Sewing has always been something I’ve wanted to get good at and due to all the work I’ve done this week I’ve been able to get closer to that goal! Starting off, I had to assemble all of the materials I wanted to use. We were given a large black piece of fabric to create our aprons with and that is what I decided to use as my main apron. I also picked up a checkered print material to use for my straps and for my pocket. Once I had all of my stuff I began with the pocket. I decided to make the form of how I wanted to pocket to look on my apron first and got to seeing. For this I chose to use white string so that it could blend a bit with the light colors.

Updated outline of apron template with curves for arms with chalkOnce I determined the size I wanted my apron to be I began cutting out the apron. I aligned the pattern paper to the black fabric, folded the black fabric in half, then cut so I would have a whole apron come out instead of two halves. These were the main measurements I focused on:

30” length of apron

20” half way up the apron

14” width of top portion of apron

I0” top length

Once these cuts were complete I moved onto the stitching portion. My task was to fold the outer part of the apron body (~1”) so that the edges would look much cleaner. To do this I utilized a sewing machine, two black strings, one for the bobbin and one to thread through the needle.

This was very hard for me to do especially because I kept on having a lot of issues with the sewing machines mainly due to bobbin issues. I struggled with the tension and figuring out which ones would create proper stitches at times, so I did often times have to take out messed up stitching and replace them with cleaner ones. Once I finished this I ended up with a fully sewn apron body.

I also had to make sure I had a neck strap to go around my neck (measured at ~12”). Then I added the side straps so I could wrap around me when I need my apron to be tighter. I used the same material that is seen for my pocket.  I added the necessary stitches to attach to my apron body. For the two side pieces I used a box stitch so it would be secure.

Once I finished this it was time to attach my pocket to the apron. By this time most of the machines were having technical issues so it was very difficult and time consuming to get this to work and I wanted to give up very badly but kept at it. After some trials I was finally able to stitch my pocket to the apron body. I also wanted to experiment a bit with Velcro to help with this process for the sides of the pocket, so those were attached for easy removal and attaching for cleaning and etc.

After I got the Velcro on all I had to do was remove the chalk off the apron and cut off as many stray piecing hanging off the apron that I could. I got some scissors and began cutting the string off and once I finished with that I threw the excess in the trash near the table. Then I got some water and was able to clean off any remaining chalk on the apron. Afterwards I was finally able to take a picture of the final product displayed below! I’m really proud of how much I was able to do with not as much time as I’d wish I had! Once I was done I made sure to clean up my space and put all the tools I used away!

cost analysis:

1yd black vinyl fabric- $3.99

Pattern paper- $0.70

Scraps of fabric- $1 for about 1/4 yd of fabric use

Thread- the thread averages about $2.48 for about 3000 yds and I used roughly about 11 yards of thread for the apron and when I was practicing stitching. So the price would be about $0.01.

Labor- According to ZipRecruiter the average hourly pay in Texas (Houston) for a sewing machine operator is $14.01 an hour. Therefore, since I spent about 10 hours sewing my labor costs would be $140.01.

Total: In total the cost of this apron is $148.19.