For this assignment, I worked with Sradha to create an apron! To create our apron we followed the steps below. Unfortunately, our apron was not able to be completed entirely by the sewing machines since the machines stopped working for our class. The process of using the machines while they were working was quite frustrating as there were oftentimes issues with the machine that we had to learn how to troubleshoot along the way. However, I learned a great deal about how to use a sewing machine and saw what I could make using my new skills.
How to make a daisy flower apron:
- We first selected from the available fabric material in the OEDK. We decided to use a daisy flowered denim material since we thought it would be cute for our apron!
- We then took the necessary measurements for the neck strap and waist straps, by measuring the neck strap to be the length we wanted the apron to sit at when we wore it.
- We then took measurements of the apron by marking the apron with a white chalk. We wanted to make our apron sized medium, and therefore, used the following measurements: 34 inches for the full length of the apron, with the width of the lower part of the apron being 24 inches and the upper part of the apron having a width of 21 inches.
4. We then cut out the pattern we had traced to get our final apron cut out
5. It was now time to utilize the sewing machine to make the necessary stitches on our apron. The sewing machine was easy for us to set up given that someone had already threaded the needle and left us the bobbin that was already filled with thread. We then started our sewing of the outer lining of our apron, being careful with the strength and pressure we applied to the sewing machine peddle. We also utilized pins for this process to make sure that we were sewing an even amount of fabric around the entirety of the apron.
6. We then finished the hemming around the entirety of the apron and moved onto creating box stitches for attaching our neck strap and waist straps on the apron. We utilized pins to secure the straps into place before we started sewing. However, we faced a major challenge, which was our fabric getting stuck in the sewing machine, causing it to stop and not work. This happened many times despite us taking out the material and re-threading the needle and bobbin accordingly. It became very frustrating and served as a barrier to us being able to complete the project.
Cost-Analysis Report
| Cost Type | Name | Price | Source | Quantity | Total |
| Materials | Daisy printed denim fabric | $14.00/yard | spoonflower.com | 1 yard | $14.00 |
| Black thread | $2.99 for 300 yard spool | amazon.com | 10 yards | $0.10 | |
| Sewing pins | $4.99 for 600 pins | amazon.com | 6 pins | $0.05 | |
| Seam ripper | $1.00 for one | walmart.com | 1 seam ripper | $1.00 | |
| Twill straps | $22.79 for 164 feet | amazon.com | 3 feet | $0.42 | |
| Labor | Sewing Machine Operator | $16 an hour | ziprecruiter.com | 4 hours | $64 |
| Prototyping Engineer (You!) | $34 an hour | Ziprecruiter.com | 0.5 hours | $17 | |
| Total cost of making 1 apron* | $96.57 | ||||
*Is not an accurate representation of the total cost of creating the apron since it was unable to be completed fully.
Picture of clean workspace:
