Introduction

I went into the project knowing how to sew a glove and fix minor holes in clothes. I thought this would be an easy two-hour endeavor, no way it could take any longer. Oh boy was I wrong. I spent the better half of a Saturday measuring, cutting, and sewing an apron that–to my delight–turned out pretty good.

Step 1: Designing 

I used the assignment document as a guide to sizing the apron. At first, the methodology seemed a bit strange, and I did make a few tweaks along the way, but the instructions were helpful as a general guideline. Initially, I drew up the design of the apron straight onto the fabric and started cutting it out. I came back a few days later and it disappeared from the worktable, so I restarted using the suggested methods in the instructions. I took anatomical measurements of myself and drew up what I wanted my apron to look like on butcher paper. Then, I taped the butcher paper to the fabric and cut out the fabric. Some notable design choices were truncating the apron’s width where the back straps were to be sewn, and adding extra length on all sides to account for hemming.

 

Step 2: Hemming the Ends

Speaking of hemming!!! Wow, this is the first time I had to hem anything, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a cow. Hemming requires folding sides of the curved, frayed fabric to make them straight, durable, and clean-looking. What made hemming particularly difficult was making the second fold of the fabric stay and sewing in a straight line. To solve the first problem, I taped down the first fold and pinned the second fold down making sure the balls of the pins faced me as I sewed (see Figure 1). This allowed me to pull out the pins as I fed the material into the machine so it wouldn’t come undone while I was sewing. To solve the problem of sewing in a straight line, I used chalk to marked out a uniform line of where to fold the fabric on itself. Although the lines aren’t perfectly straight–and some of this is due to the sewing machines breaking as I was halfway down a side–I think the hems came out pretty well.

I genuinely think I can use this new skill in the future as I expect I’ll get into making some sort of clothing as a hobby. I was noticing little ways I could improve my sewing to make it better, which allowed me to get better stitches as I went along in the project with my lines getting straighter.

Figure 1 – I put the left side in the machine first and took the pins out as I went.

Step 3: Attaching the Straps

The straps were probably the simplest part of this whole process. To measure the strap lengths, I held up my apron to where I wanted it to land on my body, and spooled the strap until it fit those dimensions. I then looked up how to do a box stitch and repeated that stitch four times.

 

 

 

 

 

My final thoughts…

I really liked making this apron despite its flaws and the number of times the sewing machine broke. Hemming and box stitches will definitely come in hand with any type of fabric craft I do in the future. I also was reminded of the importance of planning ahead instead of jumping headlong into a project with little tangential experience. Overall I enjoyed this experience and look forward to the rest of the projects!

<–Clean work space

Cost Analysis

Fabric: $10.99 for 1 yd

Thread: $0.50

Straps: $2.00 for 1 yd

Needles: $0.75

Labor: $15 per hour for 5hrs

Total: $89.24