I started on the project by scanning through the instruction. Suspecting significant deviation from the sizing chart, I measured my waistband and the distance between my knee and collarbone to size my apron. After outlining the paper, I used a paper cutter to cut the general rectangle and added the taper to the neckpiece using scissors. The general shape of the pattern resembled the template provided (38” long, 18” wide, with the taper to a 12”-wide neckpiece beginning after 18” from the bottom), except that I made the difference between the neckpiece width and overall width of the apron much more pronounced. The 3” width difference suggested by the template pattern felt unsuitable when I “put on” the template paper.

After cutting the straps, dimensioning the ones at the waist to half my waistband and the neck strap length by size fitting, I finally finished preparing all my material.

I laid the pattern paper on the fabric, securing it using sewing pins to hold them together, as shown below.

In hindsight, I should have used more pins to hold the two pieces aligned since they shifted when I cut the fabric. Considering the uneven edges of the resulting cut, I decided to fold and sew them to create a cleaner boundary, using a lot more pins to hold down the folded edges together.

The sewing machine I used was already set up, which saved a lot of time. I first sewed the folded edges, running the needle along the parameter of the cloth while taking pins out as needed. I settled on using one hand to guide the cloth through the machine and the other to hold the folded edges taut. One imperfection resulted from me running the sewing machine too far from the parameter of the cloth because of not controlling the speed carefully enough.

I undid some stitches and reran the needle to fix it.

The straps were secured using box stitches, which was slightly challenging due to the narrowness of the straps.

After I finished the basic apron, it looked a little plain to me. I embellished the apron with a pocket and a zipper. When making the pocket, I sized it so that it could hold my phone. I added the zipper according to the video tutorial. Although the steps were straightforward, having to maneuver the needle while ensuring that only the fabrics I wanted to join together were underneath it was difficult. I messed up a few times by stitching too much together, which resulted in me having to backtrack and remove the stitches. Anyhow, here is the final result:

As for estimating the cost of the apron, I considered three main cost categories: labor, material, and tooling.

Cost of Labor:

I spent a total of 7 hours working on the apron. Assuming an hourly wage of $7.25, based on the minimum wage in Texas and the lack of sewing experience on the 6 worker’s part, the total cost of labor would be $50.75.

Cost of materials:

Fabric, like most items, benefits from economies of scale. Since the apron used minimal, un-patterned fabric, I used a 44” by 36” piece of cotton fabric costing $3 as a reasonable proxy ( 44″ x 36″ Fabric) since I was able to make the entire apron with the initial piece of fabric . I found the following comparable product to the straps I used priced at around $0.47 per foot (Cotton Strap). I used about 25” of straps, which comes to a little less than $1. I considered the cost of the thread used when sewing negligible. Finally, I used a zipper which I found for around $2 online ( Nylon Coil Non-Separating Zipper). Thus, the cost of materials is approximately $6.

Cost of tooling:

The cost of renting sewing machines is around $15 an hour. The total time I spent on the sewing machine was about 5 hours, so the tooling cost would total $75.

The total cost for the apron, by my assumptions, would be about $131.75.