On to the assembly of my Black and White themed Tie One On apron. In my previous post I showed you how I made the pattern and now I’ll show you how I sewed it together.
i folded the strips for the straps in half with right sides facing
they were pressed, but still didn’t lay exactly flat since it is swimsuit fabric
by folding over one end before sewing the wrong sides together
i was was able to create a nice edge
this was the end of the strap which would not be concealed later
the second strap was sewn together the same way
i guess i should say it was serged together the same way
if you don’t have a serger you could use a zigzag stitch
using a safety pin i turned the strap tubes right side out
and then topstitched so they would lay flat and not be so tubey anymoreBy the way…
sharing my space with cats
means i have to use my serger
AND my sewing machine
in the same space
but i’m happy to at least HAVE a serger
here are the two straps
each with only one nice finished edge
the other will be concealed in a minute
but first i have to sew the hand-wipe band together
with right sides facing, serge the top (curved) edge of the band pieces together
then press toward the backing fabric
i also stitched the serged seam to the backing fabric to make sure the seam would
stay nice and flat
that swimsuiting can be tricky
i don’t want any surprises once the apron’s been washed and worn
while i was stitching the seam down i did this:
by pulling the fabric away from the seam but still sewing along the seam i was able to mimic
the effect of pressing the fabric once the bands would be folded back with wrong sides together
as you can see below i used white thread to keep that seam in line
this is the bottom rectangle
three of the sides are pressed and folded in two times
just to clean up the edges
i could have use the serger to keep the inside edges nice
but i liked the bulk on the edges that folding created
plus i wanted to use a zigzag stitch to sew the seams
i thought it would be a nice decorative border
the black seemed too plain
it looked like a napkin
i could use a napkin next time
the zigzag gives it flare
now find the midpoint of the raw edge
and the midpoint of the swimsuit fabric band
pin them together from their midpoints outward
on both sides
notice that the band is not folded in half yet
the black part on top above will be the back of the band
this is a strange view, but the lower part of the apron is hanging down from the band
this is after the previous seam was sewn
this gives you a better idea of what’s going on
i wanted to show that the lower part of the apron still existed
this next part might get weird
and the apron’s starting to look like a t-shirt
just trust me
i worked the edges one at a time
above you are looking at the raw edge of a strap about to be concealed
you may notice in these next pictures that i folded up the other edges
that was before i decided to sew the seams one at a time
it really wasn’t necessary
and looks a little silly now
so we’ll just pretend it didn’t happen
deal?
by folding the band pieces right sides together
at the already stitched seam
i could catch the strap inside
(yes those are the folded edges…. so silly)
you can see where the zigzag edge of the lower apron
meets the edge of the back band panel about to be sewn
i sewed from the zigzag stitching around the corner and down
an L shape
i also reinforced the corners since i planned to snip the extra fabric away
both sides of the apron were sewn this way
the sides were turned right-side out and pressed
this is the back view, but you can see the strap coming out the side
again, this is the back view
it looks like a t-shirt
the middle seam has not been stitched down at this point
see?
i topstitched with a zigzag in order to keep the pattern going
and to hide my mess of bobbin threads under the seam
now it’s starting to look like an apron
or a t-shirt
i thought i was done…
Cute right? Not WWE-nightmare at all right?
I met my goals:
high-waisted, swimsuit hand-wiping panel, black, white, simple.
I decided to go one step further before it was complete. I may have failed simple….
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