One great way to get kids involved in the garden is setting them up with gear of their own. In this post we make a simple toddler size gardening apron, fill it with gardening tools and some special seeds for one little gardeners birthday.
First things first, Fabric. Any woven fabric will do however for a sturdy apron you’ll need sturdy fabric.
I am using a fat quarter of spoonflowers Lightweight cotton twill for the main body, because it is a nice and sturdy cotton without being too heavy or thick. I’ve also used a medium weight linen left over from bigger projects for the top band since it is hardy but light enough to use as a tie. Then for the applique pocket I used a small square of scrap quilting cotton.
Check out my designs on spoonflower, I am always uploading more, so check back often! Also! contact me over there for any custom designs or changes to any I currently have, let’s work together and make something cool!
This design is meant to be ultra simple, built up completely with rectangles, so there is no printed pattern required. This also means the fabric waste is nice and low.
Kids Gardening Apron
Supplies
- Fabric, sturdy woven fabric (I recommend cotton twill, canvas, or denim)
- Quilting cotton or linen for pocket and top band
- Iron on adhesive such as heat n bond
- sewing supplies, machine or needle, thread, scissors, iron, measuring tape
Measurements
Cotton twill
- cut 2- 37 cm x 20 cm (13.5 in x 8 in)
- cut 1- 37 cm x 15 cm (13.5 in x 6 in) **
** If you have a print you want to match up on the pocket with the background make sure you keep in mind the seam allowance for the pocket hem.
Quilting cotton / linen
- Applique pocket, cut 1- 13 cm x 15 cm (5 in x 6 in)
- Top band, cut 1- 9 cm x 95 cm (3.5 in x 37.5 in)
Applique
Use one small piece green and one orange woven fabric. Cut two small pieces of heat n bond and iron them to the wrong sides of your scrap fabric.
Draw on your shapes and cut them out.
How to sew a Kids Gardening Apron
Applique pocket
- Using the 13 cm x 15 cm (5 in x 6 in) quilting cotton pocket piece, hem the top edge by folding it over 1 cm and press, fold over another 1 cm and press. Sew two seams the length of the fold to hem.
- Fold over the two unsewn side edges 1cm and press, leave the bottom.
- Iron on your applique carrot pieces by removing the backing, placing them, then carefully ironing them in place. Make sure you leave enough room on the bottom seam allowance.
- Reduce your stitch length to a 1 or 1.5 and using a small zigzag stitch, stitch around each of your applique pieces. Add in any details you want within the carrot and greens. *remember to adjust your stitch length after you are done. this Step.
Body Pocket
- Hem the top of the 37 cm x 15 cm (13.5 in x 6 in) piece of cotton twill the same way you did in step 1.
- Line up your small cotton pocket into place on the cotton twill pocket, leave 2cm from the right edge and line the bottom up with the bottom of the fabric and pin in place. Stitch down the sides.
- Line your cotton twill pocket up onto the front body piece of cotton twill, place the bottoms and sides together and pin. Place your other body piece on top right sides together, pin all layers in place.
- Sew around the bottom and sides of all pieces together. Clip the corners slightly and remove any excess fabric.
- Turn right side out and press.
- Mark where you want the breaks in the large pocket to be, I made mine just big enough for the tools I bought, yours may be different.
- Stitch all the way up crossing onto the main body piece, turn and stitch for a few stitches then turn down and sew back to the bottom. Repeat for every break. * the double stitch is for strength.
- Top stitch around the sides and bottom.
- Fold the top band in half lengthwise and press, Fold in the side edges 1cm and press.
- Fold bottoms up 1cm for the bottom seam and press.
- Mark the center of your strap and the center of the apron body and line them up, place the apron body inside your top strap at least a cm and pin in place. Pin along the whole seam.
- Top stitch along the entire strap closing up the ends and sewing the apron in place, continue around the top to help it hold its shape.
- Trim all your threads and it is done!
Pinning the top strap on, step 11.
Kids Gardening kit.
With the apron sewn it’s time to fill it up. To completely kit I found nice wooden and metal gardening tools. We have plastic ones already but the kids just aren’t interested in using them as much as they are mine. Since these tools are basically the real deal my hope was that even if they didn’t want to use them at least if I get stuck with them they still function! Turns out these new tools are well loved and my plan worked!
Next I picked out some seeds, it needed to tick 3 boxes.
They had to be…
- Something new that we weren’t already growing.
- A warm weather crop so we still had time to start from seed.
- Exciting! and preferably something kid sized.
I landed on these Halona Melons from westcoast seeds, it’s a smallish melon that I’ve never grown before so it’s kind of an experiment too! When buying seeds I try to stick to local seed companies, chances are something from them is more likely to do better in this climate if this is where it’s grown. Cucamelons or strawberries would make a good one too but we already have some started.
Add in a small watering can to complete the set.
As a final touch I rolled the apron now fully loaded up into a roll and placed it in a terracotta pot before wrapping it up for my little gardeners birthday.
Do you have a little gardener too? or are you hoping to cultivate some love for growing? Either way check out my kids garden I build to help them learn and grow themselves. I’d love to here how you get your kids or even yourself excited about getting into the garden.
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These are super cute garden aprons! Love this!
This is a super fun sewing project and would be so easy to scale up to any size. Perfect little gardening apron.