Black & White Part Two

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 anymore

By 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....