Although I’ve had some experience with sewing in Engi 120, I did most of the work by hand because of the unique shapes we were trying to make. So this apron project was a new and exciting experience. Before I started, I wrote down the size of the main (biggest) piece of fabric I need to cut out, which is 23” by 35” (I gave myself some additional length for the fold on the edges of the fabric).
I started out following the instructions and was trying to cut out the pattern. However, the first issue I encountered was that the widest part of the apron should be 23”, but the paper provided wasn’t wide enough (it was only about 16” wide). So instead, I cut out a pattern that represented the shape of half of the apron using the paper trimmer to form straight clean cuts.
The folds were formed when the paper was too wide for the trimmer and I had to fold it.
Once the pattern was cut out, I pinned it to the fabric and used the rotary cutter to cut out the shape.
There were also pins along the cut before cutting, and I would pull out each pin as I get close to it to make sure the fabric and pattern stays in place.
Because the pattern was only for half the apron, I had to move it to the other side. In order to make it as symmetrical as possible, I folded the fabric across along with the pattern so the pattern landed on the other side.
The blue dotted line shows about where I folded the fabric. The pattern started out on the left of the fabric, and after trimming the left side out, I folded the fabric across the middle so the pattern lands on the right.
After trimming out the the right side as well I started sewing the edges because some of the cuts were still sort of fuzzy.
I first folded the width I wanted (about half an inch) and kept it in place with pins. Then sewed it with the sewing machine.
I sewed all the edges except for the top. This is because I want to hide the box stitch of the neck strap, so I left the top edge for after I sew the straps.
Now that I had the main piece of the apron, I took a piece of the strap, put it around my neck and held it with the apron to see what it would be like once it sewn onto the apron. Once I found the optimal length, I trimmed off the extra strap and sewed it onto the apron with a box stitch.
I first fastened the strap with a pin. Here I sewed the strap in the back, and left about half an inch of space from the edge.
The completed box stitch. This was the first one I made, and the latter ones were slightly cleaner. This was also why I started with the sewing the neck strap since I knew these stitches were the ones that’ll be covered up.
After sewing on the all the straps, I then folded the top of the apron outwards and sewed it like the other edges.
In this photo you can see that all the sewed edges have the fabric folded inwards (into the back) so people can’t see the fuzzy edges from the front. But for the top I folded it outwards so the box stitch would be covered.
The reason why I cover up the box stitch for the back straps was because I made the design based on another fabric. The fabric looked quite different from the back and the front, so if I folded the side edges outwards as well I didn’t think that would look very nice. But since the top edge is fairly short and it’s on the centre it’ll look more like a design. Even with the current fabric, I would still be hesitant to cover the side-strap-box-stitches with this design since it is a very long edge that would be folded outwards and any unclean edges will be exposed. In addition, the stitches would be right next to the pocket, which is main design, so I do believe most of the attention will be drawn away. Lastly, I’ve noticed that the box stitch is usually not seen in the front once I tie the strap around my back.
Then I started working on a pocket. My original design was based on the anime character Doraemon.
https://doraemon.fandom.com/wiki/Doraemon Doraemon: a robotic cat who has infinite space in pocket
So I cut out a big piece of fabric and cut it into a big pocket, then pinned it onto the fabric to check its size and shape.
The photo showed the pocket pinned down at its planned location.
The flowered embroidered on was supposed to be another design. Before I started sewing I learnt some basic embroidering.
The original design I wanted to embroider onto the apron. I practiced on the fabric I thought the fabric would be made out of. I planned to spell out my name with the green vines.
However, after I saw that the fabric was already bright and had patterns, I gave up on the idea of embroidering on the apron. Instead, I decided to embroider on the pocket using colors similar to the apron fabric. I wanted to keep the same design and had the vines spell out my name but then encountered an issue.
