So, I have a problem. I am decidedly uncoordinated when trying to do almost anything for more than a few minutes. Since most work involving sewing projects and working on antique and vintage sewing machines takes much longer than a few minutes, I am a certified clutz most of the time. This usually reveals itself in the form of muscle spasms that hit my entire upper body, causing me to suddenly fold inward, meaning whatever happens to be in my hands at the moment moves towards my center mass at a high rate of speed with an unknown terminus. This poses a significant risk for anyone in a wheelchair such as myself. Screwdrivers, dental scraping tools, bottles of solvents and other potential unpleasant things have already managed to make contact - sometimes piercing fabric and skin.
The solution appears before you. This is a heavy duty set of denim coveralls that I have significantly altered to form into an adaptable shop apron capable of being useful for tool storage and as a barrier between myself and whatever may unexpectedly come flying at me. The general conversion was fairly straight forward, but there were some special considerations that needed to be addressed:
The shoulder straps that were meant to hold the bib of the overalls up and in place were allowed to retain their original fasteners even though the newly formed neck strap is easily long enough to go over my head without using them. This is to allow for easier removal on days when I am having an especially hard time with lifting my arms; simply undo one of the strap's front buttons and pull the apron to the opposite side to get it off my neck.
Speaking of my neck, I have multiple cervical spine injuries, so making a joining seam of the two original straps would have created a dense, uncomfortable bulk which would have landed directly on one of the most severe of my neck injuries. To combat this, I cut the straps long enough to go past the reinforcing strip of denim that had been added to the inside of the straps' construction, about to inches per side. I then rolled a piece of t-shirt material and sewed in down inside the strap to join the two ends (a serger was used to overlock the raw edges first) to create a flexible, expanding bridge between the two ends. To pad the point of contact between my neck and the apron strap, I took a longer piece of the t-shirt material, overlocked the edges, and wrapped it around the outside of the strap to cushion and hopefully wick moisture away from my skin at that spot.
The back pockets, which would have been removed even if I'd found a way to successfully wear this garment in my wheelchair without creating a health and safety hazard, will be secured where the picture shows them pinned to give additional storage in the form of thigh pockets and also serve as an extra layer of fabric to protect my lap from any unexpected screwdriver attacks.
I retained the side seams to create side panels that would fall naturally around my torso and body to serve as splatter protection and as a way to excuse retaining the cool set of side pockets.
I had considered flattening out the center of the lap covering by inserting a wedge of material between where the inseams fall on the front, but eventually decided to simply rejoin them, right and left legs together as they are. This created a sump of sorts between my knees that will be helpful in controlling where dropped bits and bobs can go after hitting my legs, and also reduces the amount of fabric around my legs, making it less likely for me to become entangled in my wheelchair.
