Seeing the advent of technologies such as 3-D printers and laser cutters, I often forget how these machines are simply the sewing machines of the 21^st century. Sewing machines are typically ranked a tier lower/below high-tech engineering technology. However, sewing is such an important skill as it is integrated into high tech materials and components like ‘sewable’ circuits and programmable LEDs. In our first project, we were asked to showcase our familiarity of using a sewing machine by creating an apron. Having a lot of experience with using this technology before, I was elated to learn new techniques and build upon my expertise.

Creating the Vision: Fabric Selection and Sketching

For me, sketching and writing detailed steps is critical before I begin anything as it helps me to gain some confidence and have a better vision of what I am about to do. While I had initially picked out an olive-green fabric for my apron, I realized that making the apron reversible would add good thickness to it and make it look better. Therefore, I decided to select a red-green plaid fabric as well.

Being short person, I often have difficulties finding an apron that fits me perfectly, so I seized this opportunity to make it customizable. After taking measurements of my height, waist, and neck, I sketched out the apron in my notebook. In the process, I decided to add a variety of pockets: a large rectangular pocket on one side and four square pockets on the other side. To add style to the fabric, I decided to make two of the square pockets smaller using the plaid fabric and place them on top of the larger square pockets made with olive-green fabric. Here is a picture of my sketches:

I created a 22-inch by 32-inch length apron with two 4.5-inch by 34-inch straps and a 4 inch by 21-inch neck piece. Additionally, I created one 7-inch by 14-inch pocket, two 7-inch by 7-inch pocket, and two 3.5-inch by 3.5-inch pockets. To have the apron cover my shirt really well, I sketched a curve on the top part of my apron with a 11-inch width. To add a little bit of style, I added a small curve on the bottom of the apron as well.

Molding the Vision: Cutting Fabric and Laying it Out

The next step was cutting the fabric into the desired measurements I had laid out. Unfortunately, some of the fabric scissors were very dull and did not cut the fabric well so I struggled a lot on this phase. To compensate for the unstraightened cuts that I was making, I cut out slightly longer fabric pieces (about 0.5 inches larger) so that after sewing, the size of the apron would still match the measurements I wanted.

I first cut the larger parts of the apron such as the main body and then used the scrap materials to create the straps, neck pieces, and pockets. Here are pieces that I cut:

1. Main body of the apron using olive-green fabric
2. One neck piece using olive-green fabric
3. Two strap pieces using olive-green fabric
4. Two square pockets using olive-green fabric
5. Two square pockets using plaid fabric
6. One Rectangular pocket using plaid fabric
7. Main body of the apron using plaid fabric*

* Since I wanted to make the other side of fabric fit perfectly with its counterpart, I cut out the other side of the body of the apron after I sewed the straps, pockets, neck pieces to one side of the apron.

After cutting out all the pieces that I wanted, I laid them out and pinned them using ball-point pins. This gave me an idea of the order of how I needed to sew the parts of the apron together.

Sewing Time!

I wanted my apron to have a clean finished look to it and so I wanted to hide the stiches as much as possible. Therefore, strategically planning the order and technique to stitch the apron was the more difficult part compared to the actual sewing process.

I started with the two straps and neck pieces. To make these pieces thicker and durable, I first folded the cloth in half along the long side and sewed one of the widths and the length, leaving an opening along the other width. This allowed me to turn the cloth inside-out hiding the stich. Since the stiches were not visible on the outside, I did not really care about the color of the thread I used for this part.

Next, I went to work on the pockets. To hide the jagged edges, I folded each edge about half an inch and sewed them. I wanted my stich to be visible, so I used a dark blue and light green thread colors. I added an extra stitch on the top of the pockets to add to the aesthetics. This would also let me to identify the top of the pockets when I would sew them into the body of the apron. Subsequently, I stitched the pockets into the apron and then worked on stitching the two straps.

I had initially stitched the two straps in a way that made the stich visible. I did not really like how it looked on the apron, so I removed the stiches using the seam ripper. This took a lot of time since the stich lengths were smaller and I had back-stitched to reinforce the sewing. Then I stitched it again, with the straps facing inward into the apron so that after completion, the strap would fold over the stich and hide it. I was happy with this result.

