Helen’s Closet York apron

I recently made this waxed cotton apron for a friend, in exchange for an afternoon learning to make soap (you can see a reel of me cutting the soap here and the final product here). Moira lived in Japan for a long time in the ‘80s and had a Japanese apron she loved that was falling to pieces. After looking at the original apron, I knew I could recreate the cross-back style using the Helen’s Closet York pinafore apron expansion.

I used one of the last pieces in my stash of this lovely forest green waxed cotton. It originally came from The Man Outside Sainsburys (TMOS to his friends) in Walthamstow, on one of my many excursions to foggy London town to see my bestie. I’ve used it for many projects over the years, mostly Sierra totes and similar, but this was the last large piece and I’m pleased to put it to good use.

That cross back design makes it super easy to slip over the head and wrap around the body. It gives strong pottery studio vibes I think, I would love to try to hack the pattern to make separate legs at the front for my Mum, who is a potter. This size doesn’t fit me but I wanted to model it for the blog, since it’s hard to visualise this pattern as a flat lay.

There are a few different options for pockets but I went with the straight forward chest and hip pockets. You could go to town with topstitching, bar tacks, rivets and the like but I kept this one quite simple. Mostly because I was running late to have it done in time to gift to Moira…

The one downside of this pattern is the 8 metres (that’s right pals, 8) of bias tape you need. I’m a fan of making my own bias tape, it’s the perfect way to use up scraps and create a unique touch to the inside of your project. Facking hell though, 8 metres is a LOT. It’s mostly neat inside but there are definitely some areas where my topstitching wavered around and I wasn’t going back to unpick. This bias tape was made from an old pair of Cath Kidson pyjama bottoms. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

The fabric had a small stretch percentage, which made navigating those corners a bit of a pain. Annoyingly, the front neckline stretched and puckered at the most obvious point, right in your eyeline. The problem with waxed cotton is any holes made with the needle are visible, even when you unpick, so I had to decide which was more obvious - a line of holes from unpicking or a pucker. I ended up leaving the pucker but it definitely caused a moment of annoyance.

Overall though, I’m really happy with the outcome. I’ll definitely be attempting a split front hack for my Mum at some point. Making this pattern in a woven would make navigating those curves easier, assuming you’ve clipped your seam line. Waxed cotton is so lovely to work with, I’m looking forward to my next project!