I taught myself to sew by using books. This was a very frustrating process. Books don't necessarily tell you what mistakes you can make. I made lots and lots and lots of mistakes. I ruined lots of fabric. Nice fabric. Most books don't tell you to try it first in muslin if you are unsure ... a much more cost effective way to make mistakes.

I'm not a giver-upper. I'm very, very stubborn. But I can tell you that I was very aggravated. There was so much I didn't know. But I learned. All from making my own (sometimes disasterous) mistakes.

With the tutorials that I am about to start offering here I'm assuming that you don't know much. So, if you do, (and likely a lot of you do... and probably much more than I do) please forgive the basic way I'm introducing things.

I'm calling this "Keeping It Real Sewing" because I'm going to tell you all the mistakes I made. Some of them are pretty funny... and pretty goofy. But this is part of my whole philosophy, really.

My very basic belief when I started Bari J. as a business, was that "If someone else can do it, so can I." Mistakes will and have been made... I can't even count how many. And I don't mean just sewing mistakes.

Here is Part I of my first tutorial... A very simple, flat front utility apron. The only part that can be counted as tricky is the ruffle. And I included it because I had been so scared of doing them... until I found out how easy they are.

Please offer feedback so that I can make these really easy to use. Have fun!

~Bari

Download apron20tutorial20part20i..pdf