Introduction

Throughout the second week of semester I focused on completing my apron for homework #1 of the Engineering Design 210 course. I believe I have a fair proficiency with most tools and machines used at the ODEK but the sewing machine was definitely a weak spot for me. I have people in my life who have experience sewing machines and sewing in general but I have had essentially no exposure to it. Because of this I decided to focus on just the beginner assignment level of this project so that this wouldn’t be such a large time commitment.

The Process

To begin I measured out a sketch using the large metrics at 36″ for the waistband, halving that value and then subtracting 1.5″ from both sides. I then sketched out the 45 degree line coming down from the top of the apron to create the apron looking shape. I also chose a red roll of fabric from the options available.

When the sketch was completed I laid it over my sheet of fabric and cut the fabric according to the sketch, projecting the sketch of the top half of the apron onto the rest of the sheet. Additionally I cut out the fabric for the neck strap and laid it with the cut out apron fabric. Shown below is the apron and neck strap along with the rest of the materials/tools I used.

Apron workspace

The next step was to sew one and a half inch seams for all sides of the apron. For me this process was split into five different sections, one for every side so that I could maintain stability throughout the process. This step of making the apron was very much a learning process for me as I struggled with finding a right speed that allowed me to be as accurate as I wanted for these seams. As I went further along, I definitely saw some improvement in the accuracy and cleanness of my seams but looking back on this part of the homework, this is definitely one area of improvement I would identify in my apron. I think gained experience is very important with a skill like sewing and that experience will help me with sewing seams in the future. Overall though the seams looked solid enough as you can see in the photo below with all seams completed.

Apron with seams completed with workspace cleaned

After the seams were done, I cut out the apron straps to be tied around the waist, measuring them out to be fourteen inches each to reach around my waist and tie around with room to spare. Now the next step was to box stitch the neck strap and apron straps to the apron. For me as a beginner who has had little to no experience with a sewing machine, this section of the homework gave me the most problems. I had to constantly deal with fixing different machines and finding the one that would work without constantly seizing up on me. However, after a lot of trial and error, I was able to complete all of the four box stitch necessary for the neck and apron straps. This part of my apron also had a lot of room for improvement as even though one side of the box stitches looked fairly clean, the other side looked a little messy. This again was another example of experience being important in sewing as I saw improvement in my box stitches as I went further along, but still might need more experience in the future or better setup knowledge to make clean up my box stitches to my best ability. Thankfully though after a long time spent attempting to complete the box stitches, I was able to complete my apron, shown below.

Completed Apron

Featured Image

Reflection

Even though I did not have much experience with sewing and I still have a lot of room for improvement, I can look back upon the week I spent making the apron and appreciate the skills I learned as well as how cool it is to have completed my own apron that I’ll be able to use for the rest of the semester.

Materials Used

2ft x 4ft of Velvet Fabric ($6)

40 inches of White Fabric Straps ($2)

15ft of Black Yarn Thread ($0.08)