Sewing project progress: Jared's checked apron, part III, and Steph's purple toile apron, part IV

Tonight I have the good fortune have the multi-talented captainecchi* coming over for dinner, and she has agreed to give me some instruction to boost my slowly developing sewing skills. I am very excited for the company and for the crafting! Last night I finally had some time to myself with no other obligations, so I took a crack at some of my projects.

I decided last night I would attach the straps for Jared's apron. I had found some of this black cloth tape that the fabric store lady said was for stabilizing garment shoulders or binding rugs, but I thought it might be extrapolated to my purpose. So at the neck of the piece I laid the straps in place, folded the edge over twice with the straps inside in the hopes of making a neat seam, and then pinned it in place to sew. The upside of this is that I could see my seams getting straighter, as I followed Lise's advice to use the edge of the presser foot as a guide. The downside was that putting the seam line that far from the edge made it so the straps would pull away from the rest of the apron when they were hung on something. I ended up putting in two extra rows of stitches for security, which, though they came out fairly neat, having so many row at unequal distances from each other makes it look kind of sloppy. I think Tegan was right when she mentioned the other day when she was over that checks aren't a good fabric choice for newbies, as they show how all these imperfections don't line up.

Next I snipped the straps in half with the intention of sewing a pair of D-rings onto one end so that the neckline would be adjustable. This did not go as easily as I'd hoped. I tried to sew a kind of packet onto the straps holding the D-rings, but the width of the presser foot was such that I couldn't put the seam as close to the D-rings as they needed to be to make an appropriately tight channel that would hold them in place. Plus the material is just a little too floppy to really support the metal hanging off of them. I probably should have tried to find a strap material with more body than this. I ended up just tying the rings onto the end with an extra piece of the strap material, which looks okay but again, a little sloppy. I probably should have just left the straps intact, or let Jared tie them in a knot where he wanted them.

Finally I attached the belt, just straight across the front at about waist-height with a rectangle of black thread. That was fairly easy, so my stitches were straight and the black thread disappeared nicely. It's is smooth and even and neat, probably the most nicely-done part of the whole apron.
 

So I guess it's pretty much done, except I'd like to clean it up where I can, and Jared requested a large solid black pocket be added for utility's sake. That should look nice; I'll have to guy find some appropriately sturdy material in solid black. Frankly I'm not very happy with this as a finished product; this poor apron has very much been the guinea pig on which I make all my beginner's mistakes. But Jared says he likes it and wants it anyway, but somebody when I'm better at this I will make him a better one.

After that, I don't know why but I found myself wanting to go on to Steph's apron. It has been lying around pinned up for weeks now, waiting for me to have the ability to assemble it. I wondered if maybe it was a bad idea, since with as much trouble as Jared's apron had given me I figured I'd just screw up Steph's as well. But I really wanted to do more sewing that evening, so I loaded up the machine with ivory threat and thought I'd give it a shot.

It was shocking how much easier it was working on Steph's apron. I just carefully kept the edge of the material in line with the edge of the presser foot like Lise said, and I made a perfect straight row of stitching all the way around the piece that you could barely see against the material. I know this picture makes it very tough to make out the stitches, but that's kind of the point-- they are barely there and do not compromise the pretty print.

Thinking about it, I think there are a couple reasons Steph's was both easier and came out better. First I think the thread disappears against the purple toile with the ivory background better than against the bold geometric rows of the check-- with all those straight lines in the pattern, it's much easier to see how the thread wiggled off track. Second, the toile is a more delicate fabric, while the black and white is a heavy coarse cotton, tougher to manipulate when running it through the machine. And finally, I assembled Steph's with more care and proper technique. Now, I know the proper way to make a seam is to press everything into place before you sew, but after assembling Steph's apron a while back my fairly new, hardly-used steam iron DIED FOR NO REASON AT ALL (I'm still pissed about it) and I haven't had the cash to replace it. So I'm sure one of the problems I had with Jared's apron was that I wasn't able to press the seams down before I pinned them. That made for less flat, more imperfect folds to run through the machine that had more of a tendency to get out of place. Whereas Steph's had been pressed and pinned in place for ages, leaving me with perfect folded edges that totally behaved.

I only got as far as assembling the two body pieces of Steph's apron before I stopped. It looks very neat and feels very secure. But now I am resolved not to do anything more until I have an iron so that I may put everything together properly. Before this evening I am going to  go out and buy one. It's clear that I can't do this at the level I want to without having the proper tools for the job.