My sewing experience

As someone who’s closet consists only of t-shirts and simple shorts/pants, I’ve never felt the need to know how to sew. However, through this project, I’ve discovered that sewing isn’t just a gimmick to make your clothes look fancy, but rather a whole new way to think about fabric manipulation. I figured that out by making an apron, which I’ll talk about here.

Designing the apron

I began by measuring out the dimensions I would need for my apron on a piece of sheet paper. I ended up settling on a 36″ tall apron, 26″ wide on the waistband and 14″ wide on top. I quickly realized that the piece of paper I was using wasn’t wide enough to account for my apron, so I had to tape two pieces together. Ensuring they were aligned in parallel was difficult since it was over such a long distance, but with the help of a very long ruler, I got my apron dimensions set.

I put this outline on my fabric, and quickly realized how difficult it would be to cut the fabric with the sheet paper on top, as the sheet paper was slipping and sliding on the fabric. However, I remembered that when sewing, I would be folding 0.5″ back of fabric into the back of the apron, so I decided to cut approximately 0.5″ outside of the sheet paper, so that I had extra leeway and could ensure no significant miscuts. Additionally, the part of the fabric that I was cutting would be on the back of the apron out of sight, so as long as I ensured I maintained enough length to be consistent on the back fold, I would be good to go.

Sewing (and its problems)

When I first began sewing, I quickly realized I was running into problems. For some reason, no matter what I did, the stitches would not go into the fabric properly, and would end up continuously getting stuck in the bobbin, resulting in me having to take out dozens of pieces of thread after each time I tried to set the sewing machine up correctly. This meant that none of the thread would be connected, and the needle was essentially just poking holes into my fabric.

After changing the bobbin by rewinding it on top, and making sure it was securely fastened underneath, I got what looked like a promising result when I started sewing again. On top, the stitches looked perfect, and I very excitedly marched onwards. However, when I lifted up the foot so that I could make a corner on my apron, I caught the underside of my apron as well. It seemed like, once again, the fabric wasn’t catching correctly on the underside.

I rechecked the bobbin, and there wasn’t an issue there. I also checked my width and tension to make sure there was nothing wrong there either. It was only then that I realized that I had practically run out of thread to use on the sewing machine, and I decided to replace it. I’m not sure if that was actually the problem at hand, but once I replaced the string, it was smooth sailing from there.

My sewing techniques

To actually sew the apron, I would stick a pin into a spot about 8-10 inches down from the needle, ensuring the length was continually about half an inch wide. Then, I would sew until the pin was about 2 inches from the needle, at which point I would remove the pin, slide it down another 8-10 inches, and resume work. For the corners, I would sew until I had about 3 inches of sewing left to do until I reached the corner, at which point I folded over the next length of apron over the previous fold of apron. I would then sew for until I reached the midpoint of the corner, at which point I would ensure that the needle was in the fabric, lift the foot up, rotate the fabric, put the foot back down and keep on going.

Box stitching

When I finally completed the apron by itself, I started practicing box stitching. Luckily, my friend Mustafa had given me a piece of advice when it came to box stitching; since box stitches are very small and require fine movement, instead of using the pedal, I could hand crank the stitches instead. This method was significantly more precise than relying on my foot to make micromovements, and helped considerably.

I then began the box stitching on my straps, where I immediately realized I ran into a little bit of a problem. The thread was white, and so were my straps, so I struggled to actually see where I had already sewn. As such, I instead decided to rely on how many stitches I made, trying to consistently have 8 or 9 stitches depending on if I was going horizontally or vertically on the stitch. I preplanned a method to ensure that I would stitch over the edges most needing support twice, while still getting the diagonals. However, on my first box stitch, I forgot a step, and ended up with this.

As it turned out, I had forgotten a diagonal stitch. So, I put the apron back in the sewing machine, vowing to remember to actually follow my design, otherwise something would inevitably go wrong again. Once I got this first box stitch done, the rest were easier, though I sometimes forgot to ensure that my diagonal actually went far enough to be considered a box stitch instead of just a diagonal line going through a strap. 

The completed apron

With that, I completed my first ever sewing project, my very own apron!

To be honest, my first experience sewing (the middle of class) had me a little scared of what was to come. Seeing a needle rapidly puncture a surface multiple times per second doesn’t exactly instill a sense of safety, and my confidence waned quickly. However, the moment I actually got to experiment a little with the sewing machine, I figured out that, realistically, there isn’t anything to be afraid of. By the time I finished practicing on spare scrap, I was raring to go on my apron, and when I finally got the sewing machine active and working, I cruised through the actual sewing process.

I did have my fair share of trials and tribulations, whether it was due to the bobbin not catching the thread, the bobbin getting loose, or even the thread running out. But every time I faced a problem and solved it, I found that I learned more and more about what it means to actually operate a sewing machine. When I was around halfway through sewing my apron, I accidentally started sewing without the foot down, which quickly ruined the stitching. Instead of panicking and googling how to fix this problem for 30 minutes, I just took the apron out of the machine, removed the bad stitches with a tool, reset the sewing machine, and got right back into sewing in a matter of minutes. While I won’t pretend to be an expert, I feel like I now have the ability to actually use the sewing machine without the fear of everything exploding.

Cost Analysis

I finally get to use my experience as a finance major in an engineering project, hallelujah!

Sewing machine rental: $6/day for 2 days= $12

Fabric: 0.8 sq. yd. at $6/yd = $4.8

Straps: 8ft at $0.3/ft = $2.4

Thread: $2/spool = $2

Working labor: $15/hr for 5hrs = $75

Total cost: $96.2 with labor, $21.2 without, $9.2 for materials.

The main area for concern in terms of total cost is the labor. I spent 5 hours working on this apron, which realistically is going to be a lot less for an experienced paid worker. However, after googling the going rate for a sewer, which is about $15/hr, I got the above total cost, though realistically they would be able to get this done in an hour or so, bringing the total to a more realistic $36.2. This is still a lot higher than I expected, especially given how simple all the materials were, but labor and machine costs add up quickly.

Cleaned workstation

Upon revisiting this picture, I also realize that I left the machine with very little thread. Sorry to whoever had to use it next, and I’ll make sure not to make the same mistake next time!