My Apron Creating Process

First, I would like to start out by saying I am new to sewing and therefore chose to go with the “beginner” difficulty for this project. I followed the instructions for creating my apron by gathering my materials and and measuring the lengths I would need for my apron. I outlined what I wanted to cut out of my fabric and began to cut out what would soon be my apron.

Shows the cut out shape of my fabric/apron

After having my cut out fabric I grabbed my straps and sized/cut those out as well. For the sizing I followed the sizing guide with small variations in order for it to better fit me. After gathering all of my materials I brought everything over to the sewing machine and got prepped to begin. I had someone help me with the setting up portion of the machine and once that was all good to go and was ready to test it out. I first grabbed a scrap piece of fabric to sew and I am glad I did so because I was making mistakes in the beginning that made the stitching look very bad. I made the rookie mistake of not putting the presser foot down. After reading over some of the shared files and watching some youtube videos to see how to do it again (lol) I was able to correct my errors and made some straight lines on the test piece. I then got started on folding my apron’s edges and sewing them down. I folded the fabric down and drew lines on where I wanted folds to go so that I could stitch it down. The only difficulty was that I where I folded on each side wasn’t exactly an inch down it was too short or too long on some parts of the apron and I had already drawn a line with a sharpie because I couldn’t find the chalk. I didn’t think the sharpie would be visible however since it wasn’t at that inch point some parts were visible.

The circled portions contain some of the sharpie marks I made

Just a picture of me sewing 🙂

With some cutting and quick thinking I was able to adapt and make the apron still fit me while hiding these marks and not allowing them to be seen by others. For the long mark in the top portion i performed a double fold which hid the line from being viewed in the front. After having my edges folded like I wanted them, I began finally sewing. I sewed in the middle of the folds and just followed along the shape of the apron. At the top since I did have a double fold I decided to sew two parallel lines to keep all of the fabric down and more flat.

The lines follow along the path of the two parallel lines that were sewed at the top

After sewing the main portion of the apron together I started to finally attached the neck and body straps to the apron. I started with the neck straps and then did the body straps second. For the straps I did a box stitch which better secured the straps to the apron. My first box stitch wasn’t the best and was hard for me to see while I was doing it. I chose thin straps which made the box stitch also have to be thin which at first was hard for me to do. Another issue was that it was hard to see since I was using white thread on whiteish/creme colored straps. However after the first box stitch I got better and they started to look pretty good.

 

Back and Front views of the neck straps on my apron.

Once I finished my neck and side straps I cut any unwanted threads that was sticking out of my apron and then I took a picture with it on and enjoyed my new creation.

Strengths

Some of my strengths I would like to mention during this project is my ability to adapt when an error arose and making my apron still look good despite the error. I would also like to mention that I did a pretty decent job at sewing straight lines and I even sowed the ends of my straps like strings from shorts would be.

                                                       

Back and Front views of the straps on my apron. Similar to what you would see on hoodie or short strings

Points of Improvement

I believe some things that I could have done better and improve upon moving forward is setting up the sewing machine and fixing it when something goes wrong. I say this because at first I had someone help me set up the sewing machine with the bobbin and thread and once they left something happened to where the bobbin thread from the bottom wasn’t there anymore. After trying to do it like I did in class and figure it out on my own I was unsuccessful and couldn’t get the machine to work like it was previously. Out of frustration I left for the day and came back the next day to finish it. Luckily the day that I came back to finish the sewing for the apron, nothing happened to where the machine messed up and I didn’t have to fix or correct anything.

What I Liked about this project

I liked that this project took me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to create something that I could be proud of. Although I did the simple version of the apron I was proud of what I created and feel like I have learned a valuable skill. This project has equipped me with a skill that I feel like I am going to look to further in the near future.

What I would do Differently

I would take more time measuring and guess less about how I was going to sew the apron. I would be more confident in myself, take my time, and more thoroughly map out step by step how I wanted my apron to look and how I was going to get there. I also think If I did it again I would try to add a pouch or a zipper on it to make it a little more unique.

Cost Analysis/Breakdown

Fabric: $10.99 / 1yd

Thread: $0.50 / thread around entire apron

Straps: $3.50 / 1.75yrds

Needles: $0.65

Labor: $15 * 4hrs / price of labor at H&D on campus

Total: $75.64