Introduction

Over the past week, I have been working to cut out and sew my own apron. I was a little nervous going into this project since I hadn’t assembled anything with a sewing machine before, but I learned a lot, and I enjoyed this experience!

The Process

The first thing I did when working on my apron was to choose a fabric. I picked a baby-blue fabric for the main pattern, then selected white strap material for the neck and waist straps. I then took my own measurements and added an extra inch to all sides of the pattern to account for the double-folded seams on all sides. Then, using a ruler, I drew my apron pattern out on pattern paper. I then cut the pattern paper and held it against myself to make sure I was satisfied with the measurements and the shape of the apron. After this, I placed my pattern paper on top of my blue fabric and pinned it in place. I also outlined my pattern on the blue fabric with Sharpie,  just in case the pattern moved when cutting it, I would still be able to have a guide on where to cut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once I had my apron pattern cut out of my fabric, I began measuring where the folds of the seams would be. I used chalk to mark where my folds would be, and then I used an iron to make sure the folds were neat. Since I used the iron, it was a lot easier to pin the seams in place before sewing. I then used the sewing machine to sew the seams of the apron, making sure that I placed the pins facing away from me so I could pull them out easily as I sewed. During this process, I really struggled with the thread, as it kept unthreading from the needle or getting tangled with the bobbin’s thread. I’m not really sure why this was happening, but I constantly had to stop sewing a section and start over because the thread had come undone and was sitting at the top of the sewing machine. I wanted my apron hems to be made up of one continuous stitch, but I had to pull out a lot of thread from the fabric often and restart since the thread would come undone and the machine would stop working.

My next step was to sew the neck strap and waist straps to the apron. I measured the length I wanted my neck strap to be by pinning one end of the strap to where I’d want it on my apron, then wrapping the other end around my neck and back down the apron to see how long the strap needed to be. I added some extra inches to this measurement because I like wearing hoodies often so I wanted to make sure my neck strap would fit around my hoodie. Once I had measured the length of my neck strap, I cut it and repeated a similar process for my waist straps. I pinned one end of the strap to the apron where I wanted one of the waist straps to start, and then I wrapped the other end of the strap material around my waist, making sure I could almost wrap all of it around me. After I had this measurement, I cut the strap material and then used it as a reference to cut the second waist strap. Now that I had the neck strap and waist straps properly measured, I began practicing my box stitches on some spare fabric. Once I was ready to add the straps to the apron I folded the ends of each of the straps in once and then pinned them all to where I wanted them to be placed on my apron. After all the straps were pinned in place, I put on my apron to make sure everything was where I wanted it to be and that the measurements were correct. Next, I began sewing 4 box stitches, two on both ends of the neck strap connected to the fabric, and then one on each of the waist straps connected to the fabric.

I then added a hair tie around the neck strap of my apron so I could adjust its length depending on whether or not I’m wearing my hoodie.  Once all my box stitches were completed, I tried on my apron, and it fit perfectly!! :))

Finally, although I’m a beginner, I decided to challenge myself by adding a pocket to my apron. After watching a quick YouTube video, I decided to choose some red fabric for my pocket. I measured and cut how big I wanted my pocket to be, then folded the top end in so I could hem the edge. Once the top edge was hemmed, I pinned the pocket fabric onto my apron. I made sure every side was pinned in place for sewing, except for the hemmed part, which is the top of my pocket. I sewed each of the pinned sides of my pocket twice to make sure the pocket was very strong. Once my pocket was done, I tried on my apron and used it to carry some tools around the OEDK! 

 Once my apron was fully assembled, the blue-and-red colorway reminded me of Spider-Man, one of my favorite characters, so I decided to add somedrawings to make it more personalized!! 

I made sure to clean up my workspaces after I was done sewing and drawing. I picked up my markers and threw out any extra thread. I then left the sewing machine threaded as someone was waiting to use it.

 

AND DONE! I learned how to use a sewing machine and challenged myself to make an apron with a pocket!! 😀 

Reflection

• Some things that I would like to improve upon in the future: 
• Make my hems and stitches in general straighter. 
• Make cleaner box stitches.
• After I made my pocket, I thought it would be more useful to sew a seam down the middle so I could turn one big pocket into two. After critiques, I’m going to work on adding a stitch in the middle to improve my apron.

Cost Estimate 

 Materials 

•  Fabric- 1 yd baby blue fabric: $3.69 (Walmart)
•  1/6 yd red: 0.91 Cents (Walmart)
• Strap material – $2.49 for 2 yards (Hobby Lobby) -Used $1.50
• Thread – $2.47 per spool (Walmart)

Time 

• Labor- 7 hours at $7.25/hr(Texas Minimum Wage): $50.75
• Renting a sewing machine – $20 per hour(Spent 6 hours sewing): $80

Total: $139.32

Conclusion

In conclusion, this was a valuable learning experience, and I feel more confident approaching a sewing machine. I was a little worried at the beginning of this project, but now I’m interested in learning more about sewing and practicing some more.  With more practice, the quality will improve and the cost to make this will go down as it will take less time.