Welcome to the story of my apron!
I started out with a bunch of ideas in my head about how I wanted to approach this project and eventually made a rough (very rough) sketch of what the perfect apron to serve me during this class this semester would look like. Of course (story of my life) things don’t always go to plan, but sketching my design out helped me visualize my design before I started sewing.
VERY rough, as you can see
I realized that the measurements given in the doc would not help me and decided to just measure myself. I then used chalk to mark where I needed to cut and where my potential pockets would be. I decided on a white thread to sew the outer edges of the apron because I liked the contrasting pattern.
The next thing I worked on was the straps. I liked the blue fabric I found in the scrap bin because of the print and decided that my apron would have blue accents. I then cut 4 strap-like pieces and sewed the ends. Mistake >.<: My cuts were not straight because I forgot that it would matter T_T so some parts of some straps are visibly “jagged.” In addition to the waist straps, I chose to make the neck straps tie-able so I wouldn’t have to worry about fitting the neck over my hair and so the apron could be adjustable around that part.
The next thing was adding the straps to the body. Since I already hemmed the edges, I had to line up the stitch with the pre-existing stitch so it wouldn’t look too bad. For the neck straps, I had to do that on top of making a box stitch, which didn’t turn out perfect… (Don’t be disappointed because I already am with myself 🙂 )
finally usable
Eventually, I added a regular medium sized pocket in the chest area. After that, I tried to assemble my “belly bag” pocket, but an unfortunate mishap occurred that stopped me from using the sewing machine, and the other 3 sewing machines were not working properly… which led me to a completed but not self-satisfying apron. I had to accept that my apron is beautiful just the way she is. :/
she’s a little dusty because she was being put to work 8)
UNTIL pure dedication to my belly bag made me go to the OEDK Monday morning and finish up (hence the blog post at this time..) I found a beautiful piece of fabric and decided to use it instead of the black I planned on using.
At the last minute, I decided to make both a double pocket (zipper pocket) and an open pocket. The stitches aren’t the straightest but it’s functional. 😀
| Cost Type | Cost | Price | Source | Quantity | Total |
| Materials | Black Fabric
Wax fabric |
$10.99 /yd
$5.99/yd |
Joann.com
fabricwholesaledirect.com |
1 yds
0.5 yds |
$16.98 |
| Thread | $0.99/roll | Michaels | 0.5 roll | $0.50 | |
| Zippers, Clips, etc… | $1.99/zipper | Michaels | 1 | $1.99 | |
| Labor | Sewing Operator | $18.43/hour | ZipRecruiter | 4 hrs | $73.72 |
| Prototyping Engineer (You!) | $36.48/hour | ZipRecruiter | 1 hr | $18.24 | |
| Overhead | Facility Cost (Machine Time) | $14/hr | stitchsewshop.com | 5 hrs | $70 |
| Quality Control | $21.48/hr | ZipRecruiter | 0 | ||
| Design | Engineering and Development | $42.35/hr | ZipRecruiter | 0 | |
| Iterations | $18.43 | ZipRecruiter | 0 | ||
| Misc. | Waste and Scrap |
Total Cost:
$181.43
*labor costs based on professionals (Zip Recruiter)
Clean workspace:
