Shopsmith Forums

Don't laugh, but I've decided to teach myself to sew. I thought a good first project would be a shop apron. I've done a little searching online, but this is all pretty new to me and maybe I'm just not looking in the right places, but I just can't seem to find a pattern. Any chance anybody has a pattern or can point me in a direction?

Always good to learn new skills. My mother taught me how to use a sewing machine when I was quite young, (the project was a marble bag). I don't sew often but at times it comes in handy.

I researched making a shop apron some time ago but the site I had bookmarked isn't working. I just did some nosing about on Google and found this
Home Made Woodworking Apron

and here is one for a BBQ apron (similar but different some how), the pattern isn't as suitable for the shop but there are good step by step directions on how to do the sewing.
BBQ Apron with Rivet Accents


Have fun with it and post pics of how it turns out.

Ha, I made a shirt when I was in high school but was too embarassed to wear it so ending my sewing career Now I can't even figure out how to operate these new machines.
Fred

I played around with my wife's sewing machine over the weekend. The machine itself was surprisingly easy to use. I took an old shirt, cut out pieces, drew some lines and practiced following them with various types of stitches. Straight, curve, corners, etc. It was actually pretty fun. My wife is not a seamstress by any stretch of the imagination. She can sew on a patch and hem an occasional pair of pants, but that's about it. So I'm pretty much on my own.

After some more searching I did find this pattern for sale: http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/gpf859- ... age_id=550



I like the option for the straps to cross over the back instead of hanging around the neck.

If I was going to buy an apron, I think I'd get this one.



But that wouldn't help me learn anything.

I went thru the same debate a couple months ago. I used to have the shopsmith apron many moons ago. Nice but too long for me and pulled on my neck. So the debate was make my own or buy one. Santa brought me the Duluth one you listed. I love the shoulder strap and all the pockets. Not having the materials my decision was an easy one. Like Fred I am not sure I would / could have worn what I ended up making ! Good Luck let us know what you decide.

My mother sewed a good bit as I was growing up but I didn't. She did a good bit of upholstery work too.
My father had been a shoe repairman for the first 18 years of working and did a lot of leather sewing but that was before I was born. He had kept one old Singer patching machine and I did use to help him when repairing the feeder canvas on our old combines over my early years.
Since I still have my shoe repair shop (not in use) I have a number of sewing options. I owned a shoe repair shop (along with several other businesses) for over 20 years. I had the store for 25 years. I have 5 sole stitchers, 3 are curved needle machines and 1 is a straight needle and another is a chain-stitch McKay stitcher (a type, not a brand) and I have 2 Singer patching machines along with a flat-bed machine. That doesn't count my wife's machine.
Lots of sewing going on in a shoe repair shop. You do a lot of leather repairs and I installed a lot of boot zippers (one of my least favorite jobs.
My wife normally only does patching on my jeans and hemming. During the 20 years we had the shoe shop though she did gradually start doing some simple sewing repairs on shoes and must have repaired a half zillion load-binding straps for a couple of local trucking companies.
I have done a little upholstery work and made some specialty covers over the years but they tend to be too time heavy for what you can get people to pay.
I generally enjoyed the shoe repair and leather work over the years. I fully intended to operate a retirement shoe repair shop and gathered a shop full of equipment, finally settled on a location here on the farm and had it 95% ready to go. When my ticker started failing last summer I made a "U" turn (not the first one in my life ) and I decided that I was not going to spend what time I have left working. I am generally recovered now and I am going to sell a few heavy machines that are specifically shoe machines but keep all of my hand tools and the machines that are good for general leather and harness work and move those to the basement in a smaller room right next to the woodshop. I could crowd them into one corner of the woodshop but that sewing equipment doesn't like sawdust.

My leather work tends to be a lot like my woodworking. Plans, patterns or a lot of oddball dimensions just are not part of it. If I want to make something I just picture it in my head and make it. It does help if I have a picture.
One of my BIL's makes a lot of really nice furniture, some of which he sells but I'm not sure he could make a toothpick without having a full set of plans to study every few minutes.
Different strokes...

I have not moved my pics to this laptop yet so I found a few on-line.

A Singer patcher looks like this.
[ATTACH]23748[/ATTACH]

A sole stitcher looks like this.
[ATTACH]23749[/ATTACH]

A McKay type stitcher looks like this.
[ATTACH]23750[/ATTACH]

A flat bed sewing machine looks like a flat bed sewing machine.



.

robinson46176 wrote:If I want to make something I just picture it in my head and make it. It does help if I have a picture.

I hope to get to that point. I enjoy woodworking most when I'm working like that. No plans, just an idea and maybe a picture. But, since I still have a lot to learn, I like a plan every now and then to help me with the foundations. And that's the main reason I want to start out with a few sewing plans - to get some of those foundations. From there, I don't plan on sewing as a hobby and collecting a lot of patterns and plans, or making my kid's clothes, but using it just as just one more weapon in my arsenal of skills if there's something I want to make.

The more things I learn to do, the more incomplete I feel when I realize there's something I don't know how to do!

Many decades ago I made a number of items (backpack, gators, bike front bag) using kits from a company called Frostline. It was a great learning experience and saved large amounts of money.

I guess if I were looking for tips, trick and ideas, I would go to a local fabric shop, go to the counter and plead ignorance. Just a thought.

Be well,
Ben

For years I tried to get rid of my wife's old treadle-driven Singer. She wouldn't, so I decided we might as well get it running.

New belt, cleaning, lubricating...hmmm, that makes it sound like a Shopsmith! Her aunt showed us how to thread it.

Now I only do "manly" sewing (e.g. a tool pouch made out of an old pair of jeans for my motorcycle, or a carry roll for kitchen knives). And I'm pretty bad at it. But, that doesn't matter. Making something look good is hard. Making something functional isn't.

Cloth is cheaper than wood. Go buy some and have some fun.

davebodner wrote: Cloth is cheaper than wood. Go buy some and have some fun.

Only a little cheaper.


.