Sewing was not as easy as expected, although it was still a rewarding experience when I finally saw my apron coming together.

I began by using the measurements provided in the guideline. But I wanted a bit of an oversized fit since I usually wear a lot of thick hoodies. Therefore, I went ahead and modified it based on a combination of actual measurements and an oversized apron example that I used as a template for some portions of the apron. For example, the guidelines say a small size apron should be 32″ and medium should be 34″. Since I usually wear size S, but wanted an oversized look, I customized this to 33″. See the image below which shows the guidelines.

For the “1/2 Waistband” and “1/2 Waistband Minus 3” measurements, I used the example apron and traced over my fabric with chalk to outline it. This is because I really liked the shape of that example apron. Next, I folded over the edges of the fabric twice and pinned them. Here’s a picture of the process.

To take care of the edges that overlapped, I simply folded them over each other.

Next, I got to work sewing. During this time I encountered many issues. Surprisingly not all of these issues had to do with the bobbin. Here’s a list of my most encountered problems and how I solved them.

1. Issues with the sewing machine creating a bundled up messy wad of stitches. In this case, I used a seam ripper to remove and get rid of those stitches. Then, I experimented with the tension until I saw that the stitches were working properly. The tension dial is shown in the picture below. It is located on the top of the machine in this case.

2. Issues with the sewing machine not sewing at all. First I ensured that the thread was visible from the bottom and top. If that was correct, I checked whether the needle was threaded correctly. Often times, I found that it had been threaded incorrectly. I followed the numbers on the sewing machine which indicate the order in which to pass the thread through different structures.

3. Thick pieces of fabric on the corners due to folding over causing the needle to unthread. Firstly, I re-threaded the needle in this case. I also needed to make a cut to remove excess fabric that was causing thickness of the corners. The resulting corners are shown below.

4. Lastly I encountered issues with the sewing machine picking up the thread from the bobbin at the bottom. This was because I’d incorrectly placed a plastic bobbin in a machine meant for the metal bobbin. I recommend double checking that you’ve placed the correct bobbin into the machine if you experience this problem.

Surprisingly, the box stitches weren’t too difficult. The method I used is outlined in the image below. The dots showed where I plunged the needle. The black arrows show how I created the four sides of the box, the red arrows show how I made the “X”, and the blue arrow shows my reverse stitch that I used to seal the stitches.

Here’s what the completed apron looks like!

Lastly, a picture of my cleaned up workspace and the costs summary with sources linked. The total cost comes to $210.6736.

Cost Type	Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
Materials	Fabric	$4.99/yd	Joann.com	33” x 12” = 396 in = 11yd	$54.89
	Thread	$1.79/spool	Joann.com	1 spool	$1.79
	Pins	$0.04/pin	Joann.com	~40 pins used	$1.6
	Straps	$4.99/yd	Joann.com	~6 feet used = ~2 yards	$9.98
Labor	Sewing Operator	$17.62/hr	US Bureau of Labor Statistics	I took ~4hrs at the sewing machine	$88.1
	Prototyping Engineer (You!)	$36.66/hr	US Bureau of Labor Statistics	I took 1 hour to prepare the materials to be sewn	$36.66
Overhead	Facility Cost (Machine Time)	$0.12/kWh	Cost of Energy used by Sewing Machine	Cost = Power (kW) x Time (h) x Energy Price ($/kWh), average power consumption of Singer machine is .07W according to source, and we operated for 4 hrs	$0.0336
	Quality Control	$17.62/hr	US Bureau of Labor Statistics	I spent 1 hour cleaning up stray threads	$17.62