I want to teach myself to sew by replicating this apron, probably many, many times. I bought the apron; what next?
After spending a lot of the past couple of months in a Bon Appétit rabbit hole (thanks MeFi!), I'm obsessed with this apron that seems to be favored by many of the presenters. Despite its ridiculous price, I went ahead and bought one as a bit of retail therapy.
Well, it arrived today and I loooooove it. I want to give them to all my friends and family, and I want ten of them hanging in my own pantry, but spending $5K on linen aprons from France isn't on the agenda.
So, no time like the present to merge this motivation with another long-standing goal, which is to get competent with my sewing machine, a Singer from... maybe the early '90s? It was given to me by a friend about ten years ago, and since then I have used it three times, always with a more experienced helper to thread the machine, help cut the pieces, etc. The last time it came out of the closet was at least four years ago, so please assume that I am starting from zero.
I have watched a fair amount of Project Runway, but despite that I do not really know where to begin :) This tutorial seems reasonable easy to follow to make a pattern, but... then what? Is there anything more to it than just trying and trying again, presuming I can't ask or hire anyone for help in the foreseeable future? What is the absolute cheapest fabric I can practice on that will help me not ruin the first few yards of linen that I (with luck) will ultimately graduate to? Can I just use reasonably-sized rags/old clothes from the basement?
Any general tips on learning to sew on your own as an adult are also welcome!