The Process:
In the past, I have done hand sewing to mend small rips and tears in my clothes, but I have never used a sewing machine before or made entirely new articles of clothing. At the beginning of the process, I drew a sketch for my apron, starting with the dimensions given for the medium apron size and adjusting some measurements by measuring my body.
I used the burgundy cloth that was provided for the apron. I folded the cloth in half and drew half of the apron onto it with chalk. I then drew another outline that was offset around the original outline by one inch for the seams. I then cut it out and pinned it, folding it twice at the seams so no fraying edges could be seen.
I then started sewing the hems, first practicing on a piece of scrap fabric and then moving to the actual apron. After finishing with the hemming, I moved onto the straps. I chose to use the cream-colored cloth ribbon provided because I liked how the color looked paired with the red. I first worked on the neck strap, using a box stitch to stitch one end of the ribbon to the apron, and then held the apron up to myself to determine how long the strap was, which was 17 inches, and then pinned it, cut it, and sewed it. I attached the ends of the strap to the front of the apron instead of the back to give it a more interesting look. I then moved onto the side straps. I cut a long piece of ribbon and then box stitched on either end. Then I cut it in half to make sure the straps were even. I then box-stitched the straps to the sides of the apron, positioning them onto the front. I purposely cut the ribbons a bit long, at 35 in, to tie the knot in front of me and style a bow, which I thought was cute. I ended the two side straps with box stitched to make all the ends of the ribbons uniform.
One thing I would like to improve if I have the opportunity to do this again is to take the pins out while stitching the hem. It would have improved how straight the lines that I stitched were. Another thing that occasionally happened was when I was box stitching a bit too fast, the string would get tangled, and the back of the stitch would just be a tangle of thread. When this happened, I would have to use scissors and a stitch ripper to fix it. Next time I hope to be more careful and go slower when box stitching to avoid this.
In general, I had a lot of fun making this apron, and I can see myself using the sewing machine for various future projects.
Photo of cleaned work space:
Cost analysis:
- ~5 hours at $16.26 per hour: $81.30
- Fabric: $8.95
- Ribbon: $7.99
- Thread: $5.52
- Facility Cost: $5
- Total: $108.76
