave about 2" of opening so you can turn everything inside out. Trim and snip around the corners.

 8. Turn it inside out, iron it, and blind stitch the 2" opening. And you are all done!

Ah! So cute. I think I will have to make another one for my olive oil bottle! 

9. My other version of this apron has a little red heart pocket on one side. You can add these pockets to the apron at this point if you like.

I hope this tutorial makes sense and that you are able to follow. Let me know if anything doesn't make sense. Thanks, mom, for your creativity. I see where I got mine from :)