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HOW TO MAKE A CUTE APRON FROM OLD JEANS - Sew and no-sew upcycle versions!
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Jan 17, 2025
In this video you will learn how to turn an old pair of jeans into a super cute half apron. These are great for crafters, bakers, DIYers, cleaners, etc! Get with the upcycling game and upcycle all your old jeans into useful projects. If you want to add the denim flowers from the legs of the jeans then check out https://youtu.be/LepSj-vMmfo If you enjoy crafting my blog is full of great ideas and tutorials. Plus if you subscribe you gain access to my free resource library, which includes a home crafts e-book, planners and much more, and get to hear about my latest projects first. Take a look at https://christines-crafts.com/ Enjoy watching and creating your own upcycled jeans apron. Please leave me a 'thumbs up' if you enjoyed this video and subscribe so that you get to see all my videos as they are posted. You can also find me across social media. To see all my information and ideas find me at https://linktr.ee/Christines_Crafts. If you are thinking of opening an Etsy store then use this link and get off to a great start with 40 free listings https://etsy.me/32xoPdg
View Video Transcript
0:00
in this video i'm going to show you how
0:01
to make a super cute little apron out of
0:03
your old jeans just like this one you
0:05
can decorate it however you like but
0:07
really easy
0:08
i'm christine of christine's crafts and
0:11
this channel is dedicated to crafting on
0:12
a budget
0:13
so all you're going to need is your
0:15
jeans and you're either going to be
0:16
sewing or gluing your apron
0:19
and you're going to need scissors
0:20
obviously so you're going to start with
0:22
your jeans and we're going to use the
0:23
top part of your jeans
0:26
so i recommend before you start cutting
0:28
anything just fasten them up
0:30
and level up those tops it's just going
0:32
to make it a little bit easier when we
0:34
cut
0:35
now the first cut is definitely going to
0:37
be a rough cut
0:39
but you don't want to do it wrong all
0:40
the same
0:42
so line them up you can see i'm just
0:44
taking a bit of time
0:46
and then seeing as we're going to use
0:47
the back
0:48
of your jeans as the front of the apron
0:51
it's worth having that side up
0:54
so that you can see exactly where you're
0:56
cutting
0:57
so what we're going to do is cut the
0:59
legs off
1:00
and you're going to cut them off just at
1:02
the top of the legs
1:04
and as to say we're going to tidy it up
1:07
later on
1:08
so be bold and just cut those legs off
1:14
come from one side
1:16
and cut the other one off
1:19
so you've already made the size your
1:21
apron is going to be and don't worry
1:23
about underneath there we're going to
1:25
sort that out in a moment
1:28
because it's not going to lie flat and
1:30
we'll have to deal with that
1:32
so the first thing we're going to do
1:34
is look at cutting the front off
1:38
and we'll start by cutting up the side
1:39
seams now if you don't want to sew or
1:42
glue the sides you can cut right up
1:44
against the side seam really really
1:47
close in
1:48
um that's actually my preferred way of
1:50
making these but i'm going to do a seam
1:51
up the side just so i can show you how
1:53
to do it it's actually a nice little
1:55
shabby edge if you you just leave it raw
1:58
so cut through any pockets and things
2:00
that are on the front of the jeans we
2:02
want rid of all of it and be careful if
2:04
there are any rivets now everything
2:06
you're doing with these jeans be very
2:08
careful denim is quite tough
2:10
there are lots of layers and there are
2:12
metal fittings we don't want anybody to
2:14
get hurt
2:15
so once you've cut at one side cut up
2:18
the other side
2:20
all the way up to the waistband now
2:22
we're leaving the waistband on
2:24
because that is going to form our strap
2:27
to make these super quick and easy to
2:29
make
2:31
so once you've got up the sides we then
2:33
need to come
2:35
along the waistband
2:37
so set off and cut along now when you
2:40
come to a belt loop
2:41
my recommendation is that you firstly go
2:44
round the belt loop
2:47
um back up to the waistband
2:50
and then you're going to go
2:52
under the belt loop so it's going to
2:54
become loose at the bottom
2:57
and still be attached to the top of the
2:59
waistband and we'll deal with that in a
3:01
moment
3:02
so just keep cutting along that
3:04
waistband nice and close but not
3:06
actually cutting the waistband so you'll
3:08
see it's come time to undo the jeans to
3:10
make it a little bit easier
3:13
again if you've got a metal zip be very
3:15
careful we don't want to be cutting
3:16
through metal with any nice dress making
3:19
scissors for example
3:21
and then just repeat on the other half
3:22
of the front
3:24
do the same thing going around the belt
3:26
loop again
3:28
and you should get to the point now
3:30
where you remove the whole of the front
3:32
of the jeans
3:33
they'll still be attached at the bottom
3:37
and you can simply
3:39
cut across there
3:42
to get rid of them
3:44
and that's your front gun off your jeans
3:55
so now you can see it's starting to form
3:58
an apron
4:01
and we're going to deal with those
4:03
little belt loops we left now what i
4:05
recommend is that you use a little seam
4:07
ripper or quick on pick depending what
4:09
you call it and just undo those stitches
4:11
to remove them
4:13
now if you haven't got one don't worry
4:15
if you've got some little tiny pointed
4:17
scissors you'll probably be able to cut
4:19
in there you'll just have to be very
4:20
careful not to cut the waistband
4:23
and the idea is just to get that belt
4:24
loop off
4:26
and then you can
4:27
take that extra bit of jeans off the
4:28
other end and you can use your belt
4:30
loops for attaching to your apron to
4:33
hang things on which i'll show you later
4:35
on
4:36
now if you've got any bits like i have a
4:38
label sticking out just cut it off it's
4:41
just in the way and we just want rid of
4:43
it
4:46
now you can see at the bottom we haven't
4:49
got it nice and flat because your jeans
4:51
are shaped to fit around your bottom
4:54
so we're going to have to do something
4:55
with that
4:57
so i recommend you turn it to the right
4:58
side so you can make sure you're doing a
5:00
nice tidy job and just cut along the
5:03
edge of the existing seam
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now how far up you need to go is a
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little bit trial and error
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but just go two three inches up
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and then you should be able to lay one
5:14
layer on top of the other and get it
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nice and flat and smooth
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now you'll see i'm having a try here
5:22
not quite smooth enough
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and if that's the case
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simply go up and cut a little bit
5:29
further
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the idea here is just to get it to lie
5:34
flat
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and once you're happy that it is lying
5:37
flat if you're gluing your apron
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simply glue it down flat
5:43
and that's it your jeans will be ready
5:45
now if you're sewing
5:47
i recommend you pop a little pin in
5:49
there and sew around that seam just to
5:52
hold it flat
5:55
you see pop a little pin
5:58
through all the layers
6:01
and then just sew that down and it'll
6:03
just keep it nice
6:04
so now we can level off the bottom of
6:06
our apron
6:08
so measure from the top to the bottom at
6:09
one side and at the other and make sure
6:12
you get them both the same it doesn't
6:14
matter what your measurement is as long
6:16
as you're happy with it and they're
6:18
identical
6:19
and then you want a nice long ruler
6:21
across the bottom
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just joining those two up and do what
6:24
i've done which is just draw a line and
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then you'll get a nice straight edge
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it's going to be hidden so don't worry
6:30
about there being
6:31
a black felt tip pen or something
6:33
similar on there
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draw a nice straight line
6:38
and then cut along it
6:40
take a little time just to cut nicely
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because if you cut this edge nicely
6:45
you'll probably sew or glue a nice
6:47
straight edge and it'll just end up with
6:49
a better finish
6:52
so careful in the middle you've got that
6:53
thick seam and careful at the edges
6:56
you've also got that bulk of a seam
7:00
so now we can tidy up all those edges so
7:04
if you've
7:05
already decided you're not folding your
7:07
edges over at the side then you don't
7:09
need to worry about it that's already
7:11
done but if you are folding a seam over
7:13
to make it tidy at the sides you'll
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probably need to snip to the side seam
7:17
at the top because you probably haven't
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cut it quite all the way in
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like i'm having to here
7:26
and the same at the other side
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just take a moment to get it in there
7:34
properly
7:38
and then simply fold along your existing
7:40
seam line you've got the side seam of
7:42
the jeans to work your way along and
7:44
then you can pin
7:46
or clip it closed
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now you'll see here there's often a
7:50
rivet on that side seam and obviously
7:52
you can't sew through that
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so if you want to remove it you can or
7:57
you can do what i do which is so up to
7:59
it from either side which you'll see
8:01
later in the video
8:05
and i would do this down one side
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and down the other
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so i'm doing the sides of this first
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again
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just nipping along that side seam
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and getting a good edge
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and then turn your attention to the
8:21
bottom
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so you're simply going to fold it up a
8:23
small turn quarter or half an inch is
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plenty
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i wouldn't do a double fold because it's
8:30
just going to get too bulky and
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impossible to sew unless you've got an
8:34
industrial machine
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and if you're like me you've got a small
8:37
domestic sewing machine jeans are
8:40
challenging enough to sew
8:42
so you don't want to make it even harder
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so work your way along and then once
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you're happy you've got a good flat edge
8:49
on the bottom and you've got those side
8:50
seams
8:52
it's time to go over to the machine
8:54
now when it comes to sewing denim i
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really do recommend getting a needle
8:58
especially for denim because it's very
9:00
easy to break your sewing machine needle
9:02
as you sew around these
9:04
denims tough and some of this is thick
9:07
layers
9:09
so
9:09
you're going to sew each side seam and
9:12
along the bottom
9:13
it doesn't matter what order you do them
9:15
in
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so long as you're happy with your
9:18
progress
9:19
and the way you want to do it so the
9:22
first thing i'm going to do is sew along
9:23
the bottom
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and what you might find is that corner
9:28
is too bulky for your machine
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now mine is just a normal domestic
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janome machine
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and there's really not a lot of height
9:36
under that foot
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so if you have trouble just open the
9:40
corner up
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and cut some of the bulk out
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because you've got that side seam there
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there's a lot of bulk in there you
9:47
really don't need
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so open it up
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snip some out
9:53
and then fold it and try again and if
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it's not sufficient then maybe you need
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to cut a bit more bulk out you can see i
9:58
could have cut more out of there
10:00
but then have another go
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i also recommend because it's so thick
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that you start turning the wheel by hand
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and do a little bit of hand stitching
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with the machine at the end just to make
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sure it's going to go okay and to
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minimize your chances of snapping your
10:14
needle
10:16
so you'll see i start very slowly
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i'm doing it by hand
10:22
and then once i'm happy this is okay
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i can engage the machine do a little
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reverse to keep the seam strong so it
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won't unravel
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and then set off down that side seam and
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just go all the way along the side seam
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keeping the same distance from the
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bottom if you can so you get a nice neat
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finish
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when you get to the middle you're going
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to come to that bulky seam
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again if you need to cut a bit of bulk
