So this is the first time I’ve ever worked with a sewing machine ever in my life, I’ve never even handsewn a button! Needles(s) to say I was very excited about the whole idea. While how unreliable the sewing machine can be gets really frustrating, I can’t deny that seeing the finished product makes it all worth it.

First I started by taking my measurement to make the pattern, with the help of other classmates I measured my waist, the height from my clavicles to my pectorals and the height to give the desired length to the apron. using this measurements I drew up a pattern in paper and tried it on to see how I felt about it. Turns out, I misjudged the length of the apron and the pattern ended shorter that I wanted, but no problem, I can just make the pattern longer. So I did just that and when I tried it on again I (mistakenly)  thought I was happy with the new length, after that I got to transferring the pattern to the fabric and cutting it.

After cutting I got to sewing, which was way harder than I remember it being in class. I sewed up the first hem of my apron before I realized I was using the stitch length of 3! I thought it looked fine enough so I left that hem just like that but changed the stitch length for the next hems.

The machine was giving me a hard time by constantly jamming and snapping the thread but I learned by trial and error that with very thick fabrics like the one I chose, sometimes you just need to take it slow and give the machine a little help when the needle gets stuck and can’t pierce the fabric. After this things went a little smoother and I finished all the hems.

 

Next day I went back to the OEDK to do the straps. This turned out to be more complicated than expected because I needed to hold the apron at my desired height but also hold the strap in place to find how long I need to make it. I ended up using needles to hold the strap in place but it was then that I noticed a terrible flaw… the apron was little shorter than I wanted. I probably thought the length was good but to check I kept bending down a little bit and didn’t take that into account for the length. Anyways, I kept pressing forward and now with neck strap in place I felt that it was a little too long to I just folded a small portion of it on itself and sew that up.

Sewing the waist strap was pretty straightforward, I did want to make it a single piece that ran across the apron to add some rigidity to it and to distribute some of the force exerted on the seams between the strap and the apron.

After finishing the base apron I wanted to add a personal touch so with the remaining fabric I cut up a rectangle to use for pockets. Adding the pockets was a challenge, mainly because after so many folds, with a fabric as thick as the one I had, the needle was barely passing through. I used the iron to flatten the places where the seams would go a little bit and that worked adequately enough (though the needle still got stuck sometimes). I repeated the stitches a couple of times because I felt it needed some reinforcement.

Once the pocket was finished I wanted to try to adjust it a little by trimming the excess fabric that was left inside after sewing it into place, that’s where I ended up cutting a hole into the pocket. I mended the hole with another piece of scrap fabric I had left over and it ended up giving it some personality.

Anyways, here’s the finished product, I’m quite happy with it, I just wish I was as comfortable with the sewing machine at the beginning as I was by the end of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cost	Price	Amount	Source	Quantity	Unit	TOTAL
Fabric	$12.99	1	Amazon.com	1	yards	$12.99
Thread	$3.29	400	Joan.com	6	yards	$0.05
Strap	$9.99	15	Amazon.com	2.2	yards	$1.47
Sewing operator	$14.00	per hour	Ziprecruiter.com	6	hours	$84.00
Prototype/Designer	$33.00	per hour	Ziprecruiter.com	1	hours	$33.00
Machine time (100W)	$0.13	$/kWh	choosetexaspower.org	6	hours	$0.08
Quality Control	$18.00	per hour	Ziprecruiter.com	1	hours	$18.00
					NET TOTAL	$149.58