 

 

 

 

 

After the pockets, and straps were sewed into the olive-green apron, I placed this (with the back side showing) on top of the plaid fabric and stitched alongside the edges leaving a small section open. Then I carefully cut around the fabric and turned the fabric inside out. To give the apron an aesthetic finish, I sewed along the edges using red and green thread. Lastly, I stitched in the neck piece using the box-stich technique to make the strap stronger so it wouldn’t fall off after multiple use.

Voila! My apron is complete!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setbacks are Learning Opportunities in Disguise

While sewing is quite easy and simple, problems with operating the machine can prolong the entire process and can cause moments of frustration. From thread jams to breaking threads, there were so many times I thought I was done sewing, only to realize that the machine wasn’t even stitching. These moments required me to open the shuttle covers multiple times, replace presser foot and needles etc. allowing me to learn more about the sewing machine and how it worked. Upon completion of the apron, I had not only become confident with stitching but also gained familiarity with how the machine operated.

In terms of the actual stitching, I learned how to box-stich which is something that I didn’t really consider doing in my previous sewing projects. Rather than back-stitching the neck piece, the double box-stitch reinforced the stich better making the strap more secure while also giving it an aesthetic appearance. Moving forward, I would like to continue improving on gaining more control of the machine so I can make my stiches appear straighter.

Apron Cost Analysis

Below, I have provided a breakdown of the cost estimate for the apron.

Material Cost:

• (1 yd) Olive-green fabric [1]: $7.25/yd X 1 yd = $7.25
• (0.75 yd) Red-green plaid fabric [2]: $9.60/yd X 0.75 yd = $7.2

The standard sewing machine lasts at least 5 years [4]. Assuming that the Springer machine lasts 5 years, then the standard cost to use the machine each year is $129.99/5 years. Since I used the machine for 3.5 hours, the sewing machine cost is $129.99/8760 hours X 3.5 hours.

• (1 quantity) Sewing Machine [3,4]: $129.99 X 1 sewing machine = $129.99
  • (1 quantity) Sewing Machine [3,4]: $129.99/8760 hours X 3.5 hours= $0.0519
• (30 yards) Thread [5]: $2.39/250 yards X 30 yards = $0.2868

Overall Material Cost: $14.7887

Labor Time

• Measuring and Cutting Fabric: 1 hour
• Sewing: 3.5 hours
• Overhead (planning and sketching, troubleshooting the sewing machine): 1 hour
• Total Labor Time: 5.5 hours

Overall Labor Cost [6]: $7.25/hr X 5.5 hours = $39.875

Total Apron Cost: $54.6637

 

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Spoonflower-Fabric-Christmas-Scottish-Signature/dp/B08L434GM4/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2Q2FJNFGJWJ18&keywords=green%2Bred%2Bplaid%2Bfabric&qid=1662237359&sprefix=green%2Bred%2Bplaid%2Bfabri%2Caps%2C118&sr=8-1-spons&th=1

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Kaufman-Cotton-Green-Fabric/dp/B01B50G1XS/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1W553M9RK1KW9&keywords=olive-green%2Bfabric&qid=1662237472&sprefix=olive-green%2Bfabric%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-2&th=1 

[3] https://www.amazon.com/Singer-230281412-SINGER-MX60-White/dp/B082DZ55Z8/ref=sr_1_9?crid=1FPCDBFUPDFUA&keywords=sewing+machine&qid=1662237228&sprefix=sewing+machine+%2Caps%2C144&sr=8-9

[4] https://sewingiscool.com/life-expectancy-how-long-will-my-sewing-machine-last/ 

[5] https://www.joann.com/coats-andamp-clark-dual-duty-xp-general-purpose-thread-250yds/xprd840925.html

[6] https://www.minimum-wage.org/texas#:~:text=The%20Texas%20minimum%20wage%20was,Federal%20Minimum%20Wage%20by%20reference.