Dapphy's New Apron

Dapphy hated her fur getting greasy and dirty while cooking, and today she was finally going to do something about it. She’d been eyeing some simple sewing patterns for a while now, and just yesterday she had managed to score some free cloth when Housemaster Honey was replacing the tablecloths in the dining hall. As expected for Seasonal House property, it had all the colors of autumn, in shades of yellow and burnt orange. It also featured a pattern of brown leaves, which, combined with the food stains, made it a bit busy to look at, but free fabric was free fabric and Dapphy wasn’t one to say no to so much of it.

She wasn’t super skilled at sewing, anyway, so it was good practice material. Dapphy had hand sewn a few felt holiday ornaments in years past to hang on the House Kindreaux tree, but she’d never had a reason to use the sewing machine in the rec room before. She knew how to use it, sort of; Autumn Breeze offered home ec classes, but there was only one machine available, so it was more that she’d seen demonstrations and practiced threading it under supervision once or twice. It seemed easy enough, anyway, so long as you were careful with it.

Before she could start using the machine, though, Dapphy had to prepare the fabric. She’d already washed it, and now she needed to fold it lengthwise and iron it. The desk in her room was pretty small, so it wasn’t long before she moved all of her materials to the floor for more room to work. Taking a squatting “gremlin stance”, she carefully ironed the tablecloth using the iron she’d borrowed from the laundry room.  It wasn’t exactly perfect as she was on a carpet, which was a bit textured, but Dapphy figured that any amount of ironing would be an improvement over its present state.

Once the fabric was as crisp as she thought she could achieve, she opened the vintage sewing pattern she’d borrowed from the library. The pieces had already been cut by some finley before her, which saved her a lot of headache. She spread the pieces out on her bed, taking a few minutes to identify each piece and envision how it would all come together in the end.

Next, she laid the pattern pieces on top of the fabric and pinned them into place, trying her best to utilize the fold so she wouldn’t have to cut so much out. Dapphy had a sharp pair of scissors for exactly moments like these; she’d been told repeatedly, by every sewing magazine and every finley who’d ever attempted the craft, that having a dedicated pair of fabric scissors was absolutely necessary. She wasn’t sure why, other than it made the cutting process easier, but who was she to judge? Her fabric scissors had a squishy pink handle, and she appreciated having a special occasion for them.

Carefully, Dapphy cut out a body piece, a neck strap, and two waist straps. When that was finished, she put her fabric scissors away in their special box, then folded up the excess fabric and put it in her closet; she could definitely use more of that for more sewing practice in the near future. For now, she removed all of the sewing pins, pushing them into her little sewing tomato as she was going to need them again soon. As the last part of the clean-up, Dapphy tried to re-fold all the pattern pieces and fit them properly into their envelope. She couldn’t tell how they’d been folded originally, but she did the best she could and hoped that she didn’t crinkle them too badly for the next finley.

For the last step of sewing prep, she took her pieces off the floor one at a time and laid them on her desk. Placing a ruler next to the fabric, she did her best to fold the edge of the body piece onto the wrong side of the fabric, aiming for a half-inch hem. It was difficult to do on the curved edges, but she did her best and tried to ignore any apparent awkwardness. Maybe it would somehow disappear once all the pieces were put together. With that in mind, she pinned hems on all the strap pieces, too, double-checking that she had all the wrong sides together so they’d be all pretty when turned right side out.

Satisfied, she carefully put the pinned fabric pieces into her sewing basket, along with her sewing tomato, a small sewing kit with thread and tiny scissors, and the borrowed iron, which she had let cool. It was time to head to the home ec room and use the sewing machine for real.

After setting her basket down on the sewing table, Dapphy pulled out her sewing kit. Her first step at the machine was to thread the bobbin with the color she wanted to use. She put her brown spool of thread on the spool pin, then pulled some out to wrap around the tension disc. Threading the bobbin and winding it by paw a little bit, she then put it on the bobbin pin and clicked it into place. It was ready to be wound.

Dapphy turned the machine on and pressed her foot onto the pedal. Though she knew it would make noise, it still startled her a bit, but she was more worried about figuring out how much pressure the pedal needed. It probably didn’t matter too much for the bobbin, but once she got to the actual sewing part, she figured her pressure needed to be consistent for more even stitching.

