I had an email a couple of weeks ago inviting me to enter the 2015 Hillarys Craft Competition.  You might remember the Cathedral Windows Cushion I made for last year’s competition.

It was very difficult to choose a fabric this year as they were all so beautiful. In the end, I requested a piece of Rayna Apple.

My kitchen is decorated in these colours so I thought I would make something with a culinary theme. The obvious choice for me was to make an apron as mine has seen better days. However, an apron would have taken up nearly all of the fabric and I wanted to use it to better effect. So, I’ve been very thrifty with it and used it to make 4 kitchen accessories and still have a little left over.

I bought a plain black cotton twill apron from eBay for under £2 and have jazzed it up with the Rayna Apple fabric. This is very quick and easy, just follow the steps below:

To add a band of fabric across the top:

Cut out a strip of fabric, 12cm by 27cm.  Turn the raw edges under.  How much will depend on the size of your apron. When you are happy with the size, press well. Pin the piece of fabric to the top of the apron being careful to line it up with the top so it is straight. Then top stitch.   I used black cotton in the bobbin and white for the top.

I also made a pocket on top of the original apron pocket. For this you will need something to mark the fabric with and a piece of plain cotton slightly larger than the original apron pocket. (I made my top pocket slightly shorter in height than the original pocket.)

First, lay the Hillarys’ fabric right side down on top of the original apron pocket and copy the shape of the original pocket with tailors’ chalk or Frixion pen on to the wrong side of the Hillarys fabric.  Repeat this step using the piece of plain cotton.

Cut the fabric pieces out about 1cm bigger than the chalked line all the way around. Place the two pieces of fabric that you have just cut out, right sides together, stitch on the chalked line leaving a gap of about 5cm at the bottom.  Turn the pocket right side out through the gap and press.

Pin the pressed pocket onto the front of the original apron pocket and top stitch around 3 sides leaving the top open.

I still had quite a bit of fabric left so on to the next item – a double oven glove.

I made quite a few of these a few years ago as gifts but didn’t make one for myself.

For the full instructions on how to make the oven glove, please click and download:

Oven Gloves Pattern

Here’s how I put this version together:

There are 4 layers to this oven glove and 2 pattern pieces.

1. Main fabric
2. Lining
3. Wadding/Batting
4. Insul-bright (Heat proof interfacing)

And this is the order to put them in:

Next step is to quilt these mitt parts:

Then get the larger part of the oven glove ready:

Pin and quilt in the same way you did the smaller pieces.

Then attach the 3 parts:

And sew bias binding around the whole thing, remembering to add a loop of binding so you can hang the glove up:

I still had some fabric left!  So I embellished a hand towel:

And still there is fabric leftover.  Enough for a kitchen utensil holder:

For this make I used a coffee container.  To prepare the tin,  give it at least one coat of Gesso.

Cut a piece of fabric allowing for a 1cm hem at top and bottom and an overlap of 3cm. Press all the hems.

Spray the tin with craft adhesive, then carefully but quickly roll the fabric around the tin.

And I still have some fabric left!