Hi!! I hope you enjoyed my pun lol. Our first assignment was to sew an apron and honestly, the box stitch almost took me out but luckily WE MADE IT :).
Before this assignment, I only had 1 sewing experience under my belt. During the fall semester, my club RASA (Rice African Student Association) had a fake wedding collaboration with SAS (South Asian Society). I decided to challenge myself to sew the skirts for the Bridesmaids. And by challenge, I mean no pattern, watching a few YouTube videos, and having only a tape measure, scissors, and a sewing machine. Luckily this was around Fall recess so I had some free time on my hands because the first skirt took me 6 hours to make. After that, the other two took about 2-3 hours each so I got better relatively quickly. I was really proud of how they came out so I really wanted to mention it just so I could show pictures in this post lol!
Now to what you actually want to read about, how did sewing the apron go? It was honestly relatively quick it took me about 4-5 hours including troubleshooting time which was honestly 40% of my sewing time. To break down my process, I followed 3 steps: cutting and pinning, sewing, and finishing adjustments.
Cutting went pretty simple and I think it was honestly the fastest part of the process. I decided to use my own measurements and play around with the design of my apron. I had finally decided to keep it shorter and have long tie straps. I also wanted to make my seams white to add some color to my apron.
Next, I started sewing which was honestly going pretty fast until the machine started to break. I was a little scared to troubleshoot since I was unfamiliar with these machines but I was soon able to work through it and make small adjustments.
Lastly, I decided to try on my apron and make small adjustments to make sure it fit me well. I had to make the top shorter to make sure the apron would fit me correctly. I honestly find sewing extremely relaxing and also very cost-effective. This is my cost breakdown:
- Fabric – $5
- Thread – $3
- Labor (paying 10/hr) – $50
This project cost about $58 which I feel isn’t too bad. I enjoyed the process even with all the machine trouble. I am glad I made something new and I feel like this project taught me a lot about the technical and behind-the-scenes elements of using a sewing machine.
