Prior to this project, I had never touched a sewing machine. My only contact with thread and fabric comes from patching torn backpacks and attaching helmet straps by hand-sewing.
Fabric selection was the first of many choices I would make during this personally novel process. It came down to a decision between great patterning on a tough fabric and a less favorable pattern on a softer fabric. In the end, I decided on the red checkered pattern on the soft fabric since it was the first time I ever used the sewing machine a softer fabric would theoretically be easier to recover from mistakes than tougher fabrics would be.
I started on pattern paper with the recommended measurements for a medium apron. After matching the pattern paper to myself physically, I determined that the top width was too long and ended up taking off 9 in. from the initial 3 in. reduction. This resulted in an overcorrection so another 4 in. was grafted on with additional pattern paper on the edges for the desired size.
The default size dimensions resulted in too wide of a neckline which led to the overcorrection.
Two triangular pieces were grafted onto the chest component to remedy the overcorrection and form the final design.
The pattern paper was taped onto the fabric along all edges rather than intermittent tape or pins because it was discovered that the fabric tugged when cutting if not fully secured. I opted for the cutting wheel because the scissors were unable to deliver an even cut as shown below. The resulting shape was matched physically again and determined to be sufficient.
Cutting with scissors resulted in fraying at the edges.
The cut fabric was verified to be a good size.
The real experimentation began with sewing. I selected the bottom edge as the test edge because if there’s need to resew multiple layers, the additional weight is best distributed on the bottom edge. This turned out to be the right decision. The first seam was only a single layer of fabric as shown on the bottom left, but the seam was doubled in layer after judging the seam to be too flimsy, yielding a total of four layers. Yet after consulting the example aprons of other students, the seam was folded over once again to conceal the edge for durability. The now eight-layered bottom edge shown on the bottom right would prove to be difficult to deal with later on.
The first stitch was a single fold but lacked durability and looked poorly sewn so was folded over again to shorten the distance between the seam from the edge.
The final bottom edge was eight layers after folding the edge over itself again to conceal the fabric edge.
Having learned from the experiences of the bottom edge, sewing the two sides of the apron was relatively simple with one minor hiccup at the turning corner where the first side was slightly uneven due to the lack of fabric which made folding difficult. The first side was done with pins securing sections before removal once it reached the needle on the machine as shown on the bottom left. However, the pins proved to be quite costly (lots of pins needed) and easily came loose with movement of the fabric while operating the sewing machine so future folds were secured by bobby pins instead which held the fabric more tightly and required fewer pins as shown in the bottom right.
The first side of the apron was secured using pins before reaching the needle.
Clothing pins were discovered to be easier and more resistant to disturbance.
Box stitches were made for heavier layered regions like where the straps (whose tips were also box stitched to hide the edges which prolonged the life of the strap) were located, but the main problem came for attaching the sides to the bottom edge which was too thick. The fabric was too thick to be pulled along by the sewing machine so the box stitches of the bottom corners had to be handsewn instead.
Folding the side edge onto itself and then over the bottom edge resulted in a whopping 24 layers for the bottom corners. Much too thick for the sewing machine.
The box stitches for the thick bottom corners had to be hand-sewn.
After three rounds of trial and error, the final top edge was the simplest to sew with box edges for the next strap and corners. The apron is now complete.
The top edge benefitted from the experience of the other sides and turned out notably better.
The entire process took me approximately 9 hours with 3 hours attributed to troubleshooting the bottom edge and hand-sewing. A skilled worker would likely be able to reproduce this in 5 hours especially if there’s no need to recreate the fabric template every time. Below is an estimated cost model.
$96 for the first apron. $86 for every new apron. Not accounting for economies of scale which would reduce costs.