I found the black leather-like fabric in the OEDK scrap fabric drawer and picked it because I felt like its slightly shiny texture goes better with the waxed fabric, but I forgot that I was also planning to embroidering on it. The fabric was very thick and very difficult to embroider on, so after starting on a few flowers the process was too difficult and time consuming, so I decided to leave it just at a few flowers (you can actually still see some pin holes in the top right corner of the pocket from when I was trying to embroider there but then removed it).
The last step was to sew on the pocket, but that was the most difficult part. I first pinned down the pocket onto the apron like shown in previous photos and brought it to the sewing machine and just started sewing. And half way through I realized that the pocket slipped and wasn’t sewn in the right place. In the process of trying to detach the pocket, I ripped the fabric. So there is just a long tear in the apron. Good news is that the tear would be covered by the pocket; the bad news is that because the pocket was already have sewn on, I didn’t know how to fix the tear with the sewing machine (I didn’t know how to keep the pocket out of the way so that the sewing machine would only sew the apron fabric and not the pocket).
A photo of the tear, the bottom half was hand sewn together.
The photo shows the tear as I was trying to fix it by hand sewing the tear together.
So I first attempted to hand sew the fabric together, which sort of worked. Since the tear was behind the pocket, I just needed to make sure things wouldn’t fall out from the tear, and it’s okay if it isn’t the prettiest.
Hand sewing worked, but it wasn’t the best. It’s also just not a very consistent way of manufacturing, so I still wanted to try fixing it with the sewing machine. So the next day I removed the hand-sewing-strings and tried using the sewing machine.
I folded apron across the tear to avoid sewing the pocket to the apron.
To avoid sewing the pocket to the apron, I folded the apron like the photo above and sewed across the tear.
The tear was sewn together using the sewing machine. The fix is a lot more obvious but it’s also a sturdier seam.
This “scar” is still in the final apron. Luckily it’s in the back so it’s not usually seen.
So lastly I sewn on the pocket with a large amount of pins to avoid the same problem from happening. After trimming off the extra threads, I had my apron.
The complete apron. The pocket isn’t actually as unsymmetrical as in the photo I just didn’t tie the straps properly.
Reflection
Overall, I am happy with the product. The pocket is the right size and in the right place (also makes me feel like a mum kangaroo). The apron is fitting and the edges are clean.
However there are a few changes I would make:
- I wish to change the fabric I used for the pocket. Although I really like the texture (the outside is shiny and inside is furry), it was difficult to work with. Not just embroidering, because of its thickness, the sewing machine would have trouble stabbing through the fabric, and it was difficult to turn smoothly to create the round edges. This was a reason why I didn’t notice the pocket was starting to go in the wrong place since my attention was completely drawn away.
- The biggest change would be to not have the tear behind the pocket. Hopefully in the future I’ll remember to constantly check the seam to avoid such issues.
- I do feel like the embroidered pattern is too random, and I wish I executed a more complete design.
- It’s also my first time using the sewing machine extensively, so I hope in the future my seams would be straighter and the box stitches would be cleaner.
Cost Estimate
Apron Fabric + Pocket Fabric:
23” x 35” + 20” x 4.5” Fabric ~= $8 (Amazon)
Straps/Threads:
Very small amount used ~= 0
Labor:
I spent around 10 hours on this project. However, this included learning, preparing, and designing. Also, some of the skills I learnt wasn’t exactly useful and didn’t show in the final product. A lot of time was also spent on fixing the tear. About 3 hours was spent on practicing and learning, 1 hour was spent on designing, and another 2 hours was spent on trying (and figuring it out how) to fix the tear. The remaining 4 hours was spent on actually measuring and cutting and sewing. But the process wasn’t very efficient since I wasn’t familiar with the process and was changing things throughout the way. In the future, I could probably recreate the apron in less than 2 hours. So for this specific apron, labor cost would be around 5hr (designing + making) * 12 $/hr = $50. But the design itself would usually only take 1-2 hours, so labor cost would be 1.5hr * 12$/hr = $18
Total:
$26 for any future recreations of the design
$58 for this specific apron if it’s the only one
I do think $26 is closer to what I would spend on an apron.
