My apron project came with some successes, and even more failures. I’ve never sewn before, so a lot of the project involved problem-solving and making adjustments as I went along. I worked with two classmates for the majority of the project, which was helpful as we could talk out what we had learned and suggestions we had for each other as we went along. My final product followed the beginner difficulty, and I followed many of the steps that were set out for the class.
I began by using a pattern that I found on the ENGI table. However, many of the measurements were off so I instead just measured straight on the fabric and cut it out from there. I measured the width and height by holding it up to my body and pinning it. I decided to fold it over twice before sewing the ends, in order to avoid fraying, so I needed more fabric on each side of the apron. I used about 1 1/2 inches for this, so in total I added 3 inches to the height and width. I pinned the entire apron extensively, and began on the sewing machine.
Images 1-3: Final apron, box stitch, & me and Avery with our final aprons on!
From here, I practiced on the sewing machine until I was confident in my ability. I practiced on scrap pieces, doing both straight lines and box stitches. I sewed the apron body first, and then worked on adding the straps on the sides and top. I measured these out, pinned them in place, and made the box stitches to finish up my apron.
One success that I had is that the sewing lines and box stitches on my apron improved with the time that I spent on my project. The top line of my apron looks fairly professional, and I learned a lot about trouble-shooting and fixing small problems with the sewing machine. I had practice winding the bobbin, threading the needle, and threading the bobbin through the top of the machine. Some failures that I had were that some sides of the apron and parts of the box stitch did not have as clean a look as I would have liked. The main reason behind this was not having enough practice going into the project, which could have been remedied with spending more time practicing before starting on the final product. Further, on some of my box stitches, I did not backstitch in some of the lines, which may cause some unravelling in the long run on my apron.
Cost Estimate
- Cost of fabric: 1 yard = $4.84 (Amazon)
- Cost of thread: 1/4 of 1 spool = $1.07 (Amazon)
- Cost of straps: 1/5 of a 5-yard = $1.40 (Amazon)
- Labor cost: 5 hours x $10 per hour = $50
- Total: $57.31
