The process

My apron was made in two days, with the bulk of the work done in one sitting throughout a Friday afternoon and evening. On day one, I simply practiced my stitching, and gained more familiarity with the sewing machine, making sure I could set up the bobbin myself and could troubleshoot frequent problems. I practiced on some scrap fabric, and began to feel more comfortable. Therefore, the second day, I could jump straight into making the apron.

To start, I laid the black fabric on a table, and folded it in half while ensuring it lay flat on the table. Pins were used to secure along the fold. By folding the apron in half, I guaranteed that the apron would be perfectly symmetrical post-cutting, at least to start! Since I knew I preferred an apron that wrapped a bit more around me than just covering my front, I used liberal measurements when measuring myself for the apron fit, and halved the measurements I wanted since my apron was folded. I measured the dimensions I wanted in my apron, and marked them on the fabric with chalk, used pins to secure the pieces of fabric together along the cutting path, and cut the design with fabric scissors. I also cut out the ribbons for my neck and side straps.

Overview of how I cut out my apron design from the fabric

After the shape of the apron was cut out, I unfolded the apron and folded the seams of the edges of the apron that will be perpendicular to the ground in twice, so the inside seam was visually straight, and pinned these folds. I then sewed along these seams, so that the straight sides of the apron were completed After that, I folded in the edges that will be parallel to the ground twice, and sewed those as well. In the bottom right and left corners, this entailed folding up the already sewed edges, which while functionally being effective, lost some aesthetic and did not form perfect corners, an oversight I would therefore do differently if asked to repeat this task.

Folded bottom edge caused imperfect corners with side edges

At this point, only the curved edge that goes around the armpit remained have seams added, and this part of the apron proved most challenging due to its nonlinear nature. However, I used a similar approach and folded it in twice and secured it with pins as I slowly rotated it through for sewing. Due to my approach in doing all the edges separately, I have poorer workmanship on my corners, especially where the sides of the aprons meet the curved edge, and I ended up choosing to add some more stitches in this region to increase the secureness of these corners, while sacrificing aesthetic appeal. In the future, I would not choose to use this assembly approach again, but these fixes were sufficient to preserve function.

Poor craftmanship at the corners where the curved edge met the straight edge

Lastly, I added box stitches to secure the side straps and neck strap to the apron. The box stitches definitely added strength to these attachments, and seemed to go well overall, although it was certainly clear I am still a novice as I certainly did not obtain perfect geometry! I also added a line of stitches at each of these areas along the edge, as from a comfort perspective I prefer the feel of the straps starting right at the edges rather than more interior. I added box stitches to the ends of the side straps to help prevent fraying of these edges and to add more strength.

Box stitch to secure a side strap

Finally, I cleaned up the workspace for the next person.

Clean workspace

Conclusion

Overall, I quite enjoyed this process, and it was certainly a good introduction to troubleshooting – both with respect to the sewing of the apron design and also with the sewing machine. There were several oversights I had during the assembly of the apron, but I feel that I identified these shortcomings and took action to repair them, which sacrificed aesthetic value but increased function, which was what I prioritized in this assignment. In the future, I would work to carry out the sewing steps in a more logical order and therefore prevent the problems I had in securing corners/ where edges met in my apron, and with increased experience could also incorporate more aesthetic choices into my apron. However, the apron withstood trial-by-fire as it withstood the completion of the crate assignment and kept my clothes clean, so I am proud of my work and the improvement and troubleshooting skills I learned through this assignment.

Final apron

Cost Model

Materials:

• Fabric (1 yard, cotton) – Joann Fabric @$6.99/yd – $6.99
• Thread (10 yds of 250 yd roll) – Joann Fabric @~$0.01596/yd – $0.16
• Ribbon (1 yd of ~4 yd roll) – Joann Fabric @$1.7475/yd – $1.75

Labor + overhead:

• 4 hours at $9/hour for entry level industrial sewing position – Indeed.com – $36
• 1 hour in prototyping engineer role – Indeed.com – $36.5
• Sewing machine rental 5 hours – Houston Public Library makerspace (with free membership) – $0

Total: $81.40

The costs of materials were based on prices for home use, as this is the primary customer base of Joann Fabric, and could likely be negotiated down considerably for industrial level purchases. The labor hourly costs, particularly for the sewing operator, start quite low as I would only be qualified for an entry level job in this role. However, with increased experience and speed, the hourly wage would likely not go up enough to counteract the increased speed and productivity I could accomplish, meaning the labor costs would decrease per apron. With higher scale of production, the suggested overhead costs would increase substantially as free public resources for smaller scale projects/ personal projects could no longer be used. However, renting industrial sewing machines would also likely increase productivity and throughput, but again would require higher overhead so further financial analysis would be required at that point.