Before this, I had never really used a sewing machine, but now I am glad I had this experience. This project took a fair amount of time and effort, but I am proud of how my apron turned out and I can say that I feel much more confident in my abilities with the sewing machine.

For some reason, I had decided to do something a little more difficult with my apron. I would make it reversible. I wasn’t sure how it would come out at first because of my lack of experience, but I am happy with the final product. For this, I would have to thank my mother for providing me with pointers throughout the process.

To start off, we would have to cut out the fabric. Since my mother had never made an apron before, we used some of the provided dimensions. We measured the fabric while it was folded in half and marked it with some chalk. From there, I used pins to secure the fabric while I cut it out. I would then have the outline for one side of the apron. Then, we lined up the blue fabric with the red fabric so that I could cut out that side of the apron. Again, I used pins to hold the fabric in place. This process is shown below.

I also decided that I wanted the apron to have pockets. After finally deciding what size to make the pockets, I repeated the process of tracing and cutting the fabric. I measured the fabric while it was folded in half, traced it, used pins and then cut the fabric. Again, I used the first pocket as a template for the second. One thing to note is that I cut the pockets twice the size that they were going to be so that I could have the inside of the pocket also have the right side of the fabric.

Once the pockets were cut, we made sure the sizes of the fabric made sense. I held up the apron to my chest to make sure it was the right size. However, the top portion of the apron seemed to be to large. Because of this, we measured how much would be a good size for me and marked this new length. Also, we thought it would be better to have the top of the fabric taper until it reached where the straps would be. With this new information we remarked the fabric and cut it out again. From there, I also ironed the fabric so that the creases would be less notable and so that the fabric would be easier to work with. In my opinion, the ironing did make a substantial difference in the sewing process that was to come.

 

 

 

 

 

Once all the fabric was properly cut ironed, I could begin sewing. In order to have the pockets have the right material on both sides, I began to sew the fabric while it was inside out and folded in half. I sewed around the whole piece of fabric, only leaving a portion without sewing so that I could flip the fabric inside out. This would create a seamless piece of fabric with the proper fabric on both sides. I then had to sew the one side that was not completely sewed and I sewed it in two places make the fabric more sturdy. From there, I could measure where I wanted the fabric to be on the apron and sew it on. I repeated this process with both pockets and both halves of the apron.

Then, once the pockets were in place, I could begin to join the two halves of the apron. I would repeat the process that I did on the pockets. I lay the two pieces of fabric inside out on each other so that I could create another seamless edge with the apron. One of the only differences this time is that I would also pin the straps where they would end up. I then sewed all around the apron, leaving a section big enough to turn the fabric inside out once the sewing was done. I was nearing the completion of my apron. From there, we decided that we liked how the apron looked without  seams and that we would not close the hole back up with the sewing machine. Instead we would hand stitch the apron so that it would remain seamless. All that was left to do was reinforce the straps with box stitches. Then, the apron was complete.

Creating this apron was a long process, but I learned way more than I thought I would. Thanks to my mom’s guidance, I learned how to sew fabric so that both sides of the fabric looked nice. This was way more than I could have done on my own. There were still many issues along the way. For instance, the spool would often stop spinning on the machine and the thread would break from the tension. Because of this, I had to rethread the machine a few times. In addition, sometimes the machine couldn’t sew through thick pieces of the fabric and I learned that I would have to help it with the handwheel. I also learned what the best pace for me to use was because I would occasionally create sloppy work when I went too fast. After dealing with all these issues, I became confident with the sewing machine and learned new sewing techniques. Overall, I am very proud of the final product.

 

 

 

 

       

 

Cost estimate:

• $8 per yard of fabric (from Amazon)
• $7 per 5 yards of cotton strap webbing (from Amazon)
• $4.24 per 150 yards of thread or $0.01/foot (from Amazon)
• $10 per hour of labor

Estimate of materials used:

• 2 yards of fabric
• 3/2 yards of cotton strap webbing
• 26 feet of thread
• 4 hours of labor

Total cost of apron:

• (8*2) + ((7/5) *(3/2)) + (0.01*26) + (10*4) = 58.36
• $58.36