
If you’re an American Girl fan, you’ve no doubt been introduced to the new “Girl of the Year” Grace Thomas and her marvelous 2015 collection. Collectors that visited an American Girl store on the first few days of new year may have been lucky enough to get Grace’s Apron as a free giveaway. Alas, the nearest AG store is a seven-plus hour drive from our home, so no free apron for us!
Fortunately, aprons are very easy to make. So may I present, the MSF version of Grace’s Patisserie Apron!

Want to make your own Patisserie Apron? Here’s what you’ll need:
- Patisserie Apron Pattern for 18″ Dolls
- 1/4 yard Woven Fabric – Twill or Denim is ideal.
- 30 inches of (approximately) 1 inch wide Twill Tape or Bias Tape (packaged -or- make your own)
- Snaps or Velcro
- Sewing Machine and Coordinating Thread
- {Optional} Home Printer to print designs on your apron
- {Optional} Polka dot ribbon and/or other embellishments
IMPORTANT – Be sure to download and save the pattern to your hard drive and print at “Actual Size” from a PDF reader like Adobe Reader. If you print directly from your browser, the pattern may not print at the correct scale.
General Instructions
- All seams have 1/4″ seam allowance unless otherwise noted.
- If your fabric frays, finish seam allowances with a serger or a short narrow zig zag stich.
- Read completely through instructions before beginning. Let me know if you have questions. I’d be happy to help!
Cutting the Pattern
1. Using the pattern pieces as a guide, cut your fabric. Cut three pieces of twill tape (or bias tape): Two pieces each 11 inches long, and a third piece is the length of the apron pocket (just a little over 7 1/2 inches long).

2. [Optional] Add a printed design to your Patisserie Apron. Did you know you can print a design using a regular ink jet home printer right onto fabric? You totally can! I used my 15 year old Hewlett Packard Desk Jet for this project with one of my usual generic eBay ink cartridges. No special equipment required.
I did this two ways. The first time, I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, so I printed my design onto a small rectangle of fabric. When it came out just how I wanted, I sewed the printed rectangle directly onto my apron like an applique.
The second time, a little more confident that the printing would come out as planned, I printed directly onto my apron fabric.
I like how both look, so you can choose!
**It would be a good idea to test your print settings on some scrap fabric before attempting to print on your apron** I found that I got best printing results setting my printer for “Best” quality on the Plain Paper setting.
Printing on Fabric
To begin, choose the design you’d like to print. If you are somewhat tech savvy, you can find a million clip art designs online to choose from. You will need to download the design to your hard drive and resize in a graphics program to fit your apron. I found that designs approximately 2″ high x 3″ wide work well for the apron. I chose this design from a wonderful site called The Graphics Fairy.
I made two variations with this graphic. If you’d like to use one for your Patisserie Apron, click on the image below and save the pdf file to your hard drive. When you are ready to print, open your pdf viewer (I use Adobe Acrobat), open the file, and proceed with the instructions below.

Design #1

Design #2
When your design is ready or you’ve downloaded one of the above, test print it on a regular piece of printer paper.

Next, lay your fabric, right side up, on the paper you’ve just printed on, aligning the fabric over the printed design. My printer, being the old finicky biddy that she is, isn’t a big fan of any “edges”. Edges = Terrible Paper Jam . So I carefully taped down all the edges of the fabric, making it as flat as possible.

Next, run your fabric-on-paper combo through the printer again and.. voila! You’ve printed on fabric! [I sincerely doubt this would survive the washing machine, so consider yourself forewarned.]

Un-tape your fabric from your printer paper and proceed.
Sewing the Patisserie Apron
3. Fold the twill tape in half over one long edge of your apron pocket piece, encasing the raw edge. Pin in place.

Top stitch near the edge of the tape, taking care to catch the tape on both the front and the back of the apron.
Note: The twill tape I bought had some plasticy polyester content and began to melt when I attempted to press it. So if you are using the same type of twill tape, don’t press it. 😉 If you are using cotton twill tape or bias tape, pressing it will obviously not cause meltage.

4. Lay your apron piece right side DOWN. Lay your pocket piece on top of the apron piece, also right side DOWN. Sew across the bottom.
Press open the seam and flip your pocket piece around to the right side of the apron and press in place. Top stitch along the bottom seam.
Stitch a dividing line up the center of your pocket piece, back stitching several times at the pocket opening to strengthen the stitching.

5. Serge or zigzag the apron sides and neck to prevent unraveling.

6. Press serged / zigzagged sides and neck to the wrong side to create an approximate 1/4″ hem. Top stitch the hems.

7. As you did for the pocket above, encase the arm opening with an 11 inch length of twill tape. Allow 4 inches of tape above the top of the apron for the neck strap. Beginning at one end, sew along the entire length of the twill tape to secure it to the apron and to close the neck and waist strap. Repeat on the other side of the apron with the remaining 11 inch length of tape.
Sew velcro or snaps onto the ends of the neck and waist straps.

8. {Optional} Embellish your apron with ribbons and/or other notions. I really like the pop of turquoise color in American Girl Grace’s apron, so I added a turquoise flower to my second Patisserie Apron.


You’re finished! I hope you enjoy this pattern and tutorial. I’d LOVE to see your Patisserie Aprons. Put a link to pictures of your creations in the comments or, better yet, post to our Facebook page.
A note to artisans who sell: You are welcome to use the Patisserie Apron pattern to sew handmade aprons to sell in your online or “real world” boutiques. It is important to know that most graphics that you find online are copyright protected and cannot be used on items for sale. However, The Graphics Fairy does allow limited use of her published clip art for sale items. You can read her terms along with a good “plain English” explanation of fair use of images in the public domain on her site.