college essay
It was 2nd grade, another boring day of school and 7-year-old me decided to try something new with my style. I found a purple skirt and turned it into a sweater. I put my arms through the waist hole and let the skirt drape over my body and arms. I strutted into school with my new outfit, hoping no one would notice that I was wearing a skirt as a sweater. My favorite teacher was my second grade teacher because she inspired me with her chic fashion. I was always trying to impress her with my style so when she gave me a smile and said she loved my idea, I was ecstatic. This helped me realize my passion.
A couple months after, I became obsessed with fashion and my only dream was to become a fashion designer. So my grandma taught me how to hand sew and I learned how to sew little things. It wasn’t until 4th grade where I finally became ready to use a sewing machine. I received a beginners sewing machine for kids and I went to work right away.
My mom had this shawl, it was a non stretch woven fabric, and I decided that for my first ever piece of clothing, I would make a sweater out of it. I grabbed my sewing machine, paper, pencil, and scissors, I should have also grabbed the right mindset going into it. My mindset was what made this process a lot harder because I just wanted to make it fast and get it over with so I could brag to my family about what I made. I had no interest in anything else but getting it done. I quickly traced out my arm on paper, to get the arm pattern, and for the rest, I just guessed my measurements and blindly made the pattern. It became a very messy process, I picked fabric that wasn’t easy to work with and picked a difficult item of clothing to sew. It was a constant back and forth of sewing the pieces together then ripping them apart because it didn’t fit and then the cycle continued. After a while, my sewing machine no longer worked so I had to switch to hand sewing which took even longer. Once I finally finished the arms, I realized one was way bigger than the other. I ripped it apart once more. Having been working on this all day, I became drained and tired of failing. So I put down the needle, and grabbed a forbidden tool of fashion: the stapler. I stapled up and down the arms, around the arm hole, I did manage to sew the 2 body parts together. Finally, my creation was complete and I had that moment of fear as I put it on. My heart dropped once I had it on, one armhole was big and the other I could barely get my arm in without it ripping, and one side of the sweater was longer than the other. I started to cry because of my embarrassing failure but I did end up showing my family what I had made anyways because at least I was able to create something, even though it didn’t fit.
Time and time again I have made this same mistake, the mistake of rushing through the process. The mistake of not learning as I go along. Of not having a plan or enjoying the sewing process and not taking time to perfect my design. Sewing is not something you can just rush through and expect everything to turn out right. I have learned that the quality of your creation is based on the quality time you put into making it. I have learned that design and sewing is also about trial and error and accepting failure and mistakes.
