Sewing project #2 – The Apron

My grandmother told me that the first thing she ever made on her sewing machine was an apron, and fully appreciating her wisdom and experience, I decided to give it a shot after finishing the skirt (plus I had a friend who loves aprons and had a birthday coming up – win, win!).

So I gathered supplies and went to work. And let me tell you, if you need a confidence booster in your sewing skills, aprons are the way to go. Following the pattern was stress-free. I mean, it’s an apron, it would be pretty hard to not make it fit.

A technique I picked up during the experience was gathering. It was the first time I really played around with the settings on my sewing machine (remember this is only my second major project). I basically set the stitch length as long as it would allow and then I decreased the tension by 1. Once sewn, I carefully pulled on one of the strings until the whole line looked “gathered.”

The only issue I had was with the fabric. In the fabric store, my parents and I went back and forth about what color the dot was in the blue, patterned fabric. We decided it looked orange, and I purchased the orange fabric to compliment it. The problem was I came home and under natural light the dot was definitely red. I freaked out for maybe a minute, but then I just had to let it all go. I had already bought the fabric, and there was no turning back. So I continued on, and now with the finished product, the orange fabric makes the dots look more orange.

Oh and did I mentioned I sewed in a pocket, plus I lined it – for the win!