Little Mermaid apron

Hank's sweet little friend Emma had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. Since I've been loving the princess aprons floating around on Pinterest, I thought it would be fun to make one for Emma. After looking through all my fabric, I decided on an Ariel apron.

 Purple for the shells, cream for the belly, and green fabric for the tail.

 Although I didn't want the apron to be "sexy," my purple fabric was cut into two rectangles, so when I sewed them together, they looked odd left straight. They seemed to be much better when I gathered them, so I reconciled myself to embracing the gather.

 Next I sewed the "shells" to the belly fabric.

 Then I ironed my two pieces of teal fabric so I could hem it and then ruffle it.

 Then I pinned the shorter ruffle to the top of the tail, for the waist part of Ariel's tail. (do you like my glorious fake bling? Me too.)

 To save myself some sewing, I pinned the top to the ruffle as well,

 kinda like a sandwich, and sewed them together.

 Ta da! The front is mostly finished. When I got to this point, I decided that since I was going to line the back of the apron anyway, I might as well make it reversible. Because two aprons are always better than one, right? So, I poked back into my stash and came up with some pink fabrics that I thought kind-of looked like Ariel's dress that she wears to dinner with Prince Eric.

 I gathered the top piece again, so it would be easier to line up with the purple side.

 I also cut two layers of curvy fabric for the puffs on the bottom of the skirt and sewed them together along the curve. 

 I used a small straight piece of the stripey fabric for the waistband.

 (Can't get this photo to turn, for some reason) I attached the gathered top and the waistband to the top of the apron. In hindsight, I REALLY wish I had used two layers of the plain pink fabric--it is just so see-through.

 Then I laid out the skirt, pinned them all together and sewed them.

 The finished pink side.

 After I had both sides finished, I started pinning them right-sides together. I pinned the ruffles along the bottom, pinned the ties and my little signature tag, pinned the gathered top...everything. I just left a small gap so that I could turn it after I had it all sewed together. In hindsight, I wish I had sewed the green and pink ruffle fabric together and then ruffled it, so that they would have laid better, but all in all, it looks good.

 After it was all sewed together and I turned it and ironed everything, I top-stitched the outside closed.

 Voila! The finished shells-and-tail side (it's hard to see, but there are white ribbons at the waist and neck so the apron can be tied on).

And the finished pink side. You can really see how see-through that pink fabric is, and I'm totally kicking myself for not thinking of doing two layers there until after everything was sewn together, but hindsight is always perfect, right? I really am pleased with how cute this apron turned out, and I hope Miss Emma Grace gets much enjoyment out of it--she sure was thrilled when she opened it at her birthday party!

Hank was so cute as I worked on this project--he loves Emma, and whenever I needed to measure him or hold something up against him (Emma is much smaller than Hank but I used him as a model so hopefully it will fit her for a long time) I told him "Hank, be my helper to make Emma's present!" He would immediately stop whatever he was doing, hold perfectly still, and puff out his little chest. When I went to show the apron to Dave, Hank ran up, pointed to the apron, and said "Emma! Emma!" It was adorable.