The art of sewing and I go way back… Unfortunately, by “way back” I mean getting a D on a home ec project my freshman year of high school. Despite this, many failed seams and two very late nights at the OEDK later, I have made a thing, here’s how:

Level 1: The Pattern

To begin, I measured, traced, and cut an apron-shaped (glorified trapezoid) pattern out of pattern paper. Rather than pinning this to my sheet of fabric, I opted to tape the entirety of the pattern’s border, allowing me to get a pretty straight cut using fabric scissors:

Fabric in hand, I continued to the next step feeling confident and totally unaware of the trials to come.

Level 2: The Hem

I’m quite unsteady with my hands. Drawing a straight line is an impossible task for me, so getting a decently straight hem took many, many tries. After finally getting one hem looking nice on the wrong side of the fabric, I would flip it to find a mess on the right side; zoom in to see the terrible stitches here:

So, after many more tension tests on many scraps of fabric, I finally got some decent hems. This entire process took roughly eight hours, which either demonstrates my patience or my utter ineptitude for sewing. Even after this, if I could redo the hems again, I would first be more diligent in implementing quality backstitches to strengthen the ends of my seams, and second clip/fold the corners of my apron to allow the hems of two edges to interface neatly.

Level 3: The Straps

After finishing the hems, sewing on the straps was a sigh of relief. The straps were quite small and difficult to maneuver, but accomplishing a box stitch felt relatively easy after dealing with hems for hours. The straps did take a few tries, especially since I was mistakenly folding over the apron-attaching ends at first. This mistake gave me the opportunity to practice my box stitches, steadily improving as seen in the sequence of images below:

I backstitched thoroughly, so the seams are quite strong if somewhat lacking in neatness on the back end. My one regret with the straps is using such a small, thin band of material. If I were to find my own material, I would pick a wider strap or make my own using plain fabric.

Level 3.5: The Pocket

I decided to add on a small breast pocket for extra utility, so I began with watching several YouTube videos on how to do so. Most of these videos were quite complicated and used materials I simply didn’t have, so I took what knowledge I could gather and winged it. I stitched one hem on the top end of the material for added strength and folded the other sides in when stitching them to the apron. In attaching the pocket, I also thoroughly backstitched the corners to ensure it wouldn’t tear after heavy use. With this pocket, I concluded the apron and made a thing.

Final Thoughts

I would not be surprised if this turned out to be my most difficult project at the end of the semester. I’ve had great difficulty with sewing before, and I suspect the vast majority of my difficulties can be attributed to lack of practice and technique with the sewing machine. Maybe I would have an easier time maneuvering the fabric if the sewing machine existed on an infinite 2D plain with nothing to get in the way, but this is a somewhat unrealistic expectation for the OEDK. If I were to do this project again, I would focus on achieving greater consistency of technique and really try to make those hems neater. Overall, however, after spending so much time, it’s hard not to feel proud of my apron.

Cost Estimate

~1.5 yd fabric at $3.97/yd: $5.96
~6 yd thread at $.006/yd: $0.04
~1.25 yd strap at $1.25/yd: $1.56
~11 hours labor at $7.25/hr*: $79.75

Total: $87.31
*My labor is not worth very much when it comes to sewing!