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out and then just take your time perhaps
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turning it by hand again
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and then when you're past it you can set
10:55
off again
10:58
now when you get to this corner
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you're going to have the same problem
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again potentially you might need to cut
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a bit of bulk out
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now if you were gluing your seam along
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the bottom you've simply folded it up
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applied your glue folded it up and then
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maybe put something on top to hold it
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down
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whilst it dries
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and you won't have this issue with
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sewing
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it's up to you whether you're so or no
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sew your apron
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so once you've sewn the bottom and
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you'll notice i always clip all my
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threads off as i go along i just find it
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a lot tidier and it means they don't get
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caught up in any other seams as i'm
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sewing
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it's time for the sides now these really
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are bulky
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and you'll see that i've come to the
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machine i've decided it's just too bulky
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and
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you can go in there and cut out all the
11:48
bulk so you might have pockets like i've
11:50
got
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you could have extra bits of denim
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just cut out as much as you possibly can
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so
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if you think about this earlier you can
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do it before you pin it or clip it
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but i didn't really think about it until
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i got it to the machine
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but then simply open it up
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cut out the bulk
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and then clip it back closed
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you can see
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the other side of the rivet i've also
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got some bulk that i can cut out so i'm
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cutting up to the rivet and i'm cutting
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after the rivet
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being careful not to put my scissors
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through the rivet
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i'll not do my scissors any good
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so what we're going to do is sew up to
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that rivet
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and take it out from the machine
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and then sew the little bit above the
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rivet
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as i say another method is simply to
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remove the rivet
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or to cut your side seams so that you
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don't need to sew anything over you just
12:50
get a
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shabby edge which is quite sweet on
12:53
these aprons to be honest
12:55
so we're going to go again
12:57
you've already sewn that corner so you
12:59
know you can fit it under there okay a
13:01
little reverse
13:04
work your way up
13:06
and just be careful that you're not
13:09
going to go through any rivets or metal
13:11
fittings because they will definitely
13:13
snap your needle
13:16
so a little reverse
13:22
and then that's sewn
13:27
you can see sometimes i'm having a bit
13:28
of trouble pulling it out from under the
13:30
foot which shows you just how tight it
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is under there
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and i'm sure those of you with a big
13:36
machine are
13:37
smiling a little bit because you'll be
13:39
having no trouble whatsoever
13:43
and then
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you're going to try and wriggle it back
13:45
in again
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on the other side of the rivet
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now obviously you can't so right up to
13:51
the river because that just won't go
13:52
under the foot if you've got too much
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bulk there which i have
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so
13:57
wiggle it about
13:59
until you get it in don't worry about
14:02
taking a little bit of time and a little
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bit of wiggling
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you can then just sew that top bit it's
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just going to make a much better finish
14:11
on your apron
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because it can't just open up
14:15
and look too shabby
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get to the end all a little reversing
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cutting the threads off
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and then you do the same with the other
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side
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so now you've got your apron
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and it's all finished but i'm going to
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recommend some little tips here
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so one is to use those belt loops you
14:39
remove just hand sew them on at either
14:41
end and then you can hang things through
14:43
them and you can decorate your apron
14:45
however you like
14:47
lots of things you could add to
14:48
embellish using glue or sewing and if
14:51
you fancy adding some denim flowers like
14:53
i've got on mine here then watch the
14:55
video that's come up on your screen now
14:57
and good luck with your apron
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