As a kid, I spent a decent amount of time around quilting, making such monstrosities like this panda/tie dye combination. Besides hand sewing on buttons and the occasional patch job, it has been many years since I last used a sewing machine.
Original Kaira Lujan creation circa 2003?
Starting the apron, I spent a good amount of time measuring myself and the examples left out on the workbench. Given that I am 6’3″, often just sizing up leaves me with things that are too wide in the body and too short in the length. I wanted to make sure that the apron wasn’t going to cut into my armpits or hit right around my knees.
Once I had my rough measurements, I started measuring and drawing my apron outline on the butcher paper. After finalizing the perimeter, I realized I hadn’t accounted for the seams and added an extra inch to the outer edge. From there, I partially cut out my pattern and then folded it in half to make sure that not only was I following the lines but that the overall outline was symmetric. After that, I taped and pinned my pattern to my fabric and very carefully cut it out with the rotary cutter. I found that I had to touch up some edges where I hadn’t pressed hard enough to get clean edges. Once I had my fabric ready to go, I awkwardly held it up and measured out strap lengths relative to my body.
Straps and fabric in hand, I started pinning my edges. I practiced on some scrap fabric before sewing the perimeter of my apron. I did my best to fold the seams so they were even and there would be no exposed edges that could fray. As should be expected, my final seams show improvement relative to my first ones. I only had one major fight with the bobbin while sewing the perimeter and thankfully it only ended with me using a seam ripper on a 4″ section. Things to consider in the future, I would select a more robust fabric and maybe iron the edges to help get uniformity before sewing. The fabric was really thin and I was worried I would tear a hole when I was ripping out the stitches. I struggled when finishing the arm/chest seams as I was pulling the fabric to keep the seam rolled correctly and the stretching resulted in a slightly puckered/twisted final edge. I also didn’t use the back stitch on the edges as much as I should have because aesthetically I couldn’t get it to look good and I convinced myself that the crisscrossing stitches would hold (I guess we will see if that bet pays off).
After sewing my outer edges, I attached my straps. I used a box stitch where the side on the side ties but kept only an outer box on the neck strap connections. The thickness of the strap material was hard to work with and again I struggled with sewing to hide the rough edge. I think burning the rough edges might have made it easier. All in the rough completion time for the basic apron was 4hrs.
Once I had my basic apron, I decided to add a single pocket. To make things more interesting I cut out a flower pot shape in a contrasting texture fabric with the intention of embroidering on flowers. I should have done my accent outlines before starting to attach the pocket but hindsight is 20/20. After carefully navigating not sewing my pocket closed, it has two small gaps where I picked style over function. All in the pocket took about an hour. Then I freehanded some flowers with embroidery floss…4 hours later…and voila my apron was done!
Cost estimate*
Raw Materials:
Apron fabric = $6.99/yd
Pocket fabric = $14.99/yd
Cotton webbing = $3.99/yd
General thread = $2.99/spool
Embroidery floss = $0.62/ea
Total material used:
1 yd apron fabric = $ 6.99
1/8 yd pocket fabric = $ 1.87
1 yd cotton webbing = $ 3.99
2 yd general thread = $ 0.02
6x 24" embroidery floss = $ 0.46
$ 13.33
Labor:
1 hr cutting/prepping materials
4 hrs machine time
4 hrs embroidery
$7.25/hr for 9hrs = $65.25
Machine/Facility:
5 hrs assuming $5/hr overhead = $35
(excluding overhead for embroidery, done at home watching videos for another class)
Total cost for one fancy apron = $113.58
If I were to do this again, the time to prep and sew would go down as would the embroidery costs.
*Prices based off Michael's equivalent products to those used and Texas state minimum wage. I am assuming the items like tape, scissors, and butcher paper are included in the facility fee.
