This project was my first foray into Sewing. To start I was very excited to get to learn what I consider a very useful skill. Very few people working in the OEDK have prior sewing experience, including even the lab assistants. The Lab Assistant Abby Grayson and Adulfo gave me the initial rundown in sewing technique. However, this information could only carry me so far, eventually I had to figure out how to deal with different issues such as thread getting caught in the bottom bobbin, incorrect settings, and the most annoying issue, which was thread being pulled out of the loop and not actually being sewed down onto the vinyl. I went through periods where every time I tried to do a line, something would get caught and I would have to start that section over again. At one point I even bent the needle of the heavy duty sewing machine.
Eventually I got more comfortable winding up bobbins, reloading them into the machine, and re-threading the needle. After many failed attempts I was finally able to get the sides of the apron sewed down. I then decided to make a wide pocket in the middle just to torture myself a little more. I eyeballed the size of the pocket to be about 2/3 the width of the apron and about 7 inches tall.
Wide Center pocket
After completing the apron itself I moved on to the box stitches to connect the straps. I was originally planning on making the neck strap a continuous loop, but when I was sewing the second box stitch, part of the strap got caught underneath the needle on the other side of the apron so I accidentally stitched part of the strap to the front of the apron.
Other side of messed up box stitch
Eventually I got the hand of making box stitches and ended up with some moderately okay ones!
I ended up having to cut the loop in half and pulling out the second box stitch. The neck strap on my apron now needs to be tied together, which in the end isn’t so bad since it is now adjustable!
Below is the finished product. Overall, this project took me way longer to do then it should have. I ended up having so many issues with the sewing machines every time I sat down to work. Often times, there wouldn’t be any lab assistants on shift that had prior sewing experience, so we were all blindly trying to solve problems. This is part of the reason why this unit is so important, I think that the next generation of Engineering Design Students will be better for it.
