To Begin:

This was my first time using a sewing machine however I had seen people sew before. This prompted me to create a design that would challenge me, so I opted to create an apron with a pocket. To begin this project I started by Measuring my body and roughly following the given example in the homework document.

After creating an outline for the apron I laid it out on top of my fabric. To ensure that I would be able to cut it out I had to pin the outline onto my fabric.

I had learned from practicing on scrap fabric that my lines would be more noticeable on the back of the apron rather than the fabric on the front. In addition to this to make sure that I had fabric to make a folded edge I cut the apron with an additional 1.5 in of fabric on each edge to allow for the fold.

I was ready to begin sewing.

The first seam I did was on the side of the apron. This seam taught me a lot on my process of how I would go about the rest of my apron. I faced my first complication here when I had to fix the threading of the printer. After fixing the sewing machine I folded the edges and sewed the sides. after this I cut away the extra fabric on the inside.

Once I finished my hem on the sides I begin to measure out how long I needed to make my neck straps to ensure that my apron would hang properly. The neck straps themselves were not to difficult to cut and measure, however, making the box stitch was difficult. I found difficultly making the boxes uniform and having all the edges lining up.

At this point I had my completed Apron.

At this point I began to get started on my pockets for the Apron.

For the pockets I wanted the inside to be soft while maintaining a tougher exterior. To do this I found two pieces of fabric and planned to sew the one onto the other. I started by creating my outline for the pockets on a piece of parchment paper.

 

 

From here I cut out the fabric in blue and cut out the inside of the pocket in the second fabric I had. This part was fairly easy especially after all the practice I had had making the apron and with the scrap materials. I then used chalk to mark on the apron where my hands rested and decide to put the pockets there. After sewing on the first pocket I realized that although I liked the location of the first pocket I wanted the other pocket to be a little higher so I changed the location of the second pocket.

From here I had my finished Apron!

Thoughts:

I enjoyed sewing and learned a lot about myself and patience with machines. There was a fair amount of time that I spent looking at the sewing machine trying to figure out what had gone wrong or why something wasn’t working. I do see myself making some more edits to my apron in the future.

Cost:

Fabric 1yd: $10

Thread: ~$2

9hr Labor ($7.25/hr) ~ $65.25 (Minimum Wage in Houston)

Total Cost: $77.25