Oxford Shirt Art Smocks - Tutorial

When I found out I was going to be teaching art this year, I knew I needed to come up with a easy way to make some smocks that could protect my clothes! I decided to use striped men's oxford style shirts as a short cut to quicky sew something together. Once I figured out what I wanted to do, it took less than an hour to make each smock.


I picked up a bag of 11 men's shirts at Encore, our school's new resale shop. They were having an end of season sale, so I got the entire bag for six dollars! I bought large sizes so I could get maximum coverage.


I found two shirts that I wanted to combine that were similar in size. For the top, I decided to cut off the collar so that the smock would fit comfortably over my clothes. (You could choose to leave the collar on, if you wished.)


I rolled the edge under, and used a zigzag stitch sew it down. Nothing fancy, just fast and durable. This is how it looked when I was done:


Then, on the top section of the smock, I drew a straight line across the bottom edge and then cut it to even out the edge.


Be care to avoid running into the buttons when you draw the line- try to trim either a couple inches above or below the button so you have a clear area to sew your seams.


For the bottom part of the smock, take your second shirt and draw a line just under the sleeves. Once again, be careful that you don't run into any buttons.


Put the right sides together, and sew the top and the bottom together. If the sizes of the two shirts don't exactly match, make little tucks along the seams - no one will notice!


I pressed the seams down, and then top stiched along the edge of the lower shirt.

Then I had to figure out an easy way to make a pocket! I used the cuff and part of one of the sleeves. I carefully took it apart at the seams, and pressed the edges underneath. Then I sewed the cuff onto the smock to make a pocket. I did two lines of stitching to help make it durable. It is a cute and practical touch! I sewed the buttons back on top the buttonholes because I thought it added a cute touch.


So that's all it takes to make these smocks. They are now my signature art room look, and provide my clothes with lots of protection from paint and mess!

Oxford Shirt Art Smocks

I am a new art teacher.
I also am a slob.
My clothes need protection from the dangers of the art room.
I needed a
quick,
easy,
inexpensive way
to create some art smocks
that I could wear in my new classroom.
I needed them to be big enough to cover me completely.
My clever solution was to make these clever smocks out of stripey men's shirts!

I cut off the collars.

I even recycled the cuff of the sleeve to make a pocket! Pockets are a must!

I made a short sleeve version, too.

In my next post I will give a little tutorial on how to put these fun little art smocks together!

Toile Provence Smock Apron

If you have a really good memory, you may recall the story of the upside down toile apron from last Christmas. That project was tucked away to be finished in the summertime, and I made another provence apron to give as a Christmas gift.


So here is the completed apron in all its upside fabric glory. I put red bias binding around the edges - not sure if I love it. But the style of the apron is wonderful. (Note: the directions for the binding are a bit confusing. But the designer of the apron visited here and offered to send unedited directions! See the comments to get her contact info.)


My favorite part is the criss-crossed straps in the back.


The pattern comes from A Is for Apron by Nathalie Mornu. This book has the cutest apron ideas! And here are the directions on how I used the Block Poster website to enlarge a scan of the pattern from the book.

Vintage Sheet Top - Simpicity 4589

Well, I dipped into my stash of vintage sheets again to sew up this little top from one of my favorite sheets. I've been wanting to do this ever since I saw how Creative Kismet made her top a while back. It only took a couple hours to put this together. I think maybe I needed one size bigger - it feels a bit snug in the hips and arms, but other than that I am happy how it turned out.

Vintage Sheet PJs

Orange. I don't think I have ever bought orange fabric in my life! (Actually, I don't think I have ever bought anything orange in my life, except maybe carrots and oranges!) But a while back I found an old vintage sheet with big orange flowers - not particularly the color I that attracts me. But it had a funky kind of vibe and I thought it would make some fun pajama pants.


I used an old pattern book that I had called Pants and Capris by Cindy Taylor Oates. I don't think it is still in print, but she has another book called Easy Sew Pajama pants which looks very similar to the pattern I used.



I bought a small strip of Paisley Party fabric from Guildcrafters in Berkley to add to the bottom of the pjs. My very first orange fabric ever! I added a little strip of green from another old sheet to pull out the green color. I was delighted with the combination. The pants are funky and comfortable and the sheet fabric is so soft!


For the top, I bought a t-shirt from Target. I used Wonder Under to fuse the little circles on the corner edge and outlined the borders by hand with some pearl cotton thread. (And yes, I had no orange thread in my stash, either!) I totally adore these! I want to make another pair, this time with shorts!

Provence Smock Apron

Brrrrr, school closed today due to extreme cold! My laptop says the temperature is 9 below with windchill at 30 below or more. Good morning to have my laptop in my lap to keep me warm and try to catch up with my blogging.


Here's one more apron that I made as a Christmas gift. This is the Provence Smock apron from the A Is for Apron: 25 Fresh & Flirty Designs
book I picked up in Shipshewana last summer. (This also is the pattern I started making with upside down toile!)

Of course the book had the pattern on a single page that needed to be enlarged. I used a clever trick to do it. I scanned the page and then loaded it into the BlockPoster site. This is a site where you can upload an image and then it will divide it up into pieces and print each section. I enlarged to 4 x 4 and printed. Then I taped all the pages together and my pattern was the correct size!!


I used fabric from the Moda Next collection. I really like how the straps cross the back - I think that is quite cute!


And to finish it off, I added a unique vintage button from my stash in the front!

Little Girl Apron

Here's a peak into two of the packages I showed you last time. I made 2 aprons for my friend's daughters. I used computer transfer paper to put their faces onto fabric and then sewed the face/fabric onto aprons that I designed for them.


The black and white fabric was accented with red rickrack, red ties, and lined with red fabric.


Here's how I folded the aprons up before I wrapped them in the packages:


And if you are looking for more "apron inspiration," here is a link to my favorite apron idea book:

Not so Clever Karen

I've been sewing a few Christmas gifts recently that I will share after the holidays, just in case someone comes peaking here, looking for a preview of presents. But here's a little view of something I've been working on:


Hmmm, something looks a bit off. Do you see it? Here's a closer look:


Something's not quite right with those French lads and lasses frolicking in the fields on this fabric.... Could they be.... ah, standing on their heads?


Ah, yes, didn't you know, a traditional French country custom, to dance on their heads for the holidays?????

Rats. So, I put this little project aside until after the holidays (I guess I"ll keep the upside toile for myself) and headed out to the fabric store feeling not very clever and bought new fabric to redo the project (which I will share later). So much for being clever...

Vintage Yellow Sheets 2

Here is the end result of my little vintage sheet project - a small quilt top that I can use as a table topper. It measures about 18 inches across.


It still isn't quilted yet - I think that will have to wait until after Christmas.


I like the cheerful combo of colors. It is a splash of spring color on a cold gray November day.

Vintage Yellow Sheets

About a year or so ago I started seeing some neat quilting and sewing projects popping up in blogs and in Flickr where people were using old colored sheets for the fabric.I loved the pastel sherbet colors combinations and I'm a sucker for vintage floral fabric. So every so often I've been stopping at the Salvation Army and picking up any cool colored sheets and pillowcases that they. I've been accumulating a little stash. Here is my collection of yellows:

So what to do with the fabric? I finally decided to do a little project just to see how the colors looked when combined together. It was somewhat traumatic to cut into those huge untouched sheets and pillowcases, and especially difficult to navigate the fitted sheets!

I cut strips one and a half inches wide....


sewed them together into long strips...


Stay tuned - next post I'll show you what I've made out of them.

Friendship Block Quilt

This is my most recent quilt and is my favorite. It is based on the technique in Eleanor Burns' Egg Money Quilts. It was a great way to use all my fat quarters of vintage reproduction fabrics. I like to use it on my table during the summer.

Thimbleberry Quilt

This is another quilt that I first saw on Simply Quilts. I had the quilt store order the pattern for me. I thought it would be a lot smaller, but actually it is a medium size - too big for my wall space. I really do like the design with the pine trees, the houses on the diagonal, and the fence that surrounds the border of the quilt.

Tomorrow is the last of the quilts. I'll share my favorite and most recent one!

Home of the Brave Quilt

Day 4 of Clever Quilts week: a small quilt inspired by an episode of "Simply Quilts." Perfect for decorating in July!

Kitty Love Quilt

Another quilt for Clever Quilt week. This is my cat quilt. I found the idea for this in a book from the library, but I can't recall what book it was so I can't give credit. (If I find it, I will update later with the information.)

I made it out of flannel and in colors that work for Christmas but also can go later into the winter. I especially like the strips of various fabrics used as a border.

I'm also showing below how I hang these smaller quilts on a curtain rod using curtain clips. I know purists out there will object that it could damage the quilt, but it works for me because it is easy to change out the quilts.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my next reveal!