An Apron Years in the Making

I thrifted the cloth years ago and got the pattern years ago and bought a bias tape maker years ago and got one of those sewing machine presser feet to help apply bias tape years ago and cut out the pattern pieces years ago

and let it all sit. For years.

I finally decided I would finally make it, view C of Simplicity 8904

Only, of course, I had to make some changes.

I wanted the neckline to be significantly more scooped, and the hemline shorter, so I could wear it with the pullover babydoll dresses I like to make.  There's a yoke on the front of this pattern, so I decided I'd need to merge the front pieces so the scoop wouldn't have to deal with the yoke. Plus, I wanted to leave the original pattern, in all sizes and lengths, intact. So! Trace it!

And make a series of mistakes that I thought I had corrected, until I cut the back pieces and...nope.  I re-traced the back and fixed the conglomeration of problems and had just barely enough fabric left to cut another set of back pieces--a cut from the corner of the fabric meant I had to change the back curve, but! I made it work!

My friends all think it looks like raw meat.

It is an odd fabric--a lightweight fine cotton eyelet with a streaky pink dye pattern.

I did thrift the fabric I used for the bias tape, too.  I might not have gotten it if I had managed to notice, in the store, that it felt like it had a significant amount of synthetic fibers in it.  Striped poly cotton blend makes a nice bias tape, though, so  no regrets.

Since this was mostly proof of concept, I thought about omitting the pockets. Briefly.  Mostly because I didn't want to deal wit transferring the placement marks.

I got the original piece of pattern tissue and laid it over one side of the front and aligned the pocket under that. After stitching it in place, I folded the apron in half and used the first pocket placement to figure out where to put the other pocket.  That worked well.

The instructions for applying the bias tape say to start and end at a seam--the way this is made, there is literally one edge all around the outside, so the bias tape is applied in a giant sort of Möbius strip way--so the overlap will line up with that seam.  I ignored that and started/ended it in a place under the back overlap.

In the future, I may do the thing where you leave both ends free for several inches, then sew the ends together so the tape makes the exact distance between the stopped stitching, then sew it down.  As it is, I had to stop sewing the bias binding on with the bias binding foot near the end anyway, then cut the bias tape and folded the free end and sewed it into this lumpy mess.  Proof of concept, it's fine.

And I feel like the concept did work, even with the intentional and unexpected changes I made.  I'll probably make another of these.  It could take a few years.