Learning to sew

My mother tried to teach me to sew when I was about 6 years old.  This is also around the time when she tried to teach me to knit, and to crochet.  None of these efforts were really successful, and I can't even remember whose idea it was for her to teach me these things, hers or mine.  But she tried nonetheless, in spite of my best efforts to thwart her.

Now, 20 years later, I really, really wish I'd been paying attention to her lessons.  I grew up wearing mittens, scarves, and the occasional sweater that my mother had knit for me, and dresses she had sewn herself on her little Singer.  The desire to be domestic didn't really kick in for me until I was about 18 and needed something to do with my spare time, other than read.  I had thought for years "Oh, I could knit if I wanted to," but promptly realized when I first attempted knitting that no, no I could NOT knit.  Thus began the painful process of reteaching myself the things my mother had first attempted over a decade earlier.

Sewing intimidated me the most.  With knitting and crocheting, all you have to worry about is a strand or two of yarn, and one or two needles.  Four, if you're feeling fancy and knit in the round.  (I am not fancy.)  It doesn't matter if you can't cut in a straight line, have poor eye-hand-foot coordination, or tend to stab yourself whenever you're near something sharp.  You just need to be able to count and make loops, really, and the yarn and needles to the rest.  But with sewing . . . well, let's just say that I lack a few fundamental life skills.  (See the rest of this paragraph.)

When Wife and I moved into a house, however, we found ourselves seriously lacking a few things.  One of those things was curtains.  There are about a dozen windows in our house - all different sizes, too - and we only had 3 curtains, none of which fit any of those damn windows.  I got it into my head that maybe, just maybe, it was time for me to learn to sew.

After all, how badly can you mess up a rectangle?

Not so bad for my first set, if I do say so myself.

The curtains could have gone way, way worse.  Thankfully, not only did they end up not sucking horribly, but Wife loves me enough to tell me repeatedly that they're really cute and they look awesome. She also told me, before I even tried to make them, that she'd be happy with whatever I made - even if that meant I tacked raw fabric up over the windows with thumbtacks.  Ah.  Nothing like setting a low bar for me to surpass.  

We'll see how long that bar stays low . . .