When the bobbin was full, Dapphy cut the thread with her tiny scissors, then opened the front of the machine. She could see where the bobbin was supposed to be installed, but wasn’t sure she remembered exactly how to do it. Fortunately, she found instructions for the machine in the desk drawer, and after a few moments of fiddling around, a satisfying click let her know she had done it correctly. She closed the machine and turned her attention back to its top.

Now was the time to wrap the thread around the thread guide. Threading a sewing machine was a notoriously picky process; every step was important to ensure proper tension, which meant even stitches, stronger finished pieces, and of course, reduced the risk of annoying tangles. Dapphy wound the thread around all the necessary parts of the machine, then carefully threaded the needle, pulling the excess underneath and around the presser foot. The last step was to pull the thread up from the bobbin down below, which worked like magic thanks to a few turns of the side knob.

Dapphy still couldn’t start sewing yet, though; first she needed to check the thread tension. She’d forgotten to bring any scrap fabric, but luckily there was some in a small bin nearby that she could practice on. Turning the machine to a straight stitch and setting the number somewhere in the middle, she gently touched her foot to the pedal, slowly sewing a line. She hadn’t expected the fabric to feed so easily into the machine; she’d expected to have to give it more guidance and force. Instead, the machine felt like a small beast, eager to do its job. Pleased, Dapphy raised the presser foot and needle and pulled the scrap fabric away from the machine, cutting the thread. She was ready to actually use the machine for real.

Her pawpads were a little bit sweaty from nerves, but she couldn’t back down now, not after all the pain of threading the machine. She lifted the body of the apron out of her sewing basket and set it gently on the machine, then placed her sewing tomato nearby. Choosing to start at the bottom so any awkwardness would be less noticeable, Dapphy slowly hemmed the apron. It was less of a task to keep consistent pressure on the pedal than she thought, which left plenty of room in her mind to wonder how hemming the curves was going to go. When she reached the first corner, she lifted the presser foot, turned her work 90 degrees, then set the foot back down and continued hemming. Her tomato was slowly filling back up with pins as she removed them from her apron-to-be. The sound of the machine was surprisingly soothing, and Dapphy found that even the dreaded curves weren’t any trouble as long as she worked them slowly. It was quite a nice experience, actually.

When she finished hemming the body piece, she turned her attention to the neck and waist straps. These being completely straight lines, Dapphy realized that she probably should have started here for practice, but it was too late now. While stitching these up, which took considerably less time, she took the opportunity to let her mind wander and realized that she’d forgotten to bring any tools to turn the straps right side out. She hoped there was a dowel or a knitting needle or a pencil somewhere nearby. As she finished the hems, she plugged the iron in, letting it heat up while she went on a hunt for a usable tool.

Fortunately, the rec room did in fact have a collection of knitting needles available, tied together in pairs and laid in neat bundles in a drawer nearby. Dapphy grabbed a pair at random, then returned to her workspace and began inverting the straps so the raw edges of the fabric were tucked away inside. Once finished, she quickly went over each one with the iron, making sure the seams were nice and crisp before she put everything together.

Pulling her pins out of her tomato one last time for the day, Dapphy pinned the straps to the apron body, aligning the edges so these new seams would overlap the apron’s hem and be less visible. Unplugging the iron so it could start cooling, she returned to the sewing machine for one final task: attaching everything together. After everything else she’d done today, these short little seams were easy, almost anticlimactic. She knew that the straps needed to be extra secure, though, so she couldn’t skimp out on the careful attention to detail; every strap got an extra seam over the top, just in case.

Dapphy removed her apron from the machine and clipped all the loose threads. Finally, her project was actually done, and she couldn’t wait any longer; she had to put it on immediately. Feeling immensely proud of herself, she slipped the top strap over her head, then tied the straps in the back with a cute bow. She wished there was a mirror nearby; she was sure she looked amazing, but she still wanted to know what it looked like on. 

With that thought in mind, she began unwinding the thread from the sewing machine, setting it and the recently-wound bobbin carefully back in her sewing basket. She used her scrap fabric from earlier to remove any dust from the machine, leaving it nice and clean for the next finley to use. Tossing the scrap fabric and all the thread scraps into the bin, she gathered everything on the table, replaced the knitting needles, and headed off to the laundry room to return the iron. She hoped someone saw her so she could show off her new